The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) is seeking feedback from a wide spectrum of fluid power industry stakeholders on several key components of the fluid power technology roadmap it is creating to achieve industry-elevating advancements for hydraulics and pneumatics. When completed, the technology roadmap will be used to guide the research agendas of the Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power and the NFPA Education and Technology Foundation.
Representatives from more than twenty NFPA member companies are developing the roadmap through a process facilitated by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS). Their objective is to identify and describe an action plan for technology advancements that will:
• Meet the future needs of fluid power customers;
• Expand fluid power into new customer markets; and
• Attract the best and brightest young engineers to fluid power.
The first meeting of this Roadmapping Team was convened at NCMS headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI, on March 4-6, 2009. A PowerPoint presentation describing the work performed there and the scope of work remaining to be done is available for viewing at www.nfpa.com/
Stakeholders across and beyond the NFPA membership—including manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, educators, and customers—are encouraged to review this presentation and provide critical feedback, especially in the areas of:
• Customer Drivers
- Did the Roadmapping Team accurately describe the objectives your customers want to accomplish with the help of the industry’s products and services?
• Research & Development Challenges
- Have they defined the appropriate challenges for the industry to pursue?
- What priority order should they be given?
• Technology Objectives
- What are the appropriate “stretch” goals for improving fluid power technology?
- What should success in 10 years look like?
- What metrics should be used to determine if those goals have been reached?
Feedback can be submitted through a survey link available at www.nfpa.com/
