The U.S. manufacturing sector has devolved from industrial leader to a secondary player as challenges posed by shuttered factories and job losses are compounded by rising geopolitical tensions with the world’s dominant manufacturer, China. Recently, supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic undermined confidence, disrupted commerce and led to shortages of vital goods. These concerns have spurred increased government investment in the manufacturing sector, but what’s needed is a focus on moving beyond traditional industrial processes to the technologies of the future — ones that will enable facilities to be more widely distributed throughout the country, more secure, self-sufficient and sustainable, and able to produce what the nation needs at a moment’s notice.

That is the impetus behind a new report from the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA), anSource: ERVA initiative funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The research priorities in Engineering the Future of Distributed Manufacturing are based on a cross-disciplinary visioning session with experts in engineering and manufacturing that met in March 2023.

“U.S. manufacturing needs not just more investment but a new vision and innovative ideas for getting there,” said Charles Johnson-Bey, ERVA co-principal investigator and senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. “We envision engineering research directions that inspire a new generation of workers, excited about the engineering-based potential to increase our capabilities and capacity — a transformed future for distributed manufacturing in which discrete products or tools are produced anywhere, anytime, and in any lot size, enabled by data and with guaranteed quality.”

The report identifies three “grand challenges” that engineers must tackle to bring about a manufacturing transformation: threats to material supply chains, inability to create machine tools whenever and wherever they are needed and the need for improved data and quality assurance. After evaluating the challenges and how they can be addressed, the visioning session experts on five research goals:

1. Engineer new, sustainable materials for use in advanced manufacturing;
2. Enable new business models that better manage supply chains to build resilience, minimize disruption, and reduce wasted time and materials;
3. Design next-generation machines and tools that are small, agile and reconfigurable;
4. Create common, effective, and affordable standards for data collection, analysis and communication; and
5. Develop greater connectivity across the sector and work to eliminate silos.

Many U.S. manufacturing enterprises are small and located in rural areas, with the potential to greatly impact the community’s economic health. The report emphasizes the importance of ensuring that research keeps equity and social impact in mind.