LOS ANGELES—The Obama Administration will locate its ninth U.S. manufacturing hub here. The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will bring together a consortium of nearly 200 partners from across academia, industry and nonprofits to spur advances in smart sensors and digital process controls to improve the efficiency of U.S. manufacturing.

DETROIT—A new $148 million high-tech manufacturing research institute set to open this spring in metro Detroit is expected to bring 10,000 jobs to the region within the next five years. The American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute will be led by the University of Michigan, EWI and The Ohio State University.

WASHINGTON—President Obama has issued a pair of executive orders that aim to help U.S. manufacturers. The first will create three manufacturing institutes using $200 million from the budgets of five agencies. The second requires that government data be made available to the public—and to entrepreneurs—in manageable formats that could be more easily used by researchers and businesses to jump-start new products and services.