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The Monthly Newsletter of the Council of Industry
April 24, 2025
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Council of Industry Updates
What's Happening in Your Association
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Tariff Talk: Manfuacturing Executives Roundtable
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Friday, April 11 the Council of Industry hosted an online Executive Roundtable discussion of tariff impacts on member firms. The conversation was wide ranging and it seems that tariff impacts are very much individualized to each member, with some firms expressing serious concern for their business models and others seeing limited impacts and maybe even some opportunities to gain customers. That said there were several common themes.
- Uncertainty – member executives found the lack of tariff clarity very difficult to manage, particularly as it relates to pricing products.
- Understanding – Several members said the understood the need to realign global markets, particularly in relation to China and that tariff policy is a realignment tool.
- Frustration – Nearly all expressed frustration with the seemingly haphazard way tariff increases are being implemented. Several voiced a need for clarity and consistency if they are to adjust to changes.
- Lack of a Voice – With tariffs impacting each company differently many argued that the policies are unfair and/or will harm their business – particularly if and when retaliatory tariffs are implemented by trading partners other than China. Participants do not believe their voices are being heard by the Trump administration.
One outcome of the discussion is that The Council of Industry will collect member tariff stories and share them other members and policy makers.
View the "Tales" Here
You can share your “Tale” with us by completing this form.
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Insight Exchange, Season 1 Episode 2: PFAS Risk Management and Regulation Getting a Handle on “Forever Chemicals” – Presented by Langan Engineering & Environmental Services
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NOTE: Insight Exchange along with other Council of Industry programs and services will soon require members to log into their Member Compass account – information on how to do so is here.
The Council of Industry is thrilled to announce the launch of the Insight Exchange, a new video presentation series designed to provide manufacturers with expert insights and actionable strategies—all on demand. This initiative is part of our ongoing effort to offer flexible, valuable resources to the manufacturing community, ensuring members can access critical information when it’s most convenient. The series features subject matter experts from our Associate Members, sharing their knowledge on topics ranging from workforce development and operational efficiency to emerging technologies and regulatory compliance.
In the most recent Exchange Jillian Terhune, Senior Project Manager at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, tells us about a pressing regulatory issue facing manufacturers today—PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances). Jill breaks down the evolving regulatory landscape, compliance obligations, and risk management strategies you need to know.
- Learn how PFAS rules impact your business.
- Get insight into reporting deadlines and compliance requirements.
- Understand how to manage risk and stay ahead of evolving regulations.
Langan Engineering & Environmental Services is a premier multidisciplinary firm offering integrated site engineering and environmental consulting services. With expertise in site civil, geotechnical, environmental, and landscape architecture, Langan partners with industrial clients to navigate complex projects and regulatory challenges, delivering innovative and sustainable solutions.
Watch on Demand
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Insight Exchange Upcoming Schedule
- Immigration Update - Jackson Lewis PC – Watch on Demand
- PFOAS - Langan Engineering & Environmental Services – Watch on Demand
- What is a Health Care Consortium, and Why It Could Save You Money - Brown and Brown – April 29, 2025
- Cyber Security Best Practices – Fisch Solutions – May 13, 2025
- OSHA’ Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards and How to Comply - Walden Environmental Engineering – May 27, 2025
- Recruiting Strategies – Insperity PEO Solutions – June 10, 2025
- Cyber Security Digital Factory: Building Secure and Compliant Factory Networks – Trout Software – June 24, 2025
Associate Members who are interested in sharing their knowledge and expertise are encouraged to reach out to Johnnieanne Hansen at info@councilofindustry.org.
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RIT Delivers Introduction to Lean Manufacturing with Simulation to Council Members in Poughkeepsie
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28 individuals from 9 companies participated in “Lean Overview & Simulation,” a full-day Lean Foundations course. Led by Vin Buonomo from RIT CQAS, the course provided a comprehensive introduction to Lean principles, tools, and methodologies. Designed as a starting point for those interested in Lean certification—including Yellow Belt and Green Belt—this program delivered a hands-on learning experience to understand the impact of Lean concepts on their operations.
Through a combination of instruction and simulation exercises, attendees explored the differences between traditional batch manufacturing and Lean manufacturing, gaining practical insights that are immediately applicable at their workplace.
Key Lean tools covered in this course included:
- Types of Waste
- Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
- 5-S and Visual Controls
- Standard Work
- Kanban, Pull Systems, and Supermarkets
- Setup Reduction
- Kaizen Event Training
- Root Cause Analysis
- Culture Change
The Council and RIT plan to offer additional Lean courses in 2025, including LSS Yellow Belt. If your organization is interested to learn more about these programs contact Emma Olivet
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Spring Edition of HV MFG Magazine Now Availble Online - Print Edition on the Way to Mailboxes Across the Region
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We are pleased to present the Spring 2025 edition off HV MFG, the magazine by, for, and about Hudson Valley Manufacturing.
In this issue:
Thanks to Ad Essentials and Main Printing for helping us design and print HV Mfg!
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Zierick Manufacturing President Gretchen Zierick and Marlboro High School Teacher Thomas Fassell Named 2025 Manufacturing Champions.
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The Board of Directors of the Council of Industry have announced the 2025 Manfuacturing Champions. This year we are excited to recognize 2 outstanding individuals who, through vision, dedication, hard work, and tireless involvement have helped to overcome some of the many obstacles faced by manufacturers in the Hudson Valley community and in so doing they have made it possible for manufacturers and their employees to prosper.’ Join us in celebrating this year’s honorees at the Champions Award Breakfast and Workforce Developers Expo April 25, 2025 at West Hills Country Club in Middletown.
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Gretchen Zierick, president of Zierick Manufacturing in Mt. Kisco, Westchester County, is being recognized for a career dedicated to growing her manufacturing business, supporting workforce development, encouraging and mentoring women in the field of engineering and a strong commitment to the manufacturing sector in the Hudson Valley.
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Thomas Fassell, a Science Teacher at Marlboro High school, was selected in recognition of his outstanding dedication to preparing the next generation of manufacturing and engineering professionals. Fassell founded the Engineering program at Marlboro and has a strong, long-standing collaboration with Council of Industry manufacturing members—including IBM, onsemi, Sono-Tek, President Container, and FALA. He has been instrumental in ensuring that students gain real-world, hands-on experience that aligns with industry workforce needs.
The event is sold out!
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Thank You Champions Award Breakfast Sponsors!
Corporate Sponsor:
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U.S. Halts Construction Of Giant Wind Farm Off Long Island
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U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has ordered a halt to an offshore wind project near the coast of Long Island. Today, Equinor, the Norwegian energy company that owns and operates the project, announced it is complying with the order and suspending all construction. President Trump, a longtime critic of wind energy, issued a moratorium on new development of offshore wind projects, one of his first executive orders upon returning to the White House. The halting of Empire Wind 1 disrupts a much-needed electricity supply to a region with growing power demands for things like data centers, says Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council. " This is the kind of energy dominance that the U.S. needs. That the Trump administration should be supporting," she says. New York has a goal of developing 9,000 megawatts in offshore wind energy by 2035. That goal is now at risk, Eisenson says. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote in a statement that Burgum's order stands to threaten 1,000 union worker jobs.
The offshore wind project, called Empire Wind 1, was supposed to supply power to 500,000 homes in New York. The federal lease for the project was signed during the first Trump administration in 2017. Much of the federal permitting for this project happened during the Biden administration. In a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the lead federal agency for permitting offshore wind projects, Burgum wrote that "approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis."
Read more at NPR
Reach out to the Council of Industry and NRG today to develop an energy strategy tailored to your business needs.
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Manufacturing Industry News
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Bring Back Manufacturing? It Never Left
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President Donald Trump's campaign of imposing tariffs on trading partners for a broad range of products is unlikely to bring back the kind of manufacturing jobs that were once the backbone of the blue-collar middle class, economists say. The U.S., however, is still a major manufacturer, No. 2 in the world behind China. Sometimes lost in the debate over industrial policy is that the U.S. still makes lots of stuff: it is a leader in multiple high-tech industries, including aerospace, medicine, and weapons. While the U.S. has lost jobs in manufacturing since the 1980s, its output has increased in terms of the value of the products being manufactured. Since the 1980s, US factories have made more stuff while cutting the number of workers as automation and high-tech industries have replaced older, lower-tech ones. (see nearby chart)
It's no secret that it is more expensive to make things domestically, depending on how much labor is involved in the production process. The typical U.S. manufacturing worker earns just over $70,000 a year, while their counterpart in China makes just over $13,000, and an Indian manufacturing worker only makes around $2,300, according to an analysis by Apollo. That means that for many products, it could still be cheaper to make them overseas and pay a tariff than to relocate a factory to the U.S. and pay higher wages.
"High-end stuff, high-value stuff, can come back to the U.S., partially because the value is not in labor, but in thought," Farouk Contractor, a professor of economics at Rutgers said. "So if you have a highly automated, highly sophisticated item like computer chips, it doesn't matter if labor cost jump from $6 to $36 an hour, because the labor content is low, and the main value and the price of the item is in thought, rather than in manual labor."
Read more at IndustryWeek
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NAM Calls on Federal Agencies to Rebalance Regulations to Strengthen Manufacturing in the U.S.
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The NAM has identified at least 44 regulations across 10 agencies that the Trump administration should consider revising or rescinding under Executive Order 14219, “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative.” This action builds on the momentum of a December 2024 letter from the NAM and more than 100 manufacturing organizations to the transition team detailing regulatory actions the incoming administration could take to right-size regulations that stunted manufacturing growth and job creation.
The NAM’s submissions in response to EO 14219 target burdensome regulations at the following agencies: the EPA, SEC, Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, Department of Labor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Federal Trade Commission and Department of the Treasury.
Read more at The NAM
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Top 3 Challenges For Manufacturing In 2025 (That Aren’t Tariffs): Skills Gap, Turnover And AI Integration
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Recent data from an Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey reveals 92% percent of U.S. hiring managers expect to face challenges over the next year, with “difficulty finding qualified candidates” remaining the most frequently cited hurdle, at 45%. Navigating artificial intelligence (AI) follows closely, with 37% exploring ways AI can enhance candidate outreach and assessment. These challenges are particularly acute in the manufacturing industry, which is already grappling with a critical shortage of workers.
Increasing employee turnover presents an additional challenge, further complicating efforts to maintain a stable and skilled workforce. Fifty-one percent of hiring managers appear hopeful that turnover at their company will remain about the same or show no change over the next year. However, nearly 2 in 5 (39%) expect it to increase in 2025 — a significant rise compared to expectations for 2024 (33%). To navigate the challenging employment landscape, manufacturers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, including generative AI. Two-thirds of hiring managers (66%) report their company uses this technology. Most believe it will have a major or moderate positive impact on their company’s ability to make some processes more efficient (62%) and close the skills gap (60%).
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
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IBM X-Force Report Finds Shift From Ransomware To Credential Theft In 2024
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A new report out last week from IBM Corp. shows that cybercriminals are evolving their tactics, increasingly opting for stealth over spectacle. The finding comes from the annual 2025 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, based on data from IBM X-Force incident response cases, dark web monitoring, threat intelligence sources and partner collaborations. The report reveals that identity attacks surged in 2024, with credential theft emerging as a favored strategy, while surprisingly ransomware attacks were found to have declined overall.
Among the findings in the report, IBM’s researchers observed an 84% year-over-year increase in phishing emails delivering infostealers, signaling a broader shift toward credential theft. Infostealers are a type of malware that secretly collects and exfiltrates sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, browser data and credentials from infected devices. Nearly one in three incidents in 2024 involved stolen credentials, allowing attackers to gain access quickly and make money from data while avoiding detection. The report points to artificial intelligence-generated phishing and adversary-in-the-middle kits as being key driving forces behind the trend.
Read more at Silicon Angle
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The Spring Edition of HV Mfg Magazine is now Available online
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Meanwhile…Ransomware Cyberattacks Against Manufacturing Set Record In Q1
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Ransomware, consistently a leading cyber weapon pointed at U.S. manufacturing, had a record first quarter of 2025, with a 102% spike in victims and a more than 50% increase in the number of groups carrying out that type of data incursion, according to a new report by Herndon, Virginia-based GuidePoint Security. Another release out this week by San Francisco-based cybersecurity and "exposure management" provider Armis reported that nearly three quarters of IT decision-makers globally, including those based with manufacturers, express concern that nation-state actors are using AI to develop more sophisticated and targeted cyberattacks.
Manufacturing was ranked by the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Report as the top targeted sector for the third year in a row last year, and this trend apparently is continuing in 2025. This week, GuidePoint’s Ransomware and Cyber Threat Report for Q1 2025 revealed an all-time high for the report of 2,063 ransomware victims (a 102% increase) and some 70 active ransomware groups (a 55.5% year-over-year spike). “This record-breaking quarter was no coincidence,” said Grayson North, principal security consultant for the report.“We’re tracking more active ransomware and extortion groups than ever before, with a noticeable rise in high-volume attacks from emerging players formed out of disrupted gangs, like LockBit and AlphV. The pressing question now is whether this surge represents a residual short-term spike or the beginning of a dark year for ransomware victims.”
Read more at Smart Industry
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Key AI Applications In Manufacturing: Variations on Machine Learning
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AI’s impact on manufacturing is huge, and while it may not be generating the headlines, it is generating bottom-line improvements for manufacturers, helping them reduce costs and increase their capabilities. Over the last decade, as Machine Learning has been implemented in many ways throughout manufacturing, some refinements have been made in the way that ML is undertaken. Here are some key variations:
Supervised learning is a type of ML where good and bad data patterns are identified and used as the basis for learning. The AI tool is told which data patterns are good or bad and then learns to recognize those patterns, or similar ones, in the large amounts of data it processes. As more data becomes available, the AI tool improves its learning, becoming more sensitive to variations in the data, more adept at identifying good and bad patterns, and better able to detect spurious patterns. This process significantly enhances the algorithm’s accuracy.
Unsupervised learning is ML where good and bad data patterns are either not identified or are not used as the basis for learning. The AI tool is learning to detect new data patterns. The AI algorithm learns how to find patterns in the data without having to learn from predefined examples. This type of learning is more difficult and time-consuming, requiring more data to get effective results. But it is highly valuable for detecting new patterns in data, which is especially important in systems that rely on pattern recognition and anomaly detection.
Reinforcement learning is often applied in adaptive control systems. It allows machines, such as autonomous robots, to learn optimal actions through trial and error. This approach is useful throughout robotics and is used extensively in the latest generation of autonomous robots and in many autonomous systems used in manufacturing.
Manufacturing is a fertile ground for AI applications. AI is already helping manufacturers around the world reduce costs, increase capabilities and generate significant bottom-line returns—and we’re just getting started.
Read more at Forbes
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Agentic Leaps Past Gen-AI In Its Ability To Solve Production Plant Problems
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Over the past year, generative AI has gained significant traction in the industry because of its potential to reduce dependencies on legacy knowledge sources and help workers find answers faster than they’ve been able to before. Agentic AI marks the beginning of a new phase for Gen-AI, increasing its level of responsibility and autonomy to create a factory management solution of the future. Fundamental differences between Gen-AI and agentic AI lie in their core functions—and agentic AI could be the evolution that moves the needle on deployment. While Gen-AI focuses on content creation, agentic is geared towards problem-solving.
Gen-AI is distinct in its ability to create new content based on the models it has been trained on. However, it does not inherently solve problems. This is where agentic AI comes into play. AI agents are reasoning engines that can understand context, plan workflows, connect to external tools and data, and execute actions to achieve a defined goal. Agentic is designed to proactively identify and solve problems and can autonomously detect anomalies and provide solutions. This makes agentic AI a powerful tool that manufacturers should consider implementing in their operations.
Read more at Smart Industry
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Manufacturing Accounting: Your Overlooked Strategic Lever
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It is almost never a single bad investment or one off-year that sinks a manufacturing company. Instead, a slow accumulation of effects leaves it weakened — eroded margins, mismanaged costs, and in particular, outdated accounting practices. Take the present inventory levels as an example. Seventy-three percent of manufacturers expect inventory costs to rise this year, yet many still rely on outdated first in, first out (FIFO) strategies that do not account for inflationary pressures. Meanwhile, they worry about the capital costs of reshoring without realizing depreciation strategies could offset them.
Manufacturing accounting is a branch of accounting that considers the unique complexities manufacturers face around tracking production costs, inventory at different stages, and allocating cross-border overhead. Not every accountant is equipped for this. A strong manufacturing accounting team specializes in these topics. They read trade publications and review international treaties to deliver practical ideas that keep your business lean and resilient, even in times of upheaval.
Read more at Citrin Cooperman
The Council of Industry has several Accounting firms as Associate Members with strong Manufacturing Accounting services
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Promoted To A Leadership Role? Here’s How To Make The ‘Player-To-Coach’ Transition Seamlessly
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“Who am I to tell them how to make decisions?” This anxiety-induced thought played like a broken record in my head as my first leadership training event approached in my new role as a training director. Talking in front of 40 leaders, most of whom were older than my ripe old age of 30 at the time felt like the perfect opportunity for them to see right through my lack of expertise and expose me as the fraud I was.
Soon I admitted to my manager, “Who am I to tell them what to do? I’ve been a manager for about five minutes and most of these leaders have been managers for 15 years.” The question she posed to me next transformed my relationship with expertise for a lifetime. She asked, “What if your job is not to be the expert up there, but to facilitate the expertise in the room?” It was like the sky parted and the sun emerged. Of course that was the answer. Because I had been promoted throughout my career due to my level of expertise, it was natural for me to assume that in my new role, expertise was the only way I could add value. Here are some common situations that can keep your stuck in the expert identity trap and some strategies to consider to avoid it.
Read more at Fast Company
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Humanoid Robots Compete In Beijing Half-Marathon
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Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21-km (13-mile) course. The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidUP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 120 cm (3.9 ft), others as tall as 1.8 m (5.9 ft). One company boasted that its robot looked almost human, with feminine features and the ability to wink and smile.
Some firms tested their robots for weeks before the race. Beijing officials have described the event as more akin to a race car competition, given the need for engineering and navigation teams. The robots were accompanied by human trainers, some of whom had to physically support the machines during the race. A few of the robots wore running shoes, with one donning boxing gloves and another wearing a red headband with the words "Bound to Win" in Chinese. The winning robot was Tiangong Ultra, from the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics, with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. The men's winner of the race had a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes.
Read more at Reuters
Watch at Youtube
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S1:E2 PFAS Risk Management and Regulation
- Getting a Handle on “Forever Chemicals”
Presenteed by Langan Engineering & Environmental Services
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In this Insight Exchange episode, Jillian Terhune, Senior Project Manager at Langan, tells us about a pressing regulatory issue facing manufacturers today—PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances). Jill breaks down the evolving regulatory landscape, compliance obligations, and risk management strategies you need to know.
PFAS regulations are here, and they’re changing fast.
✅ Learn how PFAS rules impact your business
✅ Get insight into reporting deadlines and compliance requirements
✅ Understand how to manage risk and stay ahead of evolving regulations
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