Strategic Aim: Developing new understanding of manufacturing technology, operations, strategy and policy, in close partnership with industry, in order to improve industrial performance.

Research within the Manufacturing and Management Division, also known as the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), addresses the most pressing issues facing manufacturing today. The Head of the IfM is Professor Tim Minshall. The IfM’s research activities are carried out in partnership both with government and with industry across a wide variety of sectors both in the UK and around the world and lead to practical techniques that companies can apply to improve their strategy, operations and technology.

Research is clustered into a number of areas, broadly categorized as management, technology and policy. Management research includes topics such as the integration of technology considerations into business decisions; international manufacturing and supply networks; servitization; industrial sustainability and business model innovation. Technology research covers industrial photonics, inkjet technologies and fluids in advanced manufacturing, nanomanufacturing and distributed information and automation systems. A number of these research themes also consider implications for policy and the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy focuses on the policy dimensions of translating new science and engineering ideas into novel technologies and emerging industries.