Input Stories

Across two prominent panels at Schneider Electric’s Innovation Summit in Las Vegas, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons, Johnson & Johnson Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Operations & Risk Officer and NAM Board Chair Kathy Wengel and Manufacturing Institute President and Executive Director Carolyn Lee dug into how automation is impacting manufacturing—and the manufacturing workforce.

The kickoff: Addressing an audience of more than 2,500 business leaders and industry voices last month, Schneider Electric President of North America Operations Aamir Paul opened the summit by urging attendees to view the entire energy system “from grid to chip and chip to chiller” as an integrated whole.

• By modernizing the grid, upgrading buildings, accelerating electrification and digitization, preparing the workforce and integrating energy, automation and software, the industry will rise to meet the surging AI-driven demand, he continued.

Timmons and Wengel take the stage: Timmons and Wengel joined Dr. Tarika Barrett (CEO of Girls Who Code) and Adam Wickersham (vice president of information technology at El Paso Water) on an executive forum panel moderated by Roger Diwan of S&P Global, called “Automation: Shaping North America’s Competitive Future.”

• “Every successful economy—every country where quality of life is improving—has a strong manufacturing base [and] we’ve proven that for decades, if not centuries, in the U.S.,” Timmons said. “Maintaining that competitive edge is incredibly important if we want to continue improving peoples’ lives.”
• After discussing the four essential pillars of U.S. competitiveness—smart tax policy, regulatory modernization, permitting reform and workforce development—Timmons turned to the headwinds facing manufacturers: tariff uncertainty and rising input costs.
• On tariffs, Timmons touted the NAM’s U.S. Manufacturing Investment Accelerator Program proposal “to provide a speed pass to bring critical inputs [needed to build facilities in the U.S.] so we can grow manufacturing capacity in the U.S. without undercutting the broader tariff policy.”

Wengel talks policy: On the same panel, Wengel connected those policy debates to decisions inside a global health care company.

• “Regulatory policy has a huge impact on how our industry structures and evolves our manufacturing networks. Automation and intelligent automation are critical to optimizing the sites we already have and to designing new ones,” she said.
• In addition, “We make investments that last for decades, so we need policy certainty—starting with tax policy,” Wengel emphasized.
• Wengel also underscored that automation is intertwined with policy, saying, “We’re using [automation] to make the best long-term choices for our network—and ultimately, for patients.”

The workforce angle: Timmons and Wengel both stressed that automation and AI only succeed if the workforce is ready.

• “Our AI and digital journey affects everyone—from our CEO … to a mechanic on third shift at a plant anywhere in the world. … We’re transforming how we all work,” said Wengel.
• Timmons pointed to the MI’s work with programs like the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME), its multistate apprenticeship program, to help fill the 400,000 open jobs in manufacturing today. As he noted, that number is “projected to grow by around 2 million by 2033.”
• The good news, Timmons said, is that “over the last decade, manufacturers have started taking this challenge very seriously [and] the MI’s programs are scaling and having real impact.”

The MI talks workforce: During a closing session of the two-day summit, Lee reinforced Timmons’ and Wengel’s message, digging deeper into how the industry can attract, train and retain the manufacturing workforce. She moderated a panel that included David Long (CEO of the National Electrical Contractors Association), Neil Murray (CEO, real estate management services, JLL) and Greg Fischer (executive vice president of design, build and operations management, Jacobs), called “Workforce Strategies for the Next Energy Economy.”

• “I always say, ‘students can’t be what they can’t see,’” Lee said. “We all have jobs in our industries that no one outside would ever imagine exist, and we have to show those.”
• Highlighting the MI’s Heroes MAKE America initiative, which trains military community members for industry careers, Lee noted that servicemembers don’t always realize that their skills align naturally with manufacturing jobs. “It feels obvious to us, but it hasn’t been obvious to them. So how you engage, translate that experience and bring it to life is essential.”
• Citing FAME, Lee commented that the program “trains regions on how to come together in partnerships to grow talent pools. Talent can’t be a zero-sum game. If one employer has all they need and no one else does, the region doesn’t succeed, and neither do we.”
• “Given the structural talent shortage we face, we have to think bigger than we have in the past,” Lee added.

The energy “volcano” moment: During a separate session, Mark Christie, former commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, warned that the U.S. is facing two crises: one of reliability, as power demand outpaces new generation, and one of affordability, as rising power prices mean “we are sleeping on a volcano,” he said, quoting Alexis de Tocqueville. “If we don’t acknowledge that, and try to control prices for customers, the political volcano will be extraordinary dangerous.”

• Christie stressed that tariffs directly raise the cost of poles, wires and transformers—and “those increases flow dollar for dollar into consumer rates.”
• Meanwhile, state policies can drive retail rates even higher. The affordability crisis is becoming “a political volcano,” he concluded.

Final words: Lee was speaking about the workforce shortage, but her words hold true for all challenges discussed at the summit: today, manufacturers “have to think bigger than we have in the past.”