Globalization, developments in technology, and new business models are transforming the way products and services are conceived, designed, made, and distributed in the U.S. and around the world. These forces present challenges - lower wages and fewer jobs for a growing fraction of middle-class workers - as well as opportunities for "makers" and aspiring entrepreneurs to create entirely new types of businesses and jobs. Making Value for America examines these challenges and opportunities and offers recommendations for collaborative actions between government, industry, and education institutions to help ensure that the U.S. thrives amid global economic changes and remains a leading environment for innovation. Filled with real-life examples, Making Value for America presents a roadmap to enhance the nation's capacity to pursue opportunities and adapt to transforming value chains by widespread adoption of best practices, a well-prepared and innovative workforce, local innovation networks to support startups and new products, improved flow of capital investments, and infrastructure upgrades.

Additive manufacturing (AM) methods have great potential for promoting transformative research in many fields across the vast spectrum of engineering and materials science. AM is one of the leading forms of advanced manufacturing which enables direct computer-aided design (CAD) to part production without part-specific tooling. In October 2015 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop of experts from diverse communities to examine predictive theoretical and computational approaches for various AM technologies. While experimental workshops in AM have been held in the past, this workshop uniquely focused on theoretical and computational approaches and involved areas such as simulation-based engineering and science, integrated computational materials engineering, mechanics, materials science, manufacturing processes, and other specialized areas. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Taking a new product from the design stage to large-scale production in a profitable, efficient manner can challenge the processes of even the most advanced companies. Lapses in these processes drive up the cost of new products, and hinder their launch into the marketplace. Effective Transition from Design to Production provides an expeditio

Examines underlying factors behind the rise and decline of Dayton, Ohio, an archetypal Rust-Belt city, ultimately proposing a plan for revival.

Manufacturing in Transition looks at the current state of British manufacturing within the global economy and asks whether manufacturing matters in the twenty first century.

Recommends a manufacturing strategy that develops production facilities, uses appropriate management systems, and establishes firm relationships with suppliers.

This open access book addresses the practical challenges that Industry 4.0 presents for SMEs. While large companies are already responding to the changes resulting from the fourth industrial revolution , small businesses are in danger of falling behind due to the lack of examples, best practices and established methods and tools. Following on from the publication of the previous book ‘Industry 4.0 for SMEs: Challenges, Opportunities and Requirements’, the authors offer in this new book innovative results from research on smart manufacturing, smart logistics and managerial models for SMEs. Based on a large scale EU-funded research project involving seven academic institutions from three continents and a network of over fifty small and medium sized enterprises, the book reveals the methods and tools required to support the successful implementation of Industry 4.0 along with practical examples.