NACFAM: Technology, Partnerships Key for U.S. Manufacturing Success

While the nation’s manufacturing sector continues to face major challenges, the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) suggests in a new white paper that the U.S. can compete successfully with low-wage countries if industry and government rally around two basic goals — increase labor productivity by greatly accelerating the use of advanced technologies and leverage national resources through a major expansion of public-private partnerships.

In Industrial Transformation: Key to Sustaining the Productivity Boom, unveiled June 4 at the Washington Productivity Forum, NACFAM calls for 1) moving global competitiveness higher on the national agenda, 2) developing and deploying “next generation” process technologies, 3) “incentivizing” American workers to keep pace with technological change, and 4) reducing supply chain vulnerability. These central elements contain numerous specific policy recommendations designed to enable U.S. manufacturers to be competitive in any industry sector, including:

• Move global competitiveness higher on the national agenda:
  • A sustained, stronger focus on manufacturing productivity across the highest levels of the Administration, including the Secretary of Commerce, the President’s Advisor on Science and Technology, and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
  • More effective use of the manufacturing-related programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, given its unique responsibility for assisting industry.
  • Accelerate depreciation of investments in new hardware & software for all manufacturers.
• Develop and deploy next generation process technologies:
  • Substantially increase federal investment in productivity-enhancing manufacturing science and technology research.
  • Utilize industry-led, government-enabled consortia models akin to Sematech.
• Enable America’s workers to keep pace with technological change:
  • Provide a tax incentive for technical re-training over a worker’s career.
  • Integrate industry-led skill standards into education and training programs under Workforce Investment Act reauthorization.
• Decrease supply chain vulnerability and support the nation’s smaller suppliers:
  • Hedge critical military and homeland security products through a strong domestic supplier base.
  • Build much higher levels of cooperation and collaboration between Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) services and the supply chain optimization programs of large manufacturers at the sub-tiers.

Taking the above steps now, NACFAM concludes, will accelerate the rate of manufacturing innovation, stimulate investment in the most advanced manufacturing equipment, continually improve workforce skills, and create a voice in the federal government to ensure the continuation of manufacturing-friendly public policies.

NACFAM is a nonprofit organization established in 1989 to enhance the productivity of all tiers of U.S.-based manufacturing. Industrial Transformation will be available at http://www.nacfam.org/.