Just as American iron and steel and manufacturing emerged from the Greater Pittsburgh region in the Industrial Revolution, today a new revolution of advanced manufacturing (AM) technologies grows from southwestern Pennsylvania’s innovations in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and other leading-edge digital technologies.
According to a McKinsey Global Institute report titled “Making it in America: Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing” (November 2017), these “Industry 4.0” manufacturing technologies have the potential to boost our Made-in-America advantage.
However, according to the same study, digital technology adoption by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lags that of large firms because capital resources are insufficient, as is the number of skilled workers. This dynamic could limit manufacturing expansion, productivity, agility and hiring.
Catalyst Connection is helping to brighten the future of our region’s SMEs in the manufacturing sector as part of the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative, which recently received a federal Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Catalyst Connection will use some of those funds to help SMEs adopt AM and digital technologies, including robotics and autonomous systems. The project will support factory modernization, bring the R&D resources of Greater Pittsburgh’s anchor institutions to those companies, strengthen supply chains, and fill many of the region’s brownfields with thriving enterprises.
SMEs in manufacturing are a key component of southwestern Pennsylvania’s economy, with more than 2,700 companies employing 86,000 people (7.8% of the total workforce) and contributing $14.6 billion annually in GDP.
Companies’ activities will be assessed for the most common robotics applications such as machine tending, robotic welding, packaging, automated production lines and material handling. Some SMEs may have opportunities to use robotics and automation to improve tasks that are repetitive or otherwise undesirable, for examples, automating manual inspection processes using machine vision technology and improving materials movement using autonomous mobile robots.
We will also help companies consider using digital technologies that cover a wide range of applications from front office operations to production.
Although AM has been around for more than 30 years, it remains an emerging technology among SMEs in the manufacturing sector because adoption has been prohibitively expensive in the short term despite the technologies’ abilities to reduce costs, increase capabilities, and improve productivity far beyond the limits of traditional manufacturing processes.
Finally, cybersecurity will be a key focus of the Initiative. According to an IBM study of cyber attacks, manufacturing is the second-most targeted industry (up from eighth in 2019), trailing only finance & insurance. The keys to combating this threat are awareness and applying that knowledge to implementation of best practices. In the defense sector, contractors and subcontractors are required to comply with U.S. Department of Defense Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, so there is precedent for those kinds of stipulations.
As companies implement advanced technologies, Catalyst Connection will provide training. We will also facilitate access to capital through grants and loans.
Industry 4.0 manufacturing technologies are primed to significantly increase the competitive advantages of SMEs in southwestern Pennsylvania. Catalyst Connection is proud to be supporting our region’s manufacturers through the Build Back Better Regional Challenge to help them compete.
If your company, or that of someone you know, can benefit from our expertise and from relationships in the public and private sectors that we have developed over the past 35 years, our team of talented professionals is ready to help.
Petra Mitchell is president and CEO of Catalyst Connection.
