Intelligent Manufacturing Systems
IMS (Intelligent Manufacturing Systems) is an international joint-research program focusing on the industrial field of advanced manufacturing technologies. Japan participated in IMS for a total of 15 years—in "Phase 1" (from 1995 to 2005) and "Phase 2" (from 2005 to 2010).
In Phase 1, focusing on research on manufacturing processes, Japan achieved significant results in fields ranging from product planning and design to product disposal. In Phase 2, Japan proposed a new framework, called the "Manufacturing Technology Platform" (MTP), and has contributed to the activities of IMS from a variety of aspects concerning the future framework of IMS (such as collecting and organizing opinions).
