U.S.A New Landscape for

Manufacturing

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While manUfactUrerS in Some coUntrieS have been sleeping, a growing number of U.S. manufacturers have been taking back production and market share, and in the process are creating what many experts be-lieve may amount to a new industrial revolution.

Advances in software and production technology, abundant and relatively inexpensive energy, fast access to huge amounts of data, and growing global demand all are driving the new competitiveness of U.S. manu-facturing. This confluence of factors and trends is on the verge of changing everything—from where, how, and by whom products are made, to a seismic shift in global trade.

By 2020, according to a 2012 Boston Consulting Group report, as much as 30% of America’s imports from China could be pro-duced domesti-cally.

Siemens AG, the German engineering and electronics conglomerate, is playing a twofold role in supporting the U.S. manufacturing sector. While the company supplies modern automation technology and industrial software to manufacturers worldwide, it’s also a manufacturer itself. In the U.S. alone, Siemens operates over 130 manufacturing plants, with $1 billion invested each year

in R&D. Recently, Siemens signed a 15-year global supplier partnership with BMW to

deliver its TIA Portal software system and Simatic automation products and solutions.

If that sounds high-tech, it is. “Technology is the core driver for manufacturing, manufac-turing research, and the manu-

facturing renaissance,” says Helmuth Ludwig,

CEO of Siemens Industry Sector,

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Advanced technology is creating a manufacturing renaissance, and bringing products and jobs Stateside.

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Assembled in the USA.Over 2,000 ways to customize. facebook.com/motorola

North America. Siemens PLM Software is used in the automotive and aerospace industries, even helping NASA create a simulated, 3D digital model of the Mars rover Curiosity.

Software and automation may be driving innovation in U.S. manufacturing, but it is American consumers who are driving companies to bring their operations Stateside. That’s because today’s consumers want not only customized products that express their personalities—everything from sneakers to auto-mobiles—they want them as soon as they’re conceived.

In response, more companies are compressing design, engineering, and production times by locating those functions within easy access of one another. Where in the past designers and engineers had to hop on a plane to China in order to solve a problem or fine-tune a product, now they hop in a car. What’s more, closing the distance among processes drastically cuts delivery time to the North American market.

the riSe of regional manUfactUringThis August, Motorola will begin shipping its new Moto X smartphone, a product consumers can design by choosing from 2,000 configurations. It is reportedly the first smartphone wholly designed, engineered, manufactured, and as-sembled in the U.S.

The move from manufacturing facilities overseas to Fort Worth was a radical departure from the telecommunications company’s standard manufac-turing process.

“For us, the big differentiator was that we wanted to be close to our consumers,” says Mark Randall, senior vice president of supply chain and operations. “Obviously, order fulfill-ment—the time between customers going on the website, design-ing their own Moto X, and delivery—is a critical factor in creating customer delight. Doing that overseas, where typically the wait time is 10 days to two weeks, just didn’t make any sense.”

Randall calls the trend “regional manufacturing”—pro-ducing products in the markets in which they’re going to be sold—and believes it is key to meeting consumer demand for customized products. It may also be critical to creating new manufacturing jobs.

The company’s 480,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Fort Worth (actually a former Nokia plant) will provide 2,200 new jobs that, less than a decade ago, would have been lost to competitors overseas.

Also bucking the longstanding trend among consumer elec-tronics manufacturers is Google, which began producing its Nexus Q home entertainment device in Silicon Valley last year, rather than in China. Rising labor costs in that country were said to be part of the decision, but so was speed and direct ac-cess to production for Google’s designers and engineers.

Meanwhile, modernized facilities are demanding and creat-ing a new breed of worker. “The truth is that the manufactur-ing facilities of tomorrow are not the ones of yesterday,” notes Siemens’ Ludwig, “and the manufacturing jobs of the future are not the manufacturing jobs of yesterday.”

To meet the challenge of creating a workforce for the near future, U.S. companies are investing in training employ-ees in the high-level skills needed as technology continues to alter the manufacture of even the most traditional of American products. Deere & Company, based in Moline, Ill., has aligned itself with two local technical colleges and is educating employees in preparation for a new generation of tractors and other agricultural equipment integrated with advanced technologies.

oUtlookAnother reason for the return of manufacturing to U.S. soil is the presence of centers of technological innovation and knowl-edge. The Dallas-Fort Worth area, for example, is known for its strong local skill set around telecom technology. And as more companies relocate design, manufacturing, and delivery to the U.S., the more gravitational pull these centers will exert on manufacturers as well as suppliers.

The outlook for U.S. manufacturing going forward is strong. With a still-fragile global economy, growth in Asia has

slowed. Meanwhile, energy costs and interest rates here remain relatively low; and U.S. companies have estimated cash reserves of $1.6 trillion on their balance sheets.

As a result, international companies are putting their money on the integration of innovative product

design and production manufacturing in America. So is President Obama, who last year proposed adding

$1 billion to his fiscal 2013 budget in order to create a network of manufacturing innovation institutes throughout the country.

But this mainstay sector of the U.S. economy appears to be reinventing itself faster than any government—domestic or foreign—initiative. Industrial robots are working side by side with their human counterparts. 3D printers are replicating everything from high-tech sneakers to human tissue. And ma-chines are making other machines.

The future of U.S. manufacturing is no longer futuristic. It is now. ●

Siemens produces energy-

efficient gas turbines in Charlotte; and

Motorola’s Fort Worth factory assembles phones

for the U.S. market.

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The engineers at SpaceX knew that successfully launching a rocket was contingent on millions of things going right. Just a single error could impact the entire mission to the International Space Station. To help solve this challenge, they turned to Siemens industry software. This played a critical role in enabling the SpaceX

team to design and test products virtually before constructing them physically — optimizing the chances of a successful launch.

Today, Siemens is helping business leaders across the U.S. transform the way goods are manufactured. In industries from automotive to pharmaceutical, companies look to Siemens for new ways to do more with less, to raise quality while lowering costs, and to help factories and plants be a bit gentler on our environment. And it’s working — a new era in manufacturing is beginning to take hold across the country.

Somewhere in America, the people of Siemens are creating answers that will last for years to come.

Siemens industry software helps

innovative companies increase productivity,

improve accuracy, and signifi cantly reduce costs.

siemens.com/answers

Siemens answers are helping leading companies explore new places in new ways.

Turning virtual into real and skeptics into believers.