Advancing the Manufacturing Cause

We make things in Indiana — and America. So how are we going to excel at doing just that? The White House has some ideas. Or at least the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership steering committee does in the form of a report titled Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing.

AMP is a public-private partnership created by the Obama administration in 2011 with the goals of increasing investments in advanced manufacturing as well as new high-paying manufacturing jobs. The report offers 16 recommenations focused on three areas: enabling innovation, securing talent and improving the business climate.

Some of those recommendations:

  • Institute a national strategy that includes a systematic process to identify and prioritize critical cross-cutting technologies
  • Add a process to evaluate current/future technologies for research and development funding
  • Create a more robust environment for commercialization that connects manufacturers to university innovation
  • Develop a marketing plan to build excitement and interest in manufacturing careers
  • Implement a searchable national database of manufacturing resources
  • Increase community college level education investments to help develop a skilled workforce
  • Adopting tax reforms that level the playing field for domestic manufacturers, including lowering the corporate tax rate
  • Start new programs that include national manufacturing fellowships and internships

OK, there’s a plan with a lot of fancy words. Now the real work begins. It’s called IMPLEMENTATION.