This week, President Barack Obama announced two new public-private Manufacturing Innovation Institutes and launched the first of four new Manufacturing Innovation Institute Competitions. The institutes will boost advanced manufacturing in the United States and increase high-quality jobs.

One of the public-private institutes, the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDI) is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and spearheads a consortium of 73 companies, universities, nonprofits, and research labs. The partnership between world-leading manufacturing experts and cutting-edge software companies will develop enhanced digital capabilities to design and test new products, and reduce costs in manufacturing processes across multiple industries.

From the White House website:

“The country that gets new products to market faster and at less cost, they’ll win the race for the good jobs of tomorrow,” President Obama said. “And we want that country that is specialized in this to be us, the United States of America.”

 

We want suppliers to be able to collaborate with customers in real-time, test their parts digitally, cut down on the time and money that they spend producing expensive prototypes.  We want our manufacturers to be able to custom-design products tailored to each individual consumer.  We want our troops to be able to download digital blueprints they can use to 3-D print new parts and repair equipment right there in the field.  And these are all ambitious goals, but this is America — that’s what we do, we’re ambitious.  We don’t make small planes. 

Read the full article on the White House website:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/02/25/putting-america-forefront-21st-century-manufacturing