Inside America’s Manufacturing Revival: Strategy, Skills, and Supply Chains

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Hi, I'm Jeff Kavanaugh, head of the Infosys Knowledge Institute, the research arm for Infosys, and very happy to be joined today by Stacey Weissmiller, who's the head of the U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and real excited about this concept of manufacturing in the U.S. To start off, Stacey, what is the U.S. Center and what's your mission?

Stacey Weissmiller:

Thanks Jeff. Thanks for having me. Talking about manufacturing is really at the core of what I love in the world and being the director of the US Center for Advanced Manufacturing is really quite honestly a privilege. We were started in 2022 and that was a partnership with the World Economic Forum. So the World Economic Forum has roughly 20 centers called the Centers for the Fourth Industrial Revolution across the globe. And in 2022, it was clear that within the US, one of the key topics and one of the key challenges was that of advanced manufacturing. So they started this center. It is based primarily out of Michigan, but it is a US entity, right? It is focused on going through all of the United States and understanding what does advanced manufacturing mean from what I consider our three key pillars: people, policy, and pipeline.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Great. In fact, it's funny you mentioned 2022 because I was privileged to go to Davos in 2019 and 2020. And as much as there was going on, I really didn't see this US manufacturing emphasis and even with other events, it's only been the past few years I think that the World Economic Forum has gotten past this center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and got specific. Companies that make things and move things. Getting a little more specific, what are the major initiatives that you have now for the US Center?

Stacey Weissmiller:

Yeah, thanks for that. I think from our perspective, the key elements are really around people. It's a bit ironic because you think manufacturing is about gears and products and robots on the assembly line and you're talking people.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Yeah.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Well, I think someone said it very well today, right? Which is that people are at the heart of this conversation. So manufacturing really won't be able to move and make if we don't have people. So we work heavily on the workforce side. We talk a lot about people. We talk a lot about talent. We talk a lot about pipelining. And that's everything from our Next Generation Leadership Program, which is focused on the pipeline.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

What’s amazing too, if you wouldn't mind just doing a quick sidebar, what is that Next Generation Leadership Program?

Stacey Weissmiller:

Yeah, of course, and it is really about how do we ensure we have the pipeline of leaders that are going to be working in the industrial ecosystem. So for me, it's extremely important we talk about what is the industrial ecosystem. You and I, we're in the industrial ecosystem. We may not be standing on a factory floor right now, but we are in the industrial ecosystem. There are people who are working for companies in cybersecurity, companies for 3PLs, companies that have a direct impact in the supply chain, they're in the industrial ecosystem. And so for us, it's about understanding what are the leaders doing today and what are we doing to prepare those leaders for the future. We will not be able to reset after another shock if we don't have the right leaders in place for the future to get us through those shocks. I think everyone can agree that today, shocks are apparent, they're going to happen more often, and we need leaders to understand how to get through those shocks. And that's really what we want to focus on is to make sure that they understand cross-sector relationships. So if you work in the auto industry and you want to understand what's happening in the fashion industry, we allow that to happen.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Both making products.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Exactly.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Whether it's drugs or designer handbags or automobiles or satellites or even moving all these products to and from or protecting them.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely. You know, like logistics and cyber and everything else. Absolutely, and I think that is one of the things that we've recognized. We are not here to replace a corporate talent pipeline, right? We understand that internally companies are preparing their leaders. We want to do it in a way where they get exposure to the rest of the industry. That's really core to our mission and our vision is to be a neutral entity across the U.S.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

I think next generation leaders. What about the folks that maybe not be the leaders but this huge amount of talent that's needed maybe on non-traditional sources?

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely, and I think this is where from our perspective we see that there's a narrative that needs to not only happen but quite frankly change from what we've heard in the past. So we do recognize that the pre-k, the middle school through high school, that there's a challenge in that pipeline as well. We do a lot of work with the World Economic Forum and their workforce initiatives to understand how are we taking best practices across the globe and trying to understand what that means here in the U.S. And that manufacturing is not only a noble profession, you can raise a family, support yourself, that it actually can be fun. The plant of today is not the plant of when I was young. It smelled of the grease or whatever, and it's dark and dingy and it's cavernous.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Some of these are cleaner than your homes.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Completely. They have to be. Completely and I am also a product of manufacturing. My father was in manufacturing for almost 40 years. My grandfather 42 years, an older brother also who started his profession in manufacturing who has gone on to do amazing things. I was in manufacturing so it is personally one of the things I feel very confident about when it comes to providing pathways for families as well. It is the reason I had a roof over my head, I had food on my plate and I was able to go and have a really great education because my family was able to establish somewhat of a life with that as a profession. And I do believe that we need to have that conversation about where manufacturing sits and where it fits for people for the future, which means starting early, right? That narrative has to be that this is a noble profession and it is something that is changing when it comes to technology and quite frankly, how we focus on people.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

So besides the people pipeline aspect, what other initiatives do you have going on?

Stacey Weissmiller:

So the US Center really has recognized that people we need to help are also in policy, right? It's important that we talk about what are we doing from our policies to ensure that we are keeping the pipeline strong for all of our constituents. Manufacturing plays a massive play in our GDP, both from a federal government, but also from our states, our cities, and our counties. And I think manufacturing needs to be at the forefront of that conversation, which means that our policymakers need to understand what levers they can pull to ensure that manufacturing is at the top of that conversation and a huge part of where their GDP is not only going to grow, but ultimately put money back into their communities. I think that's a really important conversation. The U.S. Center is playing a role in bringing those groups together to convene and understand what we can do collectively to start building those roadmaps.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

And that's important because... Barbara Humpton who's the CEO from Siemens USA was at a conference last week and she spoke and she mentioned that when she testified in front of subcommittees on the hill they completely changed their understanding manufacturing literally after one specific discussion they hadn't thought about it like this and as a result we're changing some policies to maybe be a little more physical not just the digital and of course the broader pyramid.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely, and I'll go back to our Next Generation Leadership Program, which one of the aspects of that is bringing industry leaders to sit with policymakers, because we want to see how an industry leader is saying to themselves, how does my job change policy, and how does policy change my job? Right? So we're doing that with leaders in large corporates. We also want to do that with leaders in policy organizations so that they can sit and make informed decisions about manufacturing.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

And not just large corporates too, medium and small businesses. In fact, when we were at an event a couple weeks ago that you put on for the American States Association, American Manufacturing States Association, it's amazing, I think it was Paul from Connecticut, he talked about all these small manufacturers in Connecticut and what a vital role they play to support the large ones.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely, it's everybody, absolutely. The U.S. manufacturing base is over 90% of small, medium-sized enterprises. We can't negate that by any means. I think it's really important that in our programs, like the NGL program, everybody from an SME to a corporate to a policymaker sit at the same table, right? Because it humanizes the conversation about where manufacturing plays a role in all of their jobs. No matter who they leave that meeting and then go sit with, they now have a baseline knowledge of what that means not only for them, their jobs, and also their communities.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Okay, we talked about two sides of the triangle here, policy and the corporates and thinking about their pipeline. What about the academic institutions or the ways of training people? What role do they have?

Stacey Weissmiller:

Yeah, well, you were at our event two weeks ago, so we have an annual policy conference in Washington, DC. You heard from George Washington University, where they graciously host us. They have microcredentialing, right, which is another huge component, which is stackable credentials. University of Texas has really gone that way as well with their ecosystem.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Absolutely.

Stacey Weissmiller:

And I think the US Center again as that neutral entity wants to understand what is out there, who is doing it well, where are their silos, and where are their opportunities for us to either learn from each other and or bridge the gap to then take those best practices elsewhere because we have to recognize that this is not a competitive game, this is a collaborative game. If we want people to get into the pipeline of manufacturing, we collectively need a network.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Grow the pie, then worry about dividing it up.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely. We collectively need to change that narrative and we collectively need to make sure that all of the people who need to be in this pipeline for manufacturing have the opportunity to do it, which means we can no longer just silo those who are coming out of school with four-year degrees. We need to be smart and we need to make sure that they have an economic future, which is quite frankly where city, states, and counties play a role in economic development as well.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

One other statistic that is starting to make the rounds in these conferences is the number of employees needed for an S&P company to reach a billion. It took, I think, 30 years for it to decrease by a certain amount. Now three years by the same amount. Orders of magnitude. And you might say, well, that means less people. No, what's good about that is there's 2 million more manufacturing jobs are out there, and half of them are unfilled. Then the more that tech can help people, it also means that the more they can be paid, the economic model works, so that livable wage goes to something that's actually a very desirable wage because they're contributing so much, the value-added piece.

Stacey Weissmiller:

So, Jeff, in 2016, I had the honor of leaving my manufacturing job and actually going to work for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is really what changed my career. My thesis has always been that industrial development is economic development. Again, I am a poster child for that of knowing that those jobs can allow you to have a family and to ultimately create a good life for them. And if we start focusing on that and ensuring that we're talking about good paying jobs, with security, health benefits, maybe even having a conversation about workforce housing, right? What are all the services that we need? Manufacturing can be the driver for so much of that. And we need to also recognize that innovation is going to go up significantly, right? We also need our GDP and that economic output to go up. We now need to have that conversation or what are those jobs that are needed for both of those measures to go up? How do we ensure those jobs are available and how do we upskill, re-skill and quite frankly have the conversation early and often to ensure that those jobs are appealing. You and I both know if we didn't like our jobs we wouldn't be sitting here and we cannot expect that from others and we have to ensure that there's a future that people enjoy this.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

I think Lauren Dunford, a mutual friend out there, is putting out a good positive message that's also grounded in practicality about this noble profession and the future won't just be coded, it'll be built as well. And so hopefully we'll put that in the notes as well, people can link to that TED talk.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely. I remember the first time I moved to New York City and the hardest thing for me was not seeing things be made. I grew up in an ecosystem of watching.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

It used to be.

Stacey Weissmiller:

It used to be and I still play a very big role in that ecosystem. I still feel very committed to making sure people recognize that it's happening. But walking down Madison and you're seeing tall buildings that on the ground floor were primarily retail. I struggled a lot because I grew up in an ecosystem of watching things be built. And I think we need to uncover a lot of that, make it a lot less behind closed doors and a lot more transparent because everybody is building things. Like I said, you and I, we're in the industrial ecosystem. More people don't recognize that they play a role in manufacturing and I want to ensure that we are bringing that to life.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Ironically, before age 6, iPads and iPhones aside, kids are more comfortable making something than doing something digital anyway.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely, Lincoln Logs.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Lincoln Logs, blocks, Legos, whatever it is.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely. And that has been part of my thesis at the US Center is that we are an economic development arm for many. We want to help you meet your goals. And we do that by being that neutral party who can also take the good from others and try to bring it to the surface. That is my job. If I bring something that is not working for you, my job is to go find it elsewhere and to ensure that it is helping you. So I would also say lean into people like us, right? You're not as a business leader always going to know exactly how to train everybody, exactly what's happening in AI. You need to rely on partners in this ecosystem to do that work and to do it well.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Yeah, and maybe there's some good thought leadership analyses we can do as well to draw that out.

Stacey Weissmiller:

Absolutely. Look forward to it.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Well, really enjoyed this discussion with Stacey. And not only is it an important area, it's an area of personal importance to me, significance. As we say at the Knowledge Institute, until next time, keep learning and keep sharing.