Group to focus on 'next generation manufacturing'
BYLINE: Pete Millard
Recognizing that the future of manufacturing in southeast Wisconsin hinges more on small innovative, research-driven firms than the mega factories of yesteryear, the Milwaukee 7 economic development initiative's first major campaign will target "Next Generation Manufacturing."
Milwaukee-area civic leaders who are pushing the M7 economy-boosting agenda realize the region's future job base will be founded on technical skills and research and development initiatives that lead to products and designs.
A new report from M7 includes a framework for recruiting and retaining the so-called next-generation manufacturers by supporting the $1.5 million "Get Lean Initiative" in Gov. Jim Doyle's biennium budget to expand the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Program and to secure a biotech machinery and equipment tax exemption in the state.
M7 also backs the development of the proposed $143 million University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee engineering campus and research center at the Milwaukee County Grounds near the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center.
Next-generation manufacturers are typically small to midsize firms described as innovative, agile and technology driven. Several of the industrial areas included in the M7 next-generation manufacturing category are those in green and clean technologies, biotechnology and water research industries.
"Milwaukee was once the tool shop of the world, but today it is evolving into the design shop of the world," said Julia Taylor, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and one of the leaders of the M7 group.
The M7 plan for retaining and expanding "Next Generation Manufacturing" firms was revealed at the group's quarterly meeting May 30 at the Gateway Technical College.
M7 was formed in September 2005 by public- and private-sector leaders from Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties.
Manufacturing is one of several industry sectors M7 eventually will target for expansion in southeastern Wisconsin. The others include financial services, information technology, acute health care, distribution and education services. The group is also seeking to recruit more corporate headquarters to southeastern Wisconsin.
"Why start with manufacturing? It is the elephant in the room," said Tim Sheehy, a member of the M7 leadership team.
Even though southeastern Wisconsin's manufacturing base has lost more than six dozen plants and 41,000 jobs in the last eight years, manufacturing is still the backbone of the region and ranks second in the nation out of 50 markets in the percentage of the work force employed in the sector.
While the M7 group is forming plans to recruit the next generation of manufacturing firms, less time, money and energy will be spent chasing the large manufacturing plants that were the targets of past state and regional recruitment campaigns, Sheehy said.