MI2's Tech Innovation Update

The Metals Innovation Initiative’s Metals Leadership Council recommended that MI2 add a new strategic focus area for FY23-24. Announced at the conclusion of our nationwide Metals Innovation Search during our “Factory of the Future” conference in Louisville in September 2023, this new focus area has the mission to identify, screen, and evaluate precompetitive technologies with the potential to benefit multiple MI2 member companies through collaborative technology validation and business analysis.

The MI2 Tech Innovation approach is to:

1. Involve the right people from member and partner organizations
2. Set priorities based on member input
3. Establish a diversified portfolio of technology opportunities
4. Institute a stage-gate funnel process to systematically assess and down-select technologies
5. Form project teams to perform technology validation, and
6. Respect stakeholder intellectual property while supporting transition to implementation.

In January and February, MI2 conducted conversations with leaders throughout multiple member companies to get key company stakeholders involved and set priorities. We had the chance to not only get useful feedback from all those leaders who participated but also an interest in continued conversation and involvement with the Tech Innovation strategy group. There were also many suggestions for how this new strategic focus area could interact with companies and share information.

While each company’s situation and priorities were unique, some common themes emerged. The inset summarizes the “top 10 themes” extracted from these conversations, ranked from highest to lowest in terms of the frequency it was discussed (i.e., number of companies mentioning it). It should be noted that there is overlap among these themes, and so the ranking relies on judgment. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) may be used for automation, digitalization, product inspection, and predictive maintenance.

[Image: Untitled design 4]

TOP 10 THEMES

Automation / Robotics

Pre-competitive collaboration / Cost sharing

Digitalization / IT OT Integration / Cybersecurity

Product inspection / Non-destructive evaluation

Energy management / Alternative energy / Energy efficiency

Artificial intelligence

Materials management / Waste reduction

Predictive maintenance / Equipment monitoring & Sustainment

Emissions tracking & reduction

Recycled content tracking & enhancement

Building on this foundational research, MI2 will continue to engage member companies to refine our understanding of these priorities. We will also begin publishing summaries of specific technologies which align with these priorities, in order to identify precompetitive, collaborative pilot projects for initiation this fiscal year.