Business Operations

To make electric vehicle manufacturing quicker and easier, Ford is getting back to basics (POLITICO’s CLIMATEWIRE, subscription).

What’s going on: “The Michigan automaker on Monday announced a $5 billion plan to simplify its production of electric vehicles … similar to how Ford revolutionized the car industry decades ago by creating a moving assembly line to build the company’s iconic Model T.”

• Henry Ford pioneered that technology in the early 20th century for the mass production of automobiles, and it helped make cars more affordable.
• Now the company is hoping it can do the same for EVs by streamlining manufacturing.

What they’re saying: Competitors, including lower-cost EVs from China, are “all coming for us,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said an event this week at an assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, where he laid out Ford’s plans for a new EV-making process.

• On stage next to Farley as he spoke was a vintage Model T pickup.

How they’ll do it: Ford’s new EV strategy will be built on “a new platform that will combine low-cost batteries and motors, which can be adapted for trucks, SUVs and other vehicles.”

• The manufacturers will put $2 billion into its Louisville facility to build the new vehicles and will put $3 billion into the expansion of its plant in Michigan to make lithium-ion batteries.

The first product: The first vehicle to be built on the new platform is a four-door pickup set for a 2027 release with a price tag of $30,000.

• The new truck will have 20% percent fewer parts than a conventional one and its assembly line will move 15% faster.
• In addition, “[t]he designers cut 4,000 feet of wire from the main wiring harness.”

Its impact: Ford and elected officials emphasized the positive effect they foresee the new strategy having on local economies.

• “Jobs will be here in this plant in Kentucky for generations to come,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said. “Current Ford employees’ kids and grandkids will have an opportunity to work right here at the Louisville assembly plant one day.”
• The project is expected to create or secure 4,000 jobs, more than half of which will be in Kentucky.​​​​​​​

To bolster domestic aluminum supply chains, the U.S. may need to simply do more of something we already do: recycle (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

What’s going on: “U.S. primary aluminum production has dwindled over the past 25 years. Yet facilities like Hydro’s two-year-old plant in southwest Michigan have made the country a leading producer of secondary aluminum from scrap, feeding metal to brewers, builders and automakers.”

• “Recycling is the answer,” said Duncan Pitchford, who heads Norsk Hydro’s upstream aluminum business in the U.S. and is an NAM board member. “The metal is already here.”

Why it’s important: While construction of a new aluminum smelter to make primary aluminum from refined bauxite would take years and require an investment of billions of dollars, aluminum recycling plants can be built relatively quickly and inexpensively.

• They also use less energy, according to Pitchford.

The impact of tariffs: Recycling makes economic sense for the U.S. given the new 50% tariff on aluminum imports.

• “The added cost is walloping beverage companies and manufacturers … [but] [a]utomakers and other big aluminum users have yet to raise prices much in response.” according to the Journal.
• “Analysts say it is a matter of time before the stockpiles of metal that arrived in the U.S. ahead of the June increase are depleted and companies start passing on higher aluminum costs.”

The challenge: Americans are catching on to the importance of aluminum recycling, with 14 “remelt” projects announced in the U.S. since 2022. Still, “[m]ore than $1 billion worth of beverage cans were dumped in U.S. landfills just last year … A lack of sorting operations means that a lot of the aluminum in junked cars, demolition debris and old electronics winds up in landfills.”

• The U.S. also exports much of its aluminum scrap, sending about 2.4 million metric tons overseas in 2024.

The way things were: “The U.S. once dominated the aluminum business. … [and] remained the world’s top producer through 2000,” when smelters began to shutter, “squeezed” by less expensive imports and increasing energy pieces.

The electricity factor: Electricity costs make up about 40% of the price tag for the creation of new aluminum.

• For many years domestic smelters received low-cost hydropower from federal utilities, but when those arrangements ended, smelters had to begin paying market rates for their electricity.

What Hydro’s doing: Approximately 15 million pounds of scrap — including “shredded cars, old window and door frames and overhead electrical wire”— arrives at Hydro’s Michigan plant each month for recycling. (The facility does not recycle cans.)

• Much of the metal the plant takes in comes from “a sorting hub near Grand Rapids, where Hydro uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technology to mechanically separate scrap by alloy.”

Indium Corporation, founded in Upstate New York, has a long record of turning challenges into innovations.

Not long after its namesake element, indium, failed as an anti-tarnish silverware coating, the company discovered during World War II that it could be used instead in aircraft bearings. Then once jet engines made that application obsolete, the company began using indium to coat glass in everything from electronics to supermarket refrigeration units. Today, indium is used in all sorts of fields, from aerospace, to telecommunications, to tumor eradication.

• “We’re always exploring how we can add ingredients to a material, or find a new way of looking at something, or solve a problem in a different way,” said President and CEO Ross Berntson. “At Indium Corporation, we believe that materials science changes the world.”

Now, Indium Corporation is turning its attention to a new and pressing issue: creating a North American supply chain for a critical mineral.

Exploring challenges: Gallium is a byproduct of aluminum production that is essential for everything from semiconductors, to electric vehicles, to wearable electronics. But while demand for gallium is rising, 98% of gallium today comes from China—creating a single supply chain that is vulnerable to international challenges and disruptions.

• “That’s just simply not a robust supply chain, right?” said Berntson. “We need to make a stronger, more robust global supply chain. And the first step is to bring on a North American supply.”

Developing solutions: Indium Corporation is working with Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, to extract gallium from North American bauxite sources in Canada.

• With a strong stable of engineers, proximity to a tremendous amount of hydroelectric power and a commitment to sustainability, Indium Corporation sees Rio Tinto as the perfect partner for this effort.

Setting goals: Through the partnership, Indium Corporation and Rio Tinto aim to produce up to 40 tons of gallium per year in North America—a significant portion of the 600–700 tons of gallium that is used annually. And for Berntson, the innovation that will result is the most exciting part.

• “Not only does this work secure the supply chain for existing applications, but it also creates a robust source of gallium so people can get creative with it—for new alloys and new compounds that nobody ever thought of before,” said Berntson. “It’s exhilarating to think about having more gallium available, and what we can do with a bunch of creative minds working with that element.”

Calling for partnership: While Indium Corporation is investing heavily in gallium production, Berntson believes that public–private partnerships are key to mitigating risk and ensuring that gallium exists as a resource that can enable American competitiveness.

• “The availability of gallium is bigger than any one company,” said Berntson.

The key to success: Berntson credits his company’s talented engineers with Indium Corporation’s success—and emphasizes the need to let brilliant minds find unexpected solutions.

• “There’s a ton of talent in the world,” said Berntson. “Bringing them in, helping them to grow and giving them enough space to be innovative—time and time again, that’s how we’re able to be at the leading edge of our industry.”

Westinghouse will construct 10 large nuclear reactors in the U.S., the energy company told President Trump at a roundtable in Pennsylvania this week (CNBC).

What’s going on: “Westinghouse’s big AP1000 reactor generates enough electricity to power more than 750,000 homes, according to the company. Building 10 of these reactors would drive $75 billion of economic value across the U.S. and $6 billion in Pennsylvania,” Westinghouse interim CEO Dan Sumner said Tuesday during Sen. Dave McCormick[’s] (R-PA) inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University.

• The U.S. has built just two nuclear reactors in the past three decades, both Westinghouse AP1000s at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

Presidential appearance: President Trump also announced at the summit that private companies will invest some $90 billion in Pennsylvania (CBS News).

• “We’re building a future where American workers will forge the steel, produce the energy, build the factories and really run a country like, I believe, this country has never been run before,” the president said, according to CBS. “I think we have a true golden age for America.”

Keeping energy promises: In May, President Trump issued four executive orders that seek “to quadruple nuclear power in the U.S. by 2050,” CNBC reports. “The president called for the U.S. to have 10 large nuclear reactors under construction by 2030.”

The event: The event at which the announcements were made featured panel discussions with energy and technology industry leaders, including Toby Rice, president and CEO of energy company EQT Corporation, and Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman.

• In June, Amazon announced a $20 billion investment in data centers in Pennsylvania, according to CBS.

Why it’s important: With the fast pace of data center construction and the rapid adoption across industries of energy-intensive generative artificial intelligence, the U.S. must expand baseload power generation capabilities, the NAM said.

• “Westinghouse’s announcement of 10 new nuclear reactors in the U.S. marks the start of a fulfillment of a promise made by President Trump,” said NAM Director of Energy and Resources Policy Michael Davin. “Nuclear energy is safe, carbon-free and available 24 hours a day, year-round. It’s a critical component of the energy future we need to keep manufacturing in the U.S. thriving.”

SkyWater Technology is leading the effort to rebuild domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. As the only U.S. investor-owned and -operated pure-play semiconductor foundry in the U.S., SkyWater plays a critical role in reshoring key parts of the global supply chain and reducing America’s reliance on foreign-made chips.

The approach: SkyWater’s approach goes beyond traditional manufacturing. Its “Technology as a Service” model combines advanced R&D with wafer fabrication, allowing customers to co-develop new technologies using custom manufacturing processes.

• This collaborative model accelerates innovation and enables a flexible, secure production pipeline for customers, so they don’t have to build their own fabrication infrastructure.

The expansion: Today, SkyWater is expanding its U.S. footprint. The company recently finalized its acquisition of Infineon Technologies’ semiconductor fab in Austin, Texas—an investment that will allow SkyWater to scale its operations, support commercial and government partners and create a more complete domestic supply chain from chip design through packaging and testing.

• “The United States has operated in a global supply chain with regional centers of excellence—but now, those regional centers are getting reconfigured,” said SkyWater CEO Thomas Sonderman. “That comes with new opportunities.”

The challenge: Still, semiconductor manufacturing also comes with significant financial challenges. The industry is capital intensive, and investments in new infrastructure or equipment can require years of lead time and billions of dollars.

• That’s why federal support through stable and predictable tax policy is essential to SkyWater’s success—and to America’s semiconductor future, said Sonderman.

The policy: SkyWater welcomed Congress’s recent passage of the reconciliation package that made permanent vital pro-manufacturing tax provisions, including immediate R&D expensing and full capital equipment expensing. The law also increased the advanced manufacturing investment credit, an incentive for semiconductor manufacturing, from 25% to 35%.

• “In our industry, if you don’t stay at the leading edge, somebody will pass you by,” said Sonderman. “The United States is in a vulnerable state now, because we’re telling people we want to make stuff in the U.S., but we don’t have the capabilities to make stuff in the U.S. at scale today.”
• “Having the tax incentives is absolutely critical,” he emphasized. “If they go away, it’ll be much harder to establish manufacturing independence for the United States.”

The competition: The stakes are high. China leads the world in chipmaking investments, according to industry researchers, and the U.S. cannot afford to fall behind. And as Sonderman put it, tax incentives aren’t just about finance—they’re about building national capability and ensuring the next generation of technology is made in America.

• “The money is important,” said Sonderman. “But the money is not as important as the commitment.”

Milo’s Tea Company, the maker of popular iced tea, lemonade and other products found in grocery stores nationwide, stepped in to help in the recovery efforts following the devastating flooding in Texas.

Pausing production: Milo’s Chair and CEO Tricia Wallwork, an NAM board member, told the story on LinkedIn on Friday:

• “Yesterday, we made the decision to pause tea and lemonade production at Milo’s Tea Company, Inc. at our Tulsa, Oklahoma, plant—not for a business reason, but because our neighbors in Texas need clean drinking water more than anything else right now, and disaster relief is something we feel strongly about.”
• “On Sunday, five truckloads—124 pallets and more than 119,000 bottles—of Milo’s bottled water will arrive at the San Antonio Food Bank to support flood relief efforts in a community that’s experienced unimaginable loss.”
• “As a mother, wife and human, my prayers go out to all those impacted by the horrific flooding in Texas.”

Teamwork: “[A]s the #ProudCEO of Milo’s, I am thankful that we can do a small, little something to help. Our TEAms response was swift. It came together in just 24 hours. Every single function at Milo’s—from operations and supply chain to quality and logistics—rallied to make it happen,” Wallwork wrote.

• “We’re also incredibly grateful to our transportation partner R.E. Garrison Trucking, Inc., who donated the freight, and to Feeding America and H-E-B, whose partnerships make swift, meaningful responses like this possible.”

A company mission: “Disaster response has long been one of the pillars of our Corporate Responsibility commitment at Milo’s. From Hurricane Helene in [North Carolina] . . . to today’s flooding in [Texas], we’ll continue showing up authentically where we’re needed—with heart, humility and help,” Wallwork concluded.

What started as a menu item at a single burger restaurant has become a summer staple and a household name across the U.S.: Milo’s Tea.

What’s going on: “Today we’re a tea and lemonade company, but it didn’t start that way,” Milo’s Tea Company Chair and CEO Tricia Wallwork, a member of the NAM Board of Directors, told the “Today” show last week. “There actually was a guy named Milo, and he was my granddad.”

• After serving in World War II, Milo Carlton—who had “always had a passion for food” and had been a cook in the army—opened a burger restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama.
• His biggest hit? The eatery’s sweet tea. In 1946, Carlton and his family decided to start the beverage business.
• In 2022, the firm became the top-selling refrigerated tea brand in the U.S. It’s also the fastest-growing refrigerated lemonade brand.

A manufacturing powerhouse: In April, the beverage maker opened its fourth manufacturing site, a 10,000-square-foot brewing and packaging facility in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.

A major success story: Today Milo’s Tea is available for sale in all 50 states at more than 55,000 retail locations—but it remains family-owned. (It’s also a certified women-owned business.)

• When Wallwork took the helm in 2012, “we had [maybe] 40 people,” she said. Now, “we’re going to end this year with over 1,000.”

Making Milo proud: Still, despite its explosive success, the company—which will release a zero-sugar lemonade this year—is faithful to its roots.

• “It was my grandfather’s recipe, and it’s still the same formula we use today,” Wallwork told “Today’s” Kathy Park.
• “I think my grandparents would be so proud of the wonderful jobs we’ve been able to create and the many lives that we’ve been able to touch through our business and through our flavors and our brands.”

The NAM’s digital transformation division has announced the winners of this year’s Manufacturing Leadership Awards, accolades given to the most outstanding companies, teams and individuals leading manufacturing into the next era.

What’s going on: The Manufacturing Leadership Council named Celanese as its Large Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year, Pure & Gentle, Inc. as the winner in its Small-Medium Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year category and Besu Alemayehu of Merck & Co., Inc. as its 2025 Manufacturing Leader of the Year.

• The winners were announced last week at the MLC’s 2025 Manufacturing Leadership Awards Gala in Marco Island, Florida. It was the culmination of Rethink: Accelerating Digital Transformation in Manufacturing, the organization’s flagship event focused on strategies that advance digital transformation in manufacturing operations.

Why they were picked: Global chemistry company Celanese was chosen owing to its many achievements in digital transformation, including an artificial intelligence-powered digital platform that increases employee productivity and improves decision-making.

• Personal care product manufacturer Pure & Gentle won in its category for use of digital technology to monitor and boost sustainability, as well as for its creation of a work culture that fosters high levels of employee engagement.
• Merck Senior Vice President of Digital Manufacturing and Chief Digital and Technology Officer Alemayehu was recognized for leading digital initiatives that have increased business value and for partnering with senior leadership across the company in key functions.

There’s more: The award ceremony included a memorial tribute to former Lexmark Chief Sustainability Officer John D. Gagel, also a former member of the MLC Board of Governors, recognizing his lasting contributions to manufacturing and transformational leadership.

Our take: “The winners of the Manufacturing Leadership Awards represent the kind of bold and innovative thinking that will propel our industry into the future,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.

• “Every project and individual recognized in the Manufacturing Leadership Awards represents movement toward a future state of Manufacturing 4.0,” said MLC Founder, Executive Director and Vice President David R. Brousell.

Read more: See a full list of this year’s winners and finalists here.

Americans are socking away a record amount in their retirement accounts (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

The details: “The average savings rate in 401(k) plans rose to a record high 14.3% of income in the first three months of this year, according to a Fidelity Investments analysis of the millions of accounts it manages.”

• That’s almost as much as the 15% annual savings rate that financial advisors recommend.

Upward trend: Average savings rates have increased from 13.5% in 2020.

• Meanwhile, older savers are putting in more than younger ones: “At Fidelity, baby boomers saved 17.2% on average, while generation X and millennials put away 15.4% and 13.5%, respectively.”

More 401(k)s: “About 70% of the private-sector workforce now has access” to a 401(k)—and many more companies are using automatic enrollment to increase participation.

Still at risk: However, “About 40% of U.S. households are now at risk of being unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement, according to Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.”

The NAM’s contribution: The NAM is helping more manufacturing workers gain access to 401(k)s through its Manufacturers Retirement & 401(k) Savings Plan, which allows many companies to participate in one 401(k) plan.

• Retirement benefits are a huge draw for prospective workers, and the NAM 401(k) plan makes it much easier for small and medium-sized manufacturers to offer them.
• Read our interview with one manufacturing leader who saw a huge benefit from moving to the NAM 401(k) plan—and find out what she learned in the process.

The spotlight is on Western Pennsylvania—and EQT Corp.’s Toby Rice (The Washington Post, subscription).

What’s going on: The region’s plentiful natural gas is making it a crucial location as energy demand surges thanks to artificial intelligence. At the center of things is Toby Rice, president and CEO of energy company EQT Corp., the largest natural gas producer in the Appalachian Basin.

• “The size of [AI’s energy appetite] … it’s crazy,” Rice told opinion writer Salena Zito. “We are hearing estimates for power demand for AI that’s anywhere [from] 50 to 75 gigawatts of power, which is the equivalent of the power needed to power 10 to 15 New York Cities.”
• EQT is expected to be among the few natural gas providers in contention to support the switchover of the Homer City Generating Station, formerly Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant, “to natural gas to power an adjacent AI data center.”

From baseball to energy: Massachusetts native Rice wanted to make his career in professional baseball, but after he was passed over by Major League Baseball in college, his father suggested he go into the oil and gas industry.

• After moving to Texas, Rice started out working on an oil rig and eventually founded his own company, Rice Energy.
• “There was a lot of sweat along the way—he left Texas for Appalachia, and slowly grew Rice Energy from a no-name company to a top 10 producer of natural gas in the country.”
• It merged with EQT in 2017, creating America’s biggest independent producer of natural gas.

AI revolution—and opposition: “This is the biggest gas field in the world. This is the biggest energy source,” Rice told the Post. “Pittsburgh has powered, has been the ground zero, for the industrial revolutions that have taken place in this country. This AI revolution that’s taking place—no different.”

• However, AI growth has a sizable hurdle in its way in the form of opposition to natural gas.
• Said Rice: “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure they have all the energy they need to meet their AI aspirations. But we should still have the ability to build more infrastructure here.”