A new
white paper prepared by the Hollings Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP) Board discusses the state of domestic manufacturing
and the characteristics of good manufacturers, and plots a course to
improve the competitiveness of manufacturing in the United States. The
MEP is managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST). The Manufacturing Extension Partnership Advisory Board (MEPAB)
is an external advisory body created to provide guidance and advice on
the MEP program from the perspective of industrial extension customers
and providers who have a vision of industrial extension with a national
scope.
According to Board Chairman Ned Hill, President
for Economic Development at Cleveland State University, there have been
a number of public policy reviews of U.S. manufacturing, each with a
particular point of view, and nearly all advocating a narrowly defined
“silver bullet” policy intervention. The MEPAB report finds that there
are reasons for concern about the industry’s future, but there are also
reasons for optimism.
Resolving the competitive disadvantages that
U.S. manufacturers face is similarly nuanced. Although many observers
have pointed to innovation as the key characteristic of successful
companies, the report finds that innovation alone is not enough. To be
meaningful, innovation must result in new products, new production
processes, or new management practices. Manufacturers also need to be
green, care about their workforce and develop their in-house talent, and
find their niche in the global marketplace.
U.S. manufacturers also are at a disadvantage
because of the lack of a national manufacturing policy, according to
Hill. What policies the U.S. does have were created ad hoc to deal with
specific emergency situations, he says. Other reports have placed the
burden of developing a national manufacturing strategy solely on the
federal government. The MEPAB report suggests that manufacturers, the
government and academia should all be involved in developing national
manufacturing policies as well as providing a supporting implementation
infrastructure for U.S. manufacturing.
Among the suggestions that the Board makes
regarding the possible shape such a national policy might take includes
developing metrics to measure the return on investments in R&D and
federal laboratories. The group also recommends rewarding those
institutions that actively seek out opportunities for translating and
transferring the products of their research into commercial
technologies.
To download the MEP report, Innovation
and Product Development in the 21st Century, go to www.nist.gov/mep/upload/MEP_advisory_report_4_24l.pdf.
Media Contact: Mark Esser, mark.esser@nist.gov, (301)
975-8735
