AUSTIN, TX — Tesla Inc. has picked the Austin, Texas, area as the site for its largest auto assembly plant employing at least 5,000 workers.

PITTSBURGH — The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute has announced selection and funding from its third Education and Workforce Development project call that took place in late 2019. ARM plans to provide up to $2 million for the initial launch of a public website focused on robotics careers in advanced manufacturing. The funding for this project call was provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.  

The project’s goal is to assemble and validate a national database and map of educational programs and resources that provide the skills required for today’s advanced manufacturing careers, with a focus on robotics. The database will be hosted on a public website and will span the full spectrum of programs, from micro-credentials through PhDs, that help to prepare U.S. citizens for careers in advanced manufacturing in both the commercial and defense sectors. These vetted educational programs will correspond to the career pathways and competencies established by the ARM Member Consortium and its partners.   

The U.S. manufacturing sector faces a significant problem that has been compounded by trade challenges and the pandemic: a quickly growing skills gap. A 2018 report by The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte found that 4.6 million jobs will need to be filled in the sector over the next decade, and 2.4 million of these jobs may go unfilled due to a lack of trained workers. Increasing the use of robotics will play a critical role in returning the U.S. to a global leadership position in manufacturing, but workers need to be trained to work alongside robots. This can only occur through a concerted effort to develop the needed workforce by identifying and standardizing the required competencies and skills, promoting and enhancing the educational resources, and sharing the available jobs in a comprehensive, yet easily accessible manner.  

This public website will address these challenges by making it easy to learn about educational programs that provide the needed competencies and skills for manufacturing careers, and, in future versions of the website, help employers find the best candidates for their available manufacturing positions. The website will also support the manufacturer’s need to retrain or upskill their existing workers, which increases that worker’s value to the organization and their own personal career path.  

ATLANTA — Interroll has begun operations at its second plant on the company campus in Hiram, GA. The new building provides 100,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehousing area, as well as 25,000 square feet of offices, plus a kaizen room.

DETROIT — U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette recently announced $139 million in federal funding for 55 projects across the country that will support new and innovative advanced vehicle technologies.

DEARBORN, MI — In a unique pilot program, Ford Motor Co. is deploying four-legged robots into tough-to-reach areas within the company's Van Dyke Transmission Plant to collect data that can be used to retool plants, thereby saving Ford engineers time and money.

JACKSONVILLE, FL — A West Virginia-based plastics manufacturer, Flying W Plastics, will invest $8 million in a new facility here and create 28 new jobs.

ADELPHI, MD — U.S. Army researchers have discovered a way to monitor the performance of 3D printed parts, which tend to have imperfections that affect performance in ways that traditionally machined parts do not.

BIRMINGHAM, UK — In a new report, researchers at the University of Birmingham say that manufacturers must redesign and reform their global supply chains or global production networks if they want to survive and prosper in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) has introduced legislation that would establish an independent federal institute—the National Institute of Manufacturing (NIM)—to serve as a hub for federal manufacturing programs.

BATTLE CREEK, MI—A worker at DENSO’s auto parts assembly plant here died last week from COVID-19. An additional 17 other employees across the company’s five Michigan factories have tested positive.