There’s nothing I love as much as a paradox. So there’s a lot for me to get excited about with America’s current manufacturing paradox, which is whether U.S. manufacturing is the next big thing or a dying dinosaur. Should we steer our children from factory work, or should we embrace the opportunity to get out in front of something that changes every single day and has the potential to remake our society and economy?
ADVERTISEMENT |
Brad Plumer, in “Is U.S. manufacturing making a comeback—or is it just hype?” (The Washington Post, May 1, 2013), is putting his bets on the advanced manufacturing renaissance; however, Timothy Aeppel in “The Myth of the Manufacturing ‘Renaissance’” (The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2013) takes his cue from Morgan Stanley’s recent “blue paper” and says there’s no evidence for excitement about U.S. manufacturing.
When the manufacturing “will it or won’t it” argument comes up at dinner parties and children’s play dates, I’ve got an ace in the hole to describe where I stand. My ace is my very lucky position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP), where I get to see the advances being made in industrial engineering. There is a fantastic set of career pathways for industrial engineering. But don’t take my word for it; visit The Motley Fool for the article, “The 5 Best College Degrees for Your Career.” It demonstrates that with an education in the STEM disciplines, a person’s career can take off in many different directions, all of them exciting.
The most opportunities appear to be in engineering for the petroleum, aerospace, chemical, and nuclear sectors, as well as careers in actuarial science and mathematics. I would include materials engineering, systems engineering, software programming, bioengineering, and industrial design in my own “awesome careers” list because each offers multiple opportunities to make things such as nanotubes for building things, 3D-printed polymer cars, new bioengineered fuels, and actual human bones and organs.
Long-standing market experts such as Antoine W. van Agtmael are now arguing in favor of the American manufacturing revival, stating that a number of factors such as shale gas reserves, labor cost differentials, automation and innovation, and a focus on the emerging (market) consumer provide a strong case for U.S. manufacturing growth in the 21st century. The New York Times’ columnist Joe Nocera recently opined in “How to Build a Spoon” that the Brooklyn Navy Yard is quickly becoming a destination for the creative class, and he means “makers” as in the millennial term for manufacturers.
In New York the NIST MEP helped ensure continued competitiveness for a small manufacturer, Trek Inc., by conducting a complete review of its industrial design and engineering strategies. The MEP then recommended replacing inefficient systems with new platform technologies and connected Trek Inc. to M4 Sciences, in Indiana, which designs and develops advanced technologies for ultraprecision machining. The results were $500,000 in new product sales in a new market, and a strong strategic partnership to commercialize lab technologies—a success by anyone’s standards. Read the full story here.
If I were a betting person, I’d bet that manufacturing is going to help put America back out front in innovative design and production, which brings oxymora to mind—a topic for another blog.
This article was first published May 8, 2013, in Manufacturing Innovation, the blog of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).
Comments
Countermarching
Since the late 90's, the Old Continent students have switched from manufacturing studies to humanistic studies - because engineers have inflationed the jobs market. It's sad, but while we hear every day, many times a day, that the manufacturing industry is closer and closer to sinking, nobody is doing anything to make it float - to breathe, at least. We have to re-engineer our industry, we'll go nowhere lamenting a very close manufacturing's death. Thank you.
Add new comment