The lack of skilled workers could be one of the greatest hindrances to pushing U.S. manufacturers ahead of foreign competitors in the advanced-manufacturing race.” Years ago, I used to copy this sentence when it would appear in stories and publications and forward it to my colleagues to reinforce what I knew all too well. Today, this common fact is driving our industry to rethink the way we operate to remain globally competitive.

IndustryWeek’s September 22nd e-newsletter is a great read and highlights Corning’s “rediscovery” of Gorilla Glass as an example of using a combination of technologies, processes and education to promote a new era of U.S. manufacturing that can’t be easily replicated by competitors. This article provides a few advanced definitions of advanced manufacturing:

• “Operations that create advanced products, use innovative techniques in their manufacturing, and are inventing new processes and technologies for future manufacturing” – The Anderson Economic Group
• “Technologies that we’ve developed that others don’t have, including automation; it even can be areas where the education level is such that it can’t be readily duplicated in Third World countries.” – Rusty Patterson, CEO of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing
• “Low-skilled manufacturing jobs have moved offshore and probably aren’t coming back. But positions requiring advanced manufacturing skills are in demand and will continue to grow. The trick for American manufacturing is to identify what needs to be here and raise the bar on how we do it and how we train our workforce. If we don’t, we’re a nation without manufacturing, and we’re in for a long economic decline.” – Steven Dwyer, CEO of advanced-manufacturing consortium Conexus Indiana