[labnetwork] Benchmarking Survey

Thu Jul 31 17:23:44 EDT 2014

Or as salary / maintenance support.

Cheers!

Julia Aebersold, Ph.D.
MNTC Cleanroom Manager
Shumaker Research Building, Room 233
2210 South Brook Street
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY  40292

502-852-1572
http://louisville.edu/micronano/

From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of John Shott
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:07 PM
To: Dennis Grimard; Ferraguto, Thomas
Cc: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: Re: [labnetwork] Benchmarking Survey

Thomas:

I certainly agree with Dennis' cautions about trying to get a good apples-apples comparison and I recall how hard he and his team worked to do his UGIM benchmarking study of a few years ago.  However, I think that one of the most important questions on your list is the one titled "subsidy".  I believe that virtually all of us get some form of subsidy from our institutions.  As the same time, I believe that a number of us are frequently under pressure to reduce that subsidy based on what I believe to be a common misconception that a number of other labs breakeven with little-to-no subsidy.

I certainly believe that one of the benefits of such a survey would be to get a better understanding of the range and magnitude of subsidy that various labs receive.  In particular, my belief is that smaller labs require a more significant subsidy, percentage-wise, in order to make ends meet ... but that's only a hunch and not based on real data.  Capturing good information about subsidies is made harder, I believe, by the fact that many subsidies are not in the form of a "direct payment" in the way that user fees are, but often take the form of things that ultimately show up on someone else's expenditure statement and, as a result, are more easily overlooked.

All that aside, I'd be happy to help in any way that I can.

Have a good weekend,

John
On 7/25/2014 11:28 AM, Dennis Grimard wrote:
Thomas:

I will be happy to participate ...

However, I would caution you that the questions must be vetted properly.  For example if you ask for the staff size ... there are many other questions that must be asked to assure that you are not comparing apples to oranges.  For example, if the Lab is "mostly" a clean room with the "typical" tool set for MEMS, photonics, NEMS, etc then what if one of the respondents has a combination of these tools and metrology tools in addition?.  Comparing those two labs will give you completely wrong answers.  What about the size of the lab from hours used, to tools, to type of tools, to footprint, to number of faculty, to the size of the graduate program?

Also, the fidelity of the data must be protected.  What if you have someone causally "guessing" while another is fanatical about their data?

I think that if the data are not "interrogated" by such things as follow-up phone calls or person to person visits ... you will have a bit of a problem selling that the foundation of the data are sound.

Anyway, good luck ...

On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 10:04 AM, Ferraguto, Thomas <Thomas_Ferraguto at uml.edu<mailto:Thomas_Ferraguto at uml.edu>> wrote:
I am putting  together a "Survey Monkey" anonymous Benchmarking Survey for our labs

What 10 questions would  you like addressed

Examples...

Lab Size (square footage)
Staff Size
Average Staff Salary
Director Salary
Percentage of industrial users by account
Percentage of industrial user revenue
Total  Annual Revenue
University Subsidy
$ spent on Service contracts

Thomas S. Ferraguto
Saab ETIC Nanofabrication Laboratory Director
University of Massachusetts Lowell
1 University Avenue
Lowell MA 01854-5120
978-934-1809<tel:978-934-1809> land
617-755-0910<tel:617-755-0910> mobile
978-934-1014<tel:978-934-1014> fax
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--
Dennis S Grimard, Ph.D
Managing Director, Lurie Nanofabrication Facility

University of Michigan
1246D EECS Building
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122
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http://www.lnf.umich.edu

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