Manufacturing Committee Pushes for Increased Coordination, Investment

The federal government should invest in strategic technologies and multi-agency initiatives to iincrease U.S. advanced manufacturing capabilities, according to a new report from the President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology. The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) Steering Committee “2.0” is a cross-sector, national effort to secure US leadership in emerging technologies that create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance the nation’s competitiveness. The committee released its second and final AMP report, Accelerating U.S. Advanced Manufacturing, this week as part of the White House’s rollout of new actions and initiatives intended to strengthen U.S. manufacturing.  The committee’s recommendations focus on enabling innovation, securing the talent pipeline, and improving the nation’s business climate.   

AMP is a working group of the President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology (PCAST), an appointed advisory team of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers. In AMP’s inaugural 2012 report, Report to the President on Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing, the group calls for improvement of the business climate for manufacturing investment through tax and regulatory policies, sustained U.S. investments in science, technology, innovation,  the upgrade of workforce training programs, and the establishment of a National Network of Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (NNMIs), public-private partnerships to build shared high-tech facilities to advance U.S. leadership  in emerging technologies.

Re-chartered as AMP2.0 in 2013 to build upon the group’s initial findings, the new report not only reflects on the significant actions taken by the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership and its members to build on the group’s initial recommendations, but also includes additional high-priority recommendations across three pillars: enabling innovation; securing the talent pipeline; and, improving the business climate.

• Enabling innovation recommendations are high-level in nature, such as the establishment of a national strategy across emerging manufacturing industries, the creation of an Advanced Manufacturing Advisory Consortium to provide private-sector input on advanced manufacturing R&D priorities, and the creation of a governance structure for the NNMI centers. The report also recommends the creation of manufacturing centers of excellence (MCEs) to advance earlier-stage technologies and manufacturing technology test-beds (MTTs) to support manufacturing innovation and benefit small and medium enterprises, feeding into the NNMI network. 
• To secure the talent pipeline, the report recommends launching a campaign to shift the misconceptions the public holds about manufacturing, providing additional funds for the implementation of a system of nationally recognized, portable, and stackable skill certifications, making the development of online training and accreditation programs eligible to receive federal support, and curating the documents and toolkits created by AMP2.0 to ensure the accessibility of workforce development best practices.
• Improving the business climate recommendations include leveraging and coordinating federal, state, industry group and private intermediary organization to improve information flow regarding technologies, markets and supply chains to small and medium-sized manufacturers, and reduce the risk associated with scale-up of advanced manufacturing by improving information flow between strategic partners, access to capital through a public-private scale-up investment fund, and the use of tax incentives to promote investment.

AMP2.0 also offers strategic suggestions in three prioritized manufacturing technology areas: advanced sensing, control and platforms for manufacturing; visualization, informatics and digital manufacturing; and, advanced materials manufacturing. The report also includes top-level recommendations for R&D infrastructure to support the innovation pipeline, NNMI incorporation, public-private technology standards, and additional strategies for these emerging industries.

Ultimately, the AMP2.0 Steering Committee notes that in addition to the three critical pillars of enabling innovation, securing the talent pipeline, and improving the business pipeline, further development of tax policies designed to encourage long-term establishment of capital-intensive and space-intensive manufacturing operations is needed, and that regulatory, tax, and other policy issues may hinder technology innovation. PCAST recommends that within the next sixty days, the Executive Office of the President develop and release a plan for implementing the report’s recommendations.

Download the AMP 2.0 report…