On February 19, 2016, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the Executive Office of the President, the National Science and Technology Council, and the Office of Advanced Manufacturing National Programs, jointly submitted to Congress the first annual report and strategic plan for the National Manufacturing Innovation Network.
The National Manufacturing Innovation Network Program Annual Report describes the history and current status of the program, as well as details about each of the manufacturing innovation agencies. These agencies, all formed by September 2015, are.
-- Made in America, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Agency, located in Youngstown, Ohio, focuses on additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies.
-- Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Agency, located in Chicago, Illinois, focused on the integration of digital design and manufacturing.
-- Power America, the next-generation power electronics manufacturing innovation organization, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, focusing on electronics based on wide energy band gap semiconductors.
-- Lightweight Innovations of Tomorrow, the Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute of America, located in Detroit, Michigan, focusing on light metal manufacturing technologies.
--Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, focusing on advanced fiber-reinforced polymer composites.
--AIM Photonics, the American Institute for Innovation in Integrated Photonic Manufacturing, located in Rochester, New York, focusing on integrated photonic circuit manufacturing.
-- Next Generation Flex, the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, located in San Jose, CA, focusing on the fabrication and integration of semiconductors and flexible electronics.
The Strategic Plan of the National Manufacturing Innovation Network Program lists the strategic goals of the program as.
[Objective 1] Enhance the competitiveness of American manufacturing.
-- Sub-goal 1: Support the production of more U.S.-made products
--Sub-goal 2: Foster U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing research, innovation, and technology
[Objective 2] Promote the transformation of innovative technologies to scale, economy, and high-performing, effective indigenous manufacturing capabilities.
-- Sub-goal 1: Enable U.S. manufacturers to use proven manufacturing capabilities and capital-intensive infrastructure
-- Sub-goal 2: Promote the sharing and documentation of best practices used to address advanced manufacturing challenges
-- Sub-goal 3: Promote the development of standards and services that support U.S. advanced manufacturing
[Objective 3] Accelerate the development of an advanced manufacturing workforce.
-- Subgoal 1: Develop future workers for STEM-related jobs
--Subgoal 2: Support, expand, and communicate relevant secondary and higher education pathways, including credentialing and certification
--Subgoal 3: Support alignment of state and local education and training curriculum with advanced manufacturing skill set requirements
--Subgoal 4: Advanced knowledge workers: researchers and engineers
--Sub-goal 5: Identify competencies needed for the next generation of workers
[Objective 4] Support business models that help manufacturing innovation institutions be stable and sustainable.
The Strategic Plan, with input from feedback and recommendations from various stakeholders in the National Manufacturing Innovation Network, expresses a consensus among program participants such as the Departments of Defense and Energy and industry leaders such as Boeing, Loma, and GE on how the program should evolve over at least the next three years. The Strategic Plan identifies the methodological means to achieve these goals, as well as the criteria by which the program will be evaluated.
As the first such report, the two documents describe the history of the program. Future reports will include annual fiscal year reviews of program activities, triennial reviews, and updates to the Strategic Plan. (Reprinted from: Sohu News)
