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Earlier this year, The New England Council (NEC) and Deloitte Consulting LLP released a report entitled, “Advanced to Advantageous: The Case for New England’s Manufacturing Revolution.” Responding to popular conceptions that manufacturing is declining in the northeast, the report, which expanded on a 2010 NEC-Deloitte study, revealed that the region is actually set to experience a manufacturing revolution. This is due in part to existing regional advantages as well as the replication and widespread adoption of a number of progressive programs and initiatives.

Despite the recession, advanced manufacturing has proven to be a resilient sector of the economy. In fact, as the report revealed, there are many areas in which New England is setting the pace in advanced manufacturing. These include “industry clusters,” such as medical devices and biotechnology, as well as “capability clusters,” like software and artificial intelligence, and “game-changers,” such as additive manufacturing and the Internet of Things (IoT).

However, the NEC and Deloitte noted that a number of challenges still face the region as it works its way out of the recession - including a shortage of skilled workers and a skills gap between incoming employees and those who are nearing retirement. In lieu of these challenges and concerns, the report suggested a six-point “action plan” that, if fully shared and applied across the region, could set New England apart and help sustain advanced manufacturing careers and development for future generations:

1. Create comprehensive educational pathways that begin in high school and extend through a variety of higher educational institutions, internships, and work experiences.
2. Increase industry partnership and apprenticeship opportunities so that students are increasingly matched with open industry positions and trained in critical skills necessary for a career in advanced manufacturing.
3. Rebrand the industry and “make it” a better brand by shifting the public’s perception of manufacturing from dirty and dangerous to exciting and safe. This more accurately reflects the reality of today’s “new” advanced manufacturing.
4. Secure a federally funded National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) Institute in New England by demonstrating regional cohesion and improving intrastate partnerships between government, educators, and industry.
5. Expand scale to include and support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help facilitate the adoption of new technologies and to encourage growth.
6. Align policy to the needs of the industry and examine ways to integrate these needs into emerging policy development that is creative, flexible, and innovative in order to support growth in advanced manufacturing for manufacturers of all sizes.

In the months since its initial release, numerous stakeholders across industry, government, and education have commented on the report and its assessment of advanced manufacturing in New England – including members of the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) community. In fact, an article written by Rebecca Eidelman, Project Coordinator for the New England Board of Higher Education’s Problem Based Learning (PBL) Projects, recently appeared in the New England Journal of Higher Education. In this article, Eidelman expertly discusses the importance of rebranding as an essential step in getting students to consider advanced manufacturing while also ensuring that students learn the 21st-century skills needed to advance their careers.

As evidenced by this response and others, there are many practical and theoretical take-aways from the Advanced to Advantageous report. Members of the ATE community, especially, will find plenty of material that can be integrated into reports, presentations, and even grant proposals.