{"321001":{"#nid":"321001","#data":{"type":"news","title":"A Manufacturing Renaissance","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor decades, the news for manufacturing in the United States has been bleak. So many sources have reported about manufacturing going offshore for so long that it is almost a foregone conclusion that U.S. manufacturing takes place largely outside of the U.S.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut things have been changing in the last few years. The Associated Press reported that U.S. manufacturing grew in November 2013 at the fastest pace in two and a half years. And according to White House blogger Jason Miller, surveys show that more than half of all manufacturers are or are actively considering reshoring production to the United States\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENone of this is news to Ben Wang, executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Chair in Manufacturing Systems for the university\u2019s College of Engineering. But Wang\u2019s interests go beyond traditional manufacturing, or manufacturing 1.0, returning to the U.S. He and his colleagues at GTMI are working toward a new kind of manufacturing rooted in innovation and systems thinking. Whether you call it advanced manufacturing or manufacturing 2.0, the bottom line is a focus on innovation to create high value-add products. The approach will require looking at the entire system instead of discrete events.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022In the past, manufacturing was really assembly or machining within four walls of a factory, but in advanced manufacturing, we have to look at manufacturing as the whole value stream from design, machining, assembly, distribution, logistics, workforce \u2013 the whole infrastructure,\u0022 says Wang.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd who is more qualified to look at the whole system than industrial engineers?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We are trained to look at everything as a system as opposed to individual components. So IEs really have an advantage and would fit in well in manufacturing 2.0.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang\u0027s views might seem biased when you learn he has a bachelor\u2019s degree and a master\u2019s degree in industrial engineering (as well as a Ph.D. from Penn State) and serves on Georgia Tech\u2019s Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering faculty. But even though Wang is a proponent of IEs leading the charge in advanced manufacturing, he knows such a broad initiative requires all types of engineers as well as public policy professionals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGTMI\u2019s mission as of its 2012 inception is to produce cutting-edge interdisciplinary research for today\u2019s manufacturers in order to work on grand challenges.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe grand challenges are articulated by Wang in an impressive video on the GTMI website. First, he asks, how do we accelerate innovation? How can we move research results from the lab to the marketplace and create economic value? Wang says this concept is often referred to in research circles as \u0022crossing the valley of death.\u0022 The second grand challenge is ensuring that what is invented in America is made in America.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA critical component in achieving such goals is to have the government facilitate them. Fortunately for GTMI, a government initiative was already in the works to push advanced manufacturing forward.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2011, President Barack Obama created the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) to facilitate industry, academia and government working together to revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector. Partly due to the work conducted at GTMI, Obama selected Georgia Tech President G.P. \u0022Bud\u0022 Peterson to serve on the AMP steering committee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMyriad recommendations came out of the first phase of AMP, but Wang says three major recommendations stood out: creating a friendly business climate in the U.S., including public policy, tax systems and innovation incentives; driving innovation to create commercial value or societal impact out of basic research; and developing the workforce pipeline.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn September 2013, the White House announced the second phase of AMP \u2013 AMP 2.0 \u2013 which will focus on implementing the plans laid out in the first phase of the initiative. Once again, Peterson is on the steering committee, and this time Wang was asked to serve on the operations committee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang also served on the Roundtable on Strengthening U.S. Advanced Manufacturing in Clean Energy at the White House in 2012. He was one of only a few people from academia asked to participate along with representatives from various public policy groups and research centers. There were also more than 35 company reps promoting their products in fuel cells, wind energy and other clean energy sources.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut Wang believes the government\u2019s role in the process is not to endorse energy forms but to create a good infrastructure or business climate for companies to excel in the marketplace based on what they do. GTMI\u2019s position is that the government should examine workforce, infrastructures, transportation, the investment community and the material\/supplier base.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Whether it\u2019s the state government, local government or the \u2026 federal government, they should really care about creating those cross-cutting enablers so that companies are willing to do the best they can,\u0022 says Wang.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn March 2013, the Aspen Institute, an education and policy studies organization, released a report titled \u0022A Manufacturing Resurgence,\u0022 but Wang thinks a better title would have been \u0022A Manufacturing Renaissance.\u0022 Wang says the report is the result of a study that lays out two scenarios for U.S. manufacturing. In the baseline scenario, the country will continue the status quo of the last two to three decades. The second scenario is prompt facilitation of a manufacturing renaissance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Amazingly, if we continue the baselines, if we look at the imports and exports, the trade deficit will become about a trillion dollars a year,\u0022 Wang asserts. \u0022A trillion dollars is a lot of money. But if we begin to do something now and act decisively, the renaissance scenario in about 10 or 12 years, we\u2019ll begin to see that exports will exceed imports, meaning we have a trade balance. So we close a gap of a trillion dollars a year.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGTMI\u2019s goals are right in line with these government initiatives, and the institute is focused on working with companies like Boeing, Caterpillar and Siemens on high-level research projects in advanced manufacturing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers work on projects in various areas, including biotechnology, additive manufacturing (3-D printing) and nanomaterials science, an area in which Wang is widely considered a pioneer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne project GTMI is working on for U.S. Veterans Affairs is called SOCAT, which stands for socket optimized for comfort with advanced technology. According to the research summary, researchers are improving amputees\u2019 comfort, functionality, gait and mobility by leveraging innovative materials, advanced manufacturing and printed electronics to build a better integrated prosthetic socket system.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang\u2019s colleague and fellow industrial and systems engineering professor Chuck Zhang is leading SOCAT, among other printed electronics projects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022For AMP or advanced manufacturing to work, you need to develop new technologies for manufacturing,\u0022 says Zhang. \u0022[It\u2019s] not only the software operations research, but also the hardware. We call it the real manufacturing, like the materials, the machines, [et cetera]. Georgia Tech in general is doing very well.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang came on board at Georgia Tech in January 2012 after spending nearly 20 years at Florida State University building the school\u2019s industrial engineering master\u2019s and doctoral degree programs from the ground up. He also led the development of the High Performance Materials Institute and the Center of Excellence in Advanced Materials for the state of Florida.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe was so contented at FSU that he could only be lured away to Tech by the potential for creating the go-to place for advanced manufacturing and high value-added innovation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Our aspiration at GTMI is [to be] the leader in advanced manufacturing globally,\u0022 Wang says. \u0022And I think the ultimate goal is to make sure that we have substantial impact to create wealth, to elevate the standard of living of the U.S. citizens, to drive innovation and to create really good high-paying jobs, especially middle-class jobs. ... It is a lofty goal, but it is not unreachable.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMonica Elliott is the director of communications for the Institute of Industrial Engineers.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Monica Elliott of Industrial Engineering Reports on one Thought Leader\u0027s Perspective on Manufacturing Today"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor decades, the news for manufacturing in the United States has been bleak. So many sources have reported about manufacturing going offshore for so long that it is almost a foregone conclusion that U.S. manufacturing takes place largely outside of the U.S.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut things have been changing in the last few years. The Associated Press reported that U.S. manufacturing grew in November 2013 at the fastest pace in two and a half years. And according to White House blogger Jason Miller, surveys show that more than half of all manufacturers are or are actively considering reshoring production to the United States\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENone of this is news to Ben Wang, executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Chair in Manufacturing Systems for the university\u2019s College of Engineering. But Wang\u2019s interests go beyond traditional manufacturing, or manufacturing 1.0, returning to the U.S. He and his colleagues at GTMI are working toward a new kind of manufacturing rooted in innovation and systems thinking. Whether you call it advanced manufacturing or manufacturing 2.0, the bottom line is a focus on innovation to create high value-add products. The approach will require looking at the entire system instead of discrete events.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"As executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, Ben Wang has his sights set on a future of innovation in the United States"}],"uid":"28069","created_gmt":"2014-09-03 13:30:16","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:59","author":"Laura Day","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"446441":{"id":"446441","type":"image","title":"Ben Wang in the Lab 2","body":null,"created":"1449256217","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:10:17","changed":"1475895187","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:07","alt":"Ben Wang in the Lab 2","file":{"fid":"203214","name":"benwanglab2_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/benwanglab2_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/benwanglab2_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2210190,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/benwanglab2_0_0.jpg?itok=4FsczHn5"}}},"media_ids":["446441"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.iienet2.org\/industrialengineer\/Details.aspx?id=36096","title":"Industrial Engineering"}],"groups":[{"id":"155831","name":"Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI)"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"137","name":"Architecture"},{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"42941","name":"Art Research"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"101631","name":"Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI); Ben Wang; MaRC; ISyE; Manufacturing; Economic Development"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EContact GTMI Marketing Communications Manager Laura D. Reilly for more information. \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.reilly@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.reilly@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.reilly@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}