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How
Can a Manufacturer Access Technology? PRESENTATION SPOTLIGHT The
Challenge to Find External Value Added Resource Partners L&L and the NCSA:
A Success Story L&L Products, Inc. is a manufacturer of products that primarily support the automotive industry. We have approximately 1000 employees worldwide with manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. Over the past ten years L&L's fastest growing product line has been an innovation called Composite Body Solutions (CBS®). This product line is used in a wide variety of automotive applications addressing vehicle safety, stiffness and durability. The development of these parts requires intense collaboration with our customers and a significant level of internal resources to perform the required finite element analysis associated with component development and validation. Additionally, keeping up with the pace at which the automotive industry has become truly global has become a formidable challenge for L&L. In 2007, an enormous effort was put forth by L&L to develop a global resource roadmap to ensure continued success. After locating, hiring, training and retaining people, the primary area of concern became obtaining cost effective, robust supercomputing, capable of handling the ever growing demand from our customers. The solution was found at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. During our search, L&L Products learned first hand that the challenges to locate outstanding, low-cost, external resources such as the NCSA can prove difficult for smaller companies. However, the benefits already realized from this effort are significant. In addition to access to low-cost supercomputing, numerous other benefits from this resource are being realized and explored as our relationship with NCSA moves forward. RJon
Riley |