Herndon, VA, March 26, 2004--The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), an industry-led consortium focused on strengthening the global electronics supply chain, and the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society (CPMT) have entered into a formal agreement that outlines key areas of collaboration between the two organizations.

One of the primary collaborations under this new agreement will be roadmap development, beginning with the 2004 NEMI roadmap. The roadmaps, created every two years, map the future manufacturing needs of the electronics industry in order to identify the key technology and infrastructure developments required to assure leadership of the global supply chain over the next decade. It helps companies anticipate shifts in product requirements and provides an early warning of changes in technology or infrastructure.

The CPMT Society's members are technical professionals whose fields of expertise complement and substantially overlap with NEMI, and many CPMT Society members have represented their respective employers in the development of previous NEMI roadmaps. With more than 40% of the society's members outside the United States, the CPMT Society is committing experienced professionals from Europe, Asia, and North America to many of the NEMI roadmap chapter committees. Involvement of this broad-based group will help NEMI in its efforts to globalize the scope of the 2004 roadmap.

Other areas of collaboration include NEMI involvement in CPMT Society-sponsored conferences, workshops and refereed publications, and CPMT Society coordination with the NEMI Technical Committee on development of R&D priorities.

"We have worked informally with the CPMT Society for many years, but wanted to form a more structured relationship with planned activities that would allow us to work together rather than just doing things on an opportunistic basis," said Jim McElroy, Executive Director and CEO of NEMI. "The two organizations share many areas of focus and activity, and we feel there are a number of synergies to be gained by collaborating."

"NEMI has been involved with deriving roadmaps for important cutting-edge technologies, and we are excited to be partnered with this prestigious organization," said Phil Garrou, CPMT Society President. "CPMT's partnering with NEMI in the roadmapping activity will hopefully produce an even better forecast of future technology directions," he adds.

Mon Mar 29 07:30:00 CST 2004