Research, Innovation and Technology

The Manufacturing Institute’s 10th annual STEP Ahead Awards took place in Washington, D.C., last week, honoring some of the most impressive and inspiring women in the manufacturing industry today. The Awards are part of the STEP Ahead program, which is designed to help advance women’s achievements in the fields of science, technology, engineering and production.

• The event highlighted the 2022 STEP Ahead Honorees (100 women who are leaders in manufacturing) and the 2022 STEP Ahead Emerging Leaders (30 women under 30 years old who have already had a significant impact on the industry).

The awards ceremony took place on Thursday night, with hundreds of guests in attendance at the National Building Museum and hundreds more viewing the ceremony online. The program featured:

• 2022 STEP Chair and former 3M Senior Vice President Denise Rutherford;
• 2022 STEP Vice Chair and Cornerstone Building Brands President and CEO Rose Lee;
• MI President Carolyn Lee;
• MI Vice President of Strategic Engagement and Inclusion AJ Jorgenson; and
• NAM President and CEO and MI Board Chair Jay Timmons.

Sponsors included an all-star roster of manufacturers, including Arconic Foundation, BASF Corporation, Cornerstone Building Brands, PTC, Trane Technologies, ABB, Molson Coors, Novelis, Rockwell Automation, SABIC, Sherwin-Williams and Toyota.

What they said: Carolyn Lee lauded the Honorees and spoke about the importance of closing the skills gap by bringing more women into the manufacturing industry.

• “My hope is that 10 years down the line, when we meet here for the 20th anniversary of these awards, the young women we will honor won’t have even heard of the glass ceiling, because it’ll be ancient history,” said Lee.
• “And that will be thanks to the support system, the mentorship and the sterling examples set by the women in this room and the support from our allies.”

Rutherford spoke about leaders’ opportunities to work together to make important progress.

• “Throughout my career, I’ve learned that being a great leader, as an individual or as a company, means that we don’t go it alone,” said Rutherford. “True change only happens when we work together as trusted allies, advocates and sponsors.”

Rose Lee laid out the qualities that all the Honorees showed and highlighted their shared successes.

• “The STEP Ahead Awards recognize women in science, technology, engineering and production who exemplify leadership within their companies and within their communities,” said Lee. “Tonight is their night to celebrate their accomplishments.”

Timmons praised the STEP Honorees and called on allies to continue supporting women in the manufacturing industry.

• “Your achievements, your success and your dedication are showing women what’s possible in manufacturing,” he said. “If you can see it, you know you can be it.”

35×30: Carolyn Lee and Jorgenson spoke about the 35×30 initiative—a program designed to close the skills and talent gap in manufacturing by adding half a million women workers to the industry, increasing women’s representation in manufacturing from 29% today to 35% by 2030.

• The campaign will train more than 1,000 women mentors, build new tools and resources and work with manufacturing leaders to deploy proven strategies to attract and retain female talent.
• It will also support young women throughout their education by offering best-in-class leadership development programming and creating a STEP alumnae-funded scholarship.
• “Tonight, we are done with waiting for other leaders to ‘change things,’ to make society better, more equitable,” said Jorgenson. “We are the leaders. So, tonight, we ask you to join us, to lead.”

New commitments: To help this new initiative along its way, Arconic Foundation President Ryan Kish and Ketchie CEO Courtney Silver stood up during the ceremony to pledge new financial commitments to the program.

The last word: The gala featured a stellar musical performance by award-winning singer–songwriter Rachel Platten, which left not a dry eye in the house. Inspired by the women of STEP, she surprised the audience by singing a new song she’d written for her daughters. It captures what the women leaders of today want to tell the girls who will someday be their heirs:

Girls, you were born to run. To reach the stars and chase the sun.

Girls, you’re wild and free. The wind is at your back, the world is at your feet.

A new Commerce Department office tasked with dispensing tens of billions of federal funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing faces a challenging job, according to Roll Call.

What’s going on: “The experts at the CHIPS program office are charged with enticing the world’s largest chipmakers to the U.S. to fashion cutting-edge semiconductors used in weapons and supercomputers, as well as in more ordinary devices like thermostats. The goal is to break the dependence that many American manufacturers of missiles, spy satellites, telecom gear and medical devices have on suppliers primarily based in Taiwan and South Korea.”

• Congress allocated $52 billion for the effort last year.

Why it’s important: “Deploying taxpayer funds and the federal government’s power puts the department and the CHIPS office in a unique position of executing a novel industrial policy: one focused on both national security as well as economic well-being, and one that is expected to back manufacturing plants as well [as] research and development efforts.”

• In recent decades, the most successful U.S. industrial policy interventions have been similar to this one: funding for “high-risk, high-reward” R&D, according to a Peterson Institute study cited by Roll Call.

Making it count: Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) are adamant that the money must be doled out judiciously.

• “This is not an economic proposition,” Sen. Cornyn said. “It’s obviously important from an economic standpoint, but national security is the main reason why Sen. Warner and I undertook the legislation.”

​​​​​​​​​​​​​Keen interest:  The new office has received more than 400 statements of interest from semiconductor manufacturers. Preliminary applications will be accepted starting in September.

• Top chipmakers, including Intel and others, “have indicated they may invest as much as $400 billion in the U.S. provided they get some support from the government.”
• Six expert teams will review the applications and decide on the amounts each firm will receive. National security experts will weigh applications based on companies’ security measures and supply chain resiliency capabilities.

The NAM says: “Bolstering domestic chip manufacturing is a security and economic imperative for the U.S.,” NAM Director of Domestic Policy Julia Bogue said.

• “That’s why the NAM supported passage of the CHIPS and Science Act and continues to advocate for actions that will see the U.S. manufacturing more semiconductors.”

Bluffton, S.C. – Today, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce was honored with the 2023 Leadership Award from the Conference of State Manufacturers Associations, whose members also serve as the National Association of Manufacturers’ official state partners and drive manufacturers’ priorities on state issues, mobilize local communities and help move federal policy from the ground up in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. WMC was recognized for their work to attract and maintain the manufacturing workforce.

“We congratulate Kurt Bauer and the entire team at WMC for their incredible work this year to not only educate the next generation of manufacturing workers in Wisconsin, but also engage the business community at large to help spur investment in the state,” said Utah Manufacturers Association President and CEO, NAM board member and COSMA Chair Todd Bingham. “Their work shows the impact that we can all have to help make the United States the top destination in the world for manufacturing investment.”

The Leadership Award recognizes the achievement of a state manufacturing association that has developed impactful initiatives to support manufacturers and strengthen manufacturing in their state. Some of the initiatives that set WMC apart were their Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin and Business World, which teach young people about entrepreneurship and free enterprise and promote manufacturing job opportunities in the state. Additionally, as part of WMC’s official mission to make Wisconsin the best place for business, the Future Wisconsin Project brings together diverse interest groups to identify and address the state’s long-term economic challenges and opportunities, including solutions to workforce challenges.

“The work of WMC to inspire the workforce of the future is a prime example of what’s needed to address the critical challenges that our sector faces today,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “Under Kurt Bauer’s leadership, the WMC is advancing the solutions needed to make manufacturers more competitive and ensure manufacturing remains a key driver of Wisconsin’s economy.

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.91 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 55% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.

The NAM met with North American trade ministers last week in Cancun, Mexico, where it urged them to take up key trade priorities for manufacturers.

What happened: The NAM led a delegation from the American business community, which participated in a roundtable discussion ahead of the third United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement “Free Trade Commission” on July 7 in Cancun.

• Attendees at the roundtable event included NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Canadian Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng, Mexican Secretary of the Economy Raquel Buenrostro and business executives from the three countries, including Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Blake Moret.

Shared values: The NAM underscored the importance of an investment climate underpinned by core democratic principles, such as transparency and the rule of law.

• “We believe in democracy,” Timmons said. “However imperfect, this system fosters free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty and equal opportunity. These values make manufacturing strong in our countries.”
• He added that each year North American manufacturers contribute $3 trillion to the U.S., Canadian and Mexican economies.

What must be done: Though the USMCA already creates advantages for North American manufacturers, the agreement’s full potential can only be realized if the three countries work together to address certain key challenges, Timmons told the attendees. Some of the main hurdles include:

• Mexico’s power-generation policies, which have long favored Mexican state-owned energy companies and led to higher bills for manufacturers that must use existing energy-supply contracts;
• Permitting delays for U.S. projects in Mexico that undercut American firms and reduce energy supply to North American manufacturers and consumers;
• Mexico’s expanded food-labeling requirements and bans on the sale of some U.S. foods and nonalcoholic beverages to minors, which unjustly restrict U.S. exports;
• High spectrum fees in Mexico that deter telecommunications competition, as well as the country’s weak patent enforcement, delayed approvals of pharmaceuticals and bans on certain chemicals and genetically modified corn; and
• Delays in the reform of Canada’s patent system, ongoing restrictions in Canada’s dairy market, a Canadian government proposal to brand “plastic manufactured items” as “toxic substances” and a change to Quebec packaging and labeling requirements that will upend decades of intellectual property law and could limit access to the Quebec market.

The last word: “Ensuring North American economic integration and regional competitiveness will require a multipronged effort that focuses on robust implementation of the USMCA, ensuring a competitive North American energy market and providing support for the manufacturing workforce across the region, among other key elements,” said NAM Vice President of International Economic Affairs Ken Monahan, who joined Timmons in Cancun.

• “The NAM has positioned itself as a leading U.S. business organization on North American trade and economic matters, and we look forward to continuing to engage with our member companies on these issues going forward.”

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is leading semiconductor makers to move quickly to create “designs that stack chips together like high-tech Lego pieces,” according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: “‘Chiplets’ can be an easier way to design more-powerful chips, according to industry executives who call the technology one of the most significant advances since the dawn of the integrated circuit more than 60 years ago.”

• The technology has the potential to deliver more powerful, cost-effective semiconductors, sources told the Journal.
• Last year, some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Qualcomm and Intel—which recently announced products containing chiplets—formed a coalition to craft chiplet-designing standards.

How it works: “A typical consumer device such as a smartphone contains many types of chip[s] for functions including data processing, graphics processing, memory, telecommunications and power control.”

• “The chips are delicately tethered to minuscule wires and ensconced in a protective plastic casing, forming a package that can be fixed to a circuit board.”
• “With the new chiplet packaging, engineers have found ways to bolt together pre-existing chips, the equivalent of using a few Lego pieces to build a toy car.”

The caveats: Chiplet manufacturing is not cheap, however, and the technology requires its own performance-verification process.

• What’s more, chiplets “aren’t suited to every function,” and lend themselves better to high-end desktop computers than mass-marketed cell phones.

China’s role: It is estimated that China controls 38% of the semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging market, a fact that “poses two potential risks for the U.S. While many American companies have been working with factories in China to handle these specialist chip-making roles, the supply chains could be tangled by a geopolitical crisis or another pandemic.”

• “In addition, the U.S. has imposed export controls on advanced semiconductor technology and could seek to expand controls in the future.”​​​​​​​

The NAM met with North American trade ministers last week in Cancun, Mexico, where it urged them to take up key trade priorities for manufacturers.

What happened: The NAM led a delegation from the American business community, which participated in a roundtable discussion ahead of the third United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement “Free Trade Commission” on July 7 in Cancun.

• Attendees at the roundtable event included NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Canadian Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng, Mexican Secretary of the Economy Raquel Buenrostro and business executives from the three countries, including Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Blake Moret.

Shared values: The NAM underscored the importance of an investment climate underpinned by core democratic principles, such as transparency and the rule of law.

• “We believe in democracy,” Timmons said. “However imperfect, this system fosters free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty and equal opportunity. These values make manufacturing strong in our countries.”
• He added that each year North American manufacturers contribute $3 trillion to the U.S., Canadian and Mexican economies.

What must be done: Though the USMCA already creates advantages for North American manufacturers, the agreement’s full potential can only be realized if the three countries work together to address certain key challenges, Timmons told the attendees. Some of the main hurdles include:

• Mexico’s power-generation policies, which have long favored Mexican state-owned energy companies and led to higher bills for manufacturers that must use existing energy-supply contracts;
• Permitting delays for U.S. projects in Mexico that undercut American firms and reduce energy supply to North American manufacturers and consumers;
• Mexico’s expanded food-labeling requirements and bans on the sale of some U.S. foods and nonalcoholic beverages to minors, which unjustly restrict U.S. exports;

Read the full story here.

Since the MI’s inaugural DEI benchmarking survey, conducted in partnership with Keybridge and released in October 2021, manufacturers have taken active steps to improve DEI in the workplace. The MI has recently surveyed manufacturers again to highlight current practices and attitudes around DEI in our new DEI Benchmarking in Manufacturing Report. Our updated survey lays out how manufacturing employers are approaching their companies’ initiatives in new ways. The report provides helpful information on the state of DEI in the manufacturing industry and recommendations for employers to use as they improve on progress made over the last two years. Check it out here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• 72% of manufacturers agreed that improving and maintaining DEI was a key focus for their company – and many of them have been taking tangible steps towards that goal.
• More than 60% of respondents reported that the representation of women within their companies has increased in the past 5 years.

To learn how sectors and businesses are using artificial intelligence, The Economist (subscription) created an index of firms in the S&P 500—and the results show that “even beyond tech firms the interest in AI is growing fast.”

What’s going on: “We looked at five measures: the share of issued patents that mention AI; venture-capital (VA) activity targeting AI firms; acquisitions of AI firms; job listings citing AI; and mentions of the technology on earnings calls. … [C]lear leaders and laggards are already emerging.”

The findings: In the past three years, approximately two-thirds of the companies examined by The Economist have placed a job ad that refers to AI. One of the sharpest increases in such mentions has been among chipmakers.

• The number of registered AI-related patents rose between 2020 and 2022.
• This year, about 25% of venture deals by S&P 500 companies involved AI start-ups, an increase from 19% just two years ago.

Outside Silicon Valley: While the index found that the most “enthusiastic” users of AI are technology companies, “[b]eyond tech, two types of firms seem to be adopting AI the quickest.”

• Data-heavy sectors, including insurance, pharmaceutical and financial-services companies “account for about a quarter of our top 100.” In this category, Abbott is building AI-powered medical tools.
• The other category of company quickly adopting AI includes “industries that are already being disrupted by technology,” such as automakers, telecom, retail and media. Among these are Ford and General Motors, which are using AI in electric-vehicle manufacturing.

The last word: AI use may have some drawbacks, including cybersecurity risks, potential legal liability and possible inaccuracy of results. However, these “must be weighed against the potential benefits, which could be vast.”

With the backing of major HVAC manufacturers, start-ups are working to make air conditioners that are capable of easing the strain on the power grid, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: “Companies such as Blue Frontier, Transaera and Montana Technologies are raising money from investors including industry giant Carrier Global … to develop more efficient technologies. Many of those efforts focus on the humidity rather than the heat, using new materials like liquid salt to dry out the air.”

Why it’s important: The number of air conditioners in use worldwide is expected to more than double by the middle of the century, to 5.5 billion, with many units likely to be inefficient.

• “Stalwarts such as Carrier and Trane Technologies say they are spending billions of dollars to offer more efficient versions of conventional ACs while evaluating the new approaches.”

A different AC unit: Traditional air-conditioning units work by converting refrigerants from gas to liquid and then back again, while circulating air with fans. They are unable to remove humidity without cooling the air, which is what makes them inefficient, according to the article.   

• “Blue Frontier aims to separate humidity and temperature control using a liquid salt solution that was developed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The solution also stores energy, reducing consumption at peak times, when electricity grids are strained on hot days.
• Innovation is also required to make air conditioning affordable for people in developing nations, according to the Journal.

More investment: “The need for new approaches is pushing Carrier to make venture investments to complement its other growth strategies, said Jennifer Anderson, Carrier’s chief sustainability officer. Trane is investing in startups like data-center-cooling company LiquidStack while looking at new technology approaches, CEO Dave Regnery said.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have a lot of payoffs: they widen talent pipelines, increase retention rates and improve business outcomes. So what are manufacturers doing to strengthen DE&I in their workplaces? A newly updated survey from the MI and Keybridge has the answers.  

What it is: The MI and Keybridge conducted their inaugural DE&I benchmarking survey in October 2021, and manufacturers’ DE&I efforts have grown a lot since then. One year later, the MI and Keybridge repeated the survey, and the results are in—along with recommendations for manufacturers seeking to grow further.  

A firm commitment: 72% of manufacturers agreed that improving and maintaining DE&I was a key focus for their company in 2022—and many of them have been taking tangible steps toward that goal.

• Of the 60% of companies that made public statements affirming their commitment to DE&I, most have followed through with diversity commitments, employee resource groups, donations and transparent updates on their DE&I progress.

Widening talent pools: More than 60% of respondents reported that the representation of women within their companies has increased in the past five years. Still, there were also some challenges in expanding the diversity of hiring pools.

• 50% of companies reported struggling with hiring diverse candidates, with 40% struggling with retaining diverse workers.

Where to start: Companies that have not yet taken concrete actions toward fulfilling their commitments can get started by developing a strategic plan or designating a senior leadership position for DE&I issues, the report recommended.

• Another useful tactic is setting up feedback mechanisms for employees, so the company can track its progress on DE&I.

More recommendations: For those further along, the report suggests other moves, including:

• Expand recruitment pipelines by partnering with community organizations, community colleges and technical schools to tap into more diverse pipelines.
• Update position descriptions with language that widens and diversifies the applicant pool.
• Review hiring practices to minimize bias, such as by including blinded resume reviews, standardizing interview questions and employing skills tests and panel interviews.
• Standardize the promotion processes by using the same scoring system and criteria for all employees, seeking input from multiple sources and highlighting clear career pathways.
• Standardize work assignment systems by cross-training workers, to ensure that no one employee is stuck in an undesirable role for too long.

The last word: “The labor market is historically tight, and we know the number one issue for manufacturers is workforce,” said NAM Chief Economist and Manufacturing Institute Center for Manufacturing Research Director Chad Moutray. “Focusing on DE&I is a great way to widen the net and retain the employees that you have.”