The Electronics Quality/Reliability Center: Lessons learned from partnering with industry

The government electronics community faces the exciting challenge of entering into new of types of partnerships with the commercial electronics industry. Past interactions have been based primarily on the needs of government. Future interactions will be based more on the needs of industry, particularly its need to be competitive in commercial products. The most successful groups will be those most adept at forming this new type of ``win-win`` partner. Fortunately, both government and industry want to make these new partnerships successful. The government is driven by the necessity of establishing a common government/commercial manufacturing base and the desire to support US competitiveness. Industry is driven by the need to partner with government to remain competitive. Unfortunately, there are no detailed guides available to help government electronics groups and their sponsors in the Administration and Congress cross this uncharted terrain. The purpose of this paper is to share some ``lessons learned`` from the experiences of a government electronics group that has been active in establishing these new types of partnerships with industry. It is our hope that by sharing these lessons we will make it easier for other government groups to work with the commercial industry.