Georgia Institute of Technology

AMP One Year Later

Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:00pm

A year ago this month President Obama appointed the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) steering committee. I was fortunate enough to be appointed as a member of the committee, along with five other research university presidents and ten CEO’s. Much work has been done in the past year. Of particular note is the report prepared that included a series of recommendations made to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST. That report is now being reviewed by the White House and should be released shortly.

One of the most powerful aspects of the AMP partnership is that it brought together leaders from universities, industry and the government to identify and invest in the key emerging technologies. By working together, we can help U.S. manufacturers improve cost, quality and speed of production in order to remain globally competitive.

For a reminder of just how critical manufacturing is to this country, I would like to share a couple of facts from the recently released “National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing” from the National Science and Technology Council.

• U.S. manufacturers produced about $1.7 trillion of goods in 2010, or 11.7 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.
• They employed 11.5 million Americans in jobs that paid on average 21 percent more than the average private-sector service industry jobs.
• Manufacturing has a larger multiplier effect than any other major economic activity. A dollar spent in manufacturing drives an additional $1.35 in economic activity.
• Manufacturing is a job multiplier – for every assembly line job created, 6 other jobs are created in the supply chain, and 10 jobs are added to the economy.
• A strong domestic manufacturing base also impacts our national security.
• And, manufacturing is the largest contributor of U.S. exports.

Georgia Tech is working to attract a new generation of highly qualified and motivated students to manufacturing, in order provide the human capital so critical to our nation’s success and economic well-being. We’re working to embed manufacturing across many disciplines and we are continually seeking new and innovative ways to partner with industry and government. I spoke about those efforts recently as part of a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) workshop on integrating manufacturing, design and innovation in Washington, DC.

Download the entire speech (95k .pdf)