MForesight National Summit Convenes Manufacturing Industry Leaders

The Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight (MForesight) recently hosted their 3rd annual National Summit to accompany the release of their newest report “Manufacturing Prosperity: A Bold Strategy for National Wealth and Security.”

MForesight Executive Director and former ASME Federal Fellow Sridhar Kota and Executive Committee Chair Mike Russo opened the event by discussing the threats to the U.S. manufacturing sector, including our wavering ability to commercialize R&D, the weakening of the industrial commons, and the decay of the U.S. innovation ecosystem that took over a decade to build.

The Policy Keynote was delivered by Willy Shih of Harvard Business School, who focused on the need to rebuild the industrial commons. Mr. Shih shared that American manufacturing prosperity does not mean that the U.S. can’t outsource, but that it does require a keen understanding of the advanced manufacturing process because that is a big part of early-stage commercialization. He suggested the U.S. increase its focus on localized supply chains, global sourcing, and government sponsoring of early-stage research and development.

The Technology Keynote was delivered by Blake Moret, CEO of Rockwell Automation, who discussed the factory of the future and how the workforce would need to adapt and how employees will need to be retrained throughout their lives.

Following Mr. Moret were two panel discussions with government officials and thought leaders. The first focused on funding hardware start-ups and scale-ups, and second on the industrial commons and manufacturing technologies. Alex Gray, Special Assistant to the President for the Defense Industrial Base at the white House office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy offered his insight on what the White House is doing to combat the weakening of the America’s domestic industrial base and supply chain.

The final Keynote came from Dean Kamen, Executive Director of the ARMI/BioFabUSA Manufacturing Institute. Mr. Kamen discussed the work ARMI is doing in regenerative manufacturing, with the aim to eventually create and manufacture replacement human organs at high volume. He said it is the Institute’s goal to make practical the large-scale manufacturing of human tissue and to create a trained and ready workforce that is capable of carrying out the technologies. Mr. Kamen noted the unique role the ARMI Manufacturing USA Institute plays in coalescing an assortment of stakeholders that would otherwise never be brought together, including doctors, technologists, small businesses, big industry, and government officials, all coming together to work towards a shared common goal.

To access the new MForesight report on “Manufacturing Prosperity: A Bold Strategy for National Wealth and Security,” visit: https://medium.com/@MForesight/manufacturing-prosperity-a-bold-strategy-for-national-wealth-and-security-65d2a97d6d0e

To learn more about the ARMI Manufacturing USA Institute, please visit: https://www.armiusa.org/