TMASC

Last week, Georgia Tech University hosted the first regional meeting of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP).

The AMP is a national innovation initiative bringing together executives from prominent US manufacturers, some of the nation’s leading research universities, and the federal government in order to support advanced manufacturing as the basis for high-quality US jobs and competitiveness.

The AMP was announced in June of this year following recommendations made by The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory group comprised of leading scientists and engineers. The PCAST Report recommended the following strategies to ensure that the US attracts manufacturing activity and remains a leader in knowledge production:

(1)    Create a fertile environment for innovation so that the United States provides the overall best environment for business. We believe this can be accomplished through tax and business policy, robust support for basic research, and training and education of a high-skilled workforce

(2)    Invest to overcome market failures, to ensure that new technologies and design methodologies are developed here, and that technology-based enterprises have the infra-structure to flourish here.

According to the AMP announcement, the federal government will invest more than $500 million dollars in the following areas in order to launch the effort:

• Building domestic manufacturing capabilities in critical national security industries;
• Reducing the time needed to make advanced materials used in manufacturing products;
• Establishing U.S. leadership in next-generation robotics;
• Increasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes; and
• Developing new technologies that will dramatically reduce the time required to design, build, and test manufactured goods.

Meanwhile, the AMP, through a Steering Committee representing leading universities and companies, will advise the federal government on how to spur investment in and implementation of those emerging technologies that have the potential to transform U.S. manufacturing.

To develop this advice and to help identify collaborative approaches needed to realize related opportunities, the Steering Committee is holding a series of regional meetings to hear public ideas about:

• Technology development
• Education and workforce development
• Facility and infrastructure sharing, and
• Policies that could create a fertile innovation environment

The next regional meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place on November 28, 2011 in Massachusetts (MIT).  Two more regional meetings in 2011 are tentatively set for December 5^th in Northern California and December 12^th in Michigan.

To receive additional public input for its deliberations, the Steering Committee has also set up a web page to invite interested stakeholders and the public to 1) submit ideas, 2) identify expertise found in key industry or regional resources, and 3) summarize existing regional collaborative efforts that could contribute to the following four AMP workstreams:

• Technology Development identifies emerging technologies with transformative potential with the express intent that they be commercialized and deployed in the United States.
• Policy makes recommendations to the Administration on economic and innovation policies that can directly impact the ability to improve research collaboration and the pathway to commercialization.
• Education and Workforce Development identifies tangible actions that will support a robust supply of talented individuals to provide human capital to companies interested in investing in advanced manufacturing activities in the United States.
• Shared Facilities and Infrastructure assesses opportunities to de-risk, speed up, and lower the cost of accelerating technology from research to development through unique capabilities and facilities that serve a large base of small- and medium-sized manufacturers.

We will monitor ongoing developments with the AMP to identify opportunities for TMASC manufacturing firms, universities and other partners to add to the dialog and to any federally supported regional efforts in order to strengthen advanced manufacturing in the U.S.

Meanwhile, we welcome your feedback and recommendations. What do readers of this blog think TMASC should recommend for the AMP’s consideration?

A copy of The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report is available here. Related links for further reading on advanced manufacturing are provided here.

The September announcement that Reyes Automotive Group was entering into a joint venture with International Automotive Components (IAC) Group marked good news for the TMASC region’s growing industry connections.

The new company, Reyes Automotive Group II (RAG II), will operate out of the existing 90,000 square foot facility on-site at San Antonio’s Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc. (TMMTX) assembly plant. RAG II will maintain its existing number of approximately 200 employees as it supplies injection and blow molded interior trim components, as well as sequence and assembly services, for TMMTX’s Tundra and Tacoma pickup trucks. RAG II is owned 51% by Reyes Holdings and 49% by IAC, and the joint venture will apply for Minority Business Enterprise certification.

While the RAG II joint venture is officially IAC’s first facility in Texas, Reyes Automotive Group has been an on-site supplier to TMMTX from the beginning when it began as a 51/49 joint venture with Tier I automotive supplier Lear. Lear’s presence at TMMTX provided a root to the most recent relationship with IAC Group, as IAC had acquired the North American Interior Systems of Lear in 2007 as part of IAC Group’s expansion into North America.

Before IAC Group entered into the JV with Reyes Group last month, it was already the top ranked North American injection molder for the automotive industry as measured by sales. IAC Group is headquartered in Luxembourg and has a Who’s Who of global customers, including such brands familiar to the TMASC region such as Toyota; GM, Cadillac and Chevrolet; Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat; Navistar, and Saab.

IAC Group’s North American offices are in Southfield, Michigan, and headed by James Kamsickas. As IAC Group’s Co-CEO & President North America & Asia, James Kamsickas brings a reach and perspective well-matched to a TMASC automotive region with important ties to Asia, NAFTA and the greater North American markets.