American manufacturing isn’t just about making things anymore. It’s about building careers, strengthening communities, and securing our economic future. While the challenges have evolved since 2012, one truth remains: manufacturing jobs still matter—and so does the value of the dollar.
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When I wrote the chapter on what manufacturers can do to save themselves for my first book, Can American Manufacturing be Saved? Why we should and how we can, published in 2009, one of my top recommendations was to begin the Lean journey to become a Lean manufacturer.
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Ever since the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) was passed in 2011, there have been bills introduced in Congress with the purported purpose of restoring inventors’ rights and fixing some of the problems generated by that Act. None of these bills were passed by both the House and Senate, and most didn’t even get out of committee for a vote. A few of these bills would have actually made matters worse, so it was a good thing they didn’t pass.
Besides changing our patent system from a “first to invent” to a “first to file,” the “America Invents Act” also created the Patent Trial and Review Board (PTAB) which has nearly destroyed inventors’ rights. According to the U S Inventors end of the year report, “The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has canceled claims in 84% of the 2,500+ patents reviewed since 2011 and most inventors do not have a half a million dollars necessary to fund a legal defense.”
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When Bill Hughes went to fight in Iraq in 2003, members of his Army unit lined their vehicles with scrap metal, sandbags and bulletproof vests to protect themselves from roadside bombs. By the time his younger brother Ryan Young was in Iraq in 2008, the vehicles were made of a high-purity aluminum alloy that was much more effective at absorbing the blast. Read more
TAKE ACTION TODAY! Instructions on how to contact your local representatives are below. Read more
At the end of October, Donald Trump spoke in Gettysburg, Pa., and released a plan for his first 100 days in office. Read more
The Indiana House approved an amendment to Senate Bill 308 on Tuesday that penalizes companies like Carrier Corp., which is moving 1,400 Hoosier jobs to Mexico. Read more
On January 25, 2016, the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) released a report on the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade agreement. The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) promptly released their commentary on the Peterson Institute report the same day, which was based on oral and written testimony CEO Michael Stumo had given to the U. S. International Trade Commission on January 15, 2016. Read more
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal is terrible even apart from its quantifiable economic effects, as it threatens our environment, our health, our democracy, our sovereignty, our security and many other things. But it is also a lousy deal on the pure economics, which is why it is currently being sold to the American people and Congress using bogus economic analysis. Read more
California long required that any manufacturer wanting to say that a product is made in America must, in fact, have a product that’s made in America. Read more
It’s a standard part of the current public policy discourse that raising the minimum wage won’t have much, if indeed any, effect on the number of jobs available to Americans to do. Read more
Democrats and Republicans disagree on a lot, but leaders of both parties are as keen now as they were decades ago to embrace manufacturing jobs. Read more
