Manufacturing USA Releases its Annual Report to Congress

On August 31, 2021, Manufacturing USA released its new Fiscal Year 2020 Report to Congress. This report highlights the network’s response to COVID-19 and gauges how the pandemic has impacted the manufacturing workforce. The report emphasizes how Manufacturing USA institutes were able to quickly respond to emerging manufacturing needs during the pandemic by engaging their members and leveraging their existing relationships. Since March 2020, the institutes have initiated projects to help solve pandemic-related issues, including helping to better prepare the domestic supply chain.
 
In late February 2021, Cara Mazzarini, Technology Portfolio Manager for the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, spoke to the ASME Robotics Public Policy Task Force about a specific project the ARM Institute spearheaded during the pandemic: Agile Laboratory Robot for Automated PCR COVID-19 Testing. During the meeting, Mazzarini shared how ARM, as a Manufacturing USA Institute, was uniquely positioned and equipped to tackle this project. The Institute was able to lead the project from concept to completion in just about five months, progressing far quicker than it otherwise would have because of the connections that ARM has fostered within its membership base over the years.
 
The full report provides insights into specific projects like this while also looking at the overarching accomplishments of the network during the past fiscal year. According to the report, in Fiscal Year 2020 the Manufacturing USA Institutes:

• Conducted over 500 major applied research and development collaboration projects of high priority for broad industry sectors.
• Engaged over 2,000 member organizations. 62% of members are manufacturing firms and 72% of these industry members are small manufacturers, which are key to the U.S. manufacturing supply chain.
• Educated and trained more than 70,000 workers, students, and educators through institute workforce efforts. Analysis showed that few direct industry resources are allocated for education and workforce training, indicating that the institutes must rely on federal and other non-corporate resources to support workforce training.
• Attracted $262M in funds from state, private investment, and federal funds not part of the base federal funding, leveraging $163M in base federal funds. This 1.6 to 1 investment match exceeds the program design of a 1 to 1 match and represents the catalyzing effect of matching investment. 

To read the full report, visit: https://www.manufacturingusa.com/sites/manufacturingusa.com/files/2021-08/FY20_MFG%20USA%20RepToCongress%206-7-21.pdf.