In August 2013, Congressmen Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Tom Reed (R-NY) created the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act (RAMI) a new awareness of the link between revitalizing the American Manufacturing Industry and the advent of new technologies and innovations. The result of RAMI was a “one-time $600 million investment funding in the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This single piece of legislation was the catalyst for allowing studies on growing and advancing American manufacturing across several spectrum’s:

. Semi-conductors
. Photonics
. Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles
. Solar panels
. Solar parts and equipment
. Hi tech medical equipment

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Rethinking American Manufacturing

By creating new models for assembling parts and equipment, the era of assembly line design has changed American manufacturing operations radically. Through use of robotics, fabricating and assembling parts have gone beyond the assembly lines of the past. As a result, manufacturing operations are more efficient, cost-effective and timely.
The cost to produce manufactured products is a result of high-end product development studies and greater emphasis on improving manufacturing through the use of technology and studying the advancements used by offshore manufacturers that improve productivity and reduce manufacturing costs.

Investing in American Manufacturing Industries

Part of the renaissance of American manufacturing may be directly attributable to “reshoring” and greater investments in today’s modern equipment and industrial manufacturing systems. For example, the American manufacturing industry today relies far more heavily on data driven internal and external operations utilizing existing systems.

The New American Manufacturing Industry Emerges

The revitalization of the American manufacturing industry began as a result of the disastrous recession, offshoring and downsizing from 2001 to 2008. By 2009, American manufacturing was at its lowest point. According to the National Association of Manufacturers , recent statistics show that the focus is on small manufacturers that number nearly 260,000 and “have 500 or fewer employees, with most having 20 employees.”

Revitalizing a Vital Part of the American Economy: Manufacturing

Streamlining manufacturing operations, rethinking production and assembly technologies and maintaining vigilance over foreign competition in manufacturing is an essential part of revitalizing a vital part of the American economy that accounts for over 12 million Americans employed in the manufacturing industry.

Other Factors That Help Revitalize the American Manufacturing Industry

It was inevitable that the cost of foreign imports would eventually rise to the degree that manufacturing offshore was no longer the windfall it had been for manufacturers.

Another factor that played a role in “reshoring” American manufacturing is the disparity between American and foreign product quality. American manufacturers as foreign inversions soon realized that the US maintains stricter regulations regarding product safety than their foreign suppliers. They reasoned that their liability for unsafe products added to their manufacturing costs when foods, toys and other goods are recalled for safety issues.

Labor costs are another issue that helped revitalize American manufacturing in a less significant way. Although, foreign manufacturing labor cost less in 2001, foreign manufacturers began to pay more for their laborers with the ripple effect of higher costs to American manufacturers.