"Adding" onto the Manufacturing Strategy

Earlier this month at IMTS--The International Manufacturing Technology Show 2012--The Association For Manufacturing Technology made available its second generation of The Manufacturing Mandate, which emphasizes collaboration as a crucial element to solidifying the renaissance in American manufacturing. One such recent collaboration involves additive manufacturing.

According to AMT, The Obama Administration’s recent announcement of a new public-private institute for manufacturing innovation in Youngstown, Ohio, is a prime example of the important role government can play in facilitating that collaboration between the public sector, academia and industry.

This new partnership, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII),was selected through a competitive process, led by the Department of Defense, to award an initial $30 million in federal funding, matched by $40 million from the winning consortium, which includes 40 manufacturing firms, nine research universities, five community colleges, and 11 non-profit organizations from the Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia ‘Tech Belt.’ The NAMII aims to increase successful transition of additive manufacturing technology to manufacturing enterprises within USA. It is scheduled to launch in September and is led by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining. AMT and The MTConnect Institute are key launch partners in this innovative project.

“AMT will continue to invest significant resources in a secure future for manufacturing in this country,” says Doug Woods, AMT President. “There is still much work to be done, but this type of support from the federal government is precisely the type of project the Manufacturing Mandate recommends. It certainly bodes well for America’s future as the world’s manufacturing innovator.”

Copies of The Manufacturing Mandate can be downloaded at AMTonline.org/mandate