In an effort to grow innovation and create most jobs opportunities in America, President Barack Obama is expanding the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) with the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDI) in Chicago.
DMDI focuses on the democratization and data integration across the American supply chain. As part of the Association for Manufacturing Technology's (AMT) commitment to advanced manufacturing in the U.S., the organization and several member companies are active in the development of DMDI and other manufacturing hubs of NNMI.
"Digital manufacturing is clearly one of the most exciting and fundamentally game-changing technologies impacting our industry and providing a platform for U.S. manufacturers to excel in a highly competitive global marketplace," said AMT President Douglas K. Woods. "The DMDI provides a unique opportunity for industry, academia and government to collaborate and accelerate the commercialization of digital technology based manufacturing products and services."
MTConnect Institute also joins DMDI as a new partner. "MTConnect is accelerating the digitization of manufacturing by allowing disparate manufacturing equipment and devices to communicate through an open-source interoperability standard, therefore enabling better collection and analysis of data from the plant floor," Wood said. "We think that this partnership with DMDI will further the use of the MTConnect standard and foster a more seamless operating environment for manufacturers of all types."
Obama noted in his announcement speech the importance of manufacturing for well-paying jobs and economic security, in addition to keeping R&D and innovation within U.S. boundaries. Adding new NNMI facilities to the country creates more opportunity for U.S. technology development and training for high-tech manufacturing jobs.
DMDI also announced the launched another manufacturing hub, the Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Canton, Mich. The new hub joins existing America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute hub in Youngstown, Ohio, and the Next-Generation Power Electronics National Manufacturing Innovation Institute hub in Raleigh, NC.
