Manufacturers Provide Added Value as Domestic Suppliers
The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown there is a clear ROI in manufacturing PPE in the U.S., economically and for society as a whole. The manufacturing community’s response to the pandemic also has provided a proof of concept that domestic suppliers can provide reliance and added value for items of critical importance to the health of the nation. It may prove to be a tipping point for reshoring.
Manufacturers prior to the pandemic already were dealing with risks of cost-driven outsourcing — such as poor quality, theft of IP, shipping delays and a lack of control. The onslaught of disruptions in the global supply chain has provided opportunities, and the Manufacturing USA network’s public-private investment model has shown how it can perform as a catalyst in spurring economic recovery.
Emerging technologies converged with this urgent demand for PPE to create new possibilities for domestic manufacturing, helping boost public health, strengthen our economy and ensure national security. The pandemic-related projects involved many of the institutes and included:
- Digitizing and streamlining production requirements and instructions for PPE, helping ensure public health and safety
- Compliance testing and quality control
- Product lifecycle management
- An online repository to connect suppliers with customers
The Manufacturing USA network institutions are providing pathways for manufacturers to add more value as domestic suppliers and lower their total cost of ownership. Ultimately this will empower manufacturers to align their supply chain management more closely with their business success.
News
Opportunities
NIST invites AFFOA, AIM Photonics, America Makes, ARM, BioFabUSA, BioMADE, CESMII, CyManII, IACMI, LIFT, MxD, NextFlex, PowerAmerica, RAPID, & REMADE Manufacturing USA institutes to propose high-impact projects designed to fund awards for research, development, and testbeds to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.
Please note that...
The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Program, managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has issued a special solicitation seeking industry partners to collaborate with the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) national laboratories on projects to improve manufacturing processes.
This special solicitation invites...
The National Science Foundation supports basic research into new, potentially transformative, manufacturing capabilities, in accordance with the Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing. This solicitation encourages fundamental research and education of a future workforce that will enable Future Manufacturing: manufacturing that...
External News
During the pandemic, the food processing industry was slammed. Supply chain issues slowed production. Runs on products resulted in empty shelves, and social distancing stretched the labor force impossibly thin. The meat processing industry was hit particularly hard by social distancing constraints and dangerous outbreaks. You could just about hear...
Loomia Technologies is partnering with Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) to develop highly tactile, heated handwear that could be applicable to both commercial/recreational and military customers.
For this collaborative project, Loomia will provide technology to be used in a heated glove insert, while AFFOA will lead customer discovery...
In 2021, Smart Manufacturing started asking the leaders transforming manufacturing what effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on their business. Not only do the stories continue to amaze, we’re also seeing some of the trickle down effects of COVID-19 emerge in their answers.
Two respondents said reshoring—bringing manufacturing back to the...
Some of the images from the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic are indelible: doctors and nurses wearing garbage bags instead of gowns and reusing the same protective mask for days at a time; homemade plastic face shields replacing professional-grade models; live coverage of deliveries of personal protective equipment to hard-hit hospitals. The...
Late in summer 2020, Tabitha Ramos faced the possibility of returning to jail as her COVID-affected restaurant job made it increasingly harder to pay rent for her transitional housing. Today Ramos, who has a history of illegal drug use, loves her work at a healthcare products contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and has hope...
The Biden-Harris Administration today submitted to Congress the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2023. The President’s 2023 Budget for the Department of Commerce makes historic investments to strengthen domestic supply chains through domestic manufacturing, help distressed communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, uplift minority-owned...
Congress has been given a golden opportunity to improve both the quantity and quality of innovation in our society. The U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act would dramatically enhance the impact that federal research dollars have on American society by making new investments in the most promising research and by expanding research investments to...
It's clear that the manufacturing industry plays a huge role in creating valuable job opportunities. At the same time, with the emergence of new technologies such as automation, 3-D printing, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data science, about 8 in 10 Americans believe that the future of the industry will require higher...
Siemens is collaborating with Dow to showcase the future of automation with a process industry test bed at MxD, a state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing institute and innovation center near downtown Chicago. This new test bed offers a hands-on demonstration of how innovative software and IoT come together with hardware to accelerate digitalization...
Perhaps the biggest achievement thus far at the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) has been disabusing companies that are members of the Manufacturing USA innovation institute that it is smart to be “a fast second” to market.
“Nobody actually believed when we started, except apparently us naively, that we...