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The Monthly Newsletter of the Council of Industry
November 20th, 2025
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Council of Industry Updates
What's Happening in Your Association
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Strengthening Hudson Valley Manufacturing — Together
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Tomorrow, Friday November 21st, Council of Industry members and the greater Hudson Valley manufacturing community will come together for our Association’s Annual Luncheon. There we will celebrate The Council of Industry’s 115 years of dedication to our one mission: promoting the success of Hudson Valley manufacturers and their employees, and in doing so, strengthening the entire regional economy.
This seems like an appropriate moment to reflect on the value our members help create and the benefits they receive through the Council.
Council membership is built around practical support, shared knowledge, and a powerful network of peers. Members receive timely, industry-specific news and insights that help them navigate a fast-changing manufacturing landscape. Through our robust Training and Professional Development programs—including Lean Six Sigma, Front-Line Supervisor courses, and more—companies can build stronger teams and develop the next generation of manufacturing leaders.
Our networking forums for HR, EHS, and production professionals remain a cornerstone of the Council’s work, fostering collaboration and problem-solving across the region. Members also benefit from our sustained advocacy for pro-growth policies that keep Hudson Valley manufacturing competitive and vibrant.
To help members grow their workforce, the Council offers recruiting support, a job board designed specifically for area manufacturers, and access to our NYS Department of Labor–approved apprentice program. In addition, members receive valuable cost-saving opportunities, from workforce services to energy programs and healthcare insurance.
As we continue expanding our community, we are reminded that manufacturing is vital —and the Council of Industry is vital to manufacturing. Thank you for being part of the association that keeps this sector strong.
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Maribel Cruz-Brown - Senior Vice President, Customer Solutions, at the New York Power Authority (NYPA) - will speak about programs that the NYPA runs to help businesses and manufacturers.
Maribel is focused on maximizing customer service, advancing clean energy technologies and securing long-term program effectiveness. Her group is responsible for serving various customer segments comprised of more than 1,200 customers with annual sales of over $2B while effectively maintaining NYPA’s reputable customer satisfaction score.
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Thank You to our Luncheon Sponsors!
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Health & Safety Sub-Council Kicks Off at MPI Inc., in Poughkeepsie
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The Council of Industry kicked off the Health & Safety Sub-Council this month at MPI Inc., in Poughkeepsie.
Joined by member EHS professionals, the meeting included discussions of real-world challenges, compliance updates, safety initiatives, and sustainability goals.
Thank you to everyone who attended, and a big thank you MPI for hosting!
Our next Health & Safety Sub-Council meeting will be on Thursday, February 12th.
Participation is open to EHS professionals, operations leaders, and anyone responsible for environmental, health, or safety programs within our manufacturing member companies. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged.
If you are an associate member or part of our extended community, please reach out to Johnnieanne to explore participation options.
Click here to register and learn more
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Lean Six Sigma: Yellow Belt Course Finishes, Green Belt Coming in March
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From Nov. 12 to 14, the Council's Lean Six Sigma: Yellow Belt course took place in partnership with DCC and RIT.
The class had more than 20 attendees, from 10 different companies, learn core concepts of Lean Six Sigma from RIT's Vin Bunomo, and ultimately earn their Yellow Belt Certificates.
Congratulations to those who attended!
While our Fall LEAN course offerings have concluded, we have more coming in the following months.
Dutchess Community College, and the Council of Industry are excited to announce the Lean Six Sigma Blended Green Belt Training Certification program for the Hudson Valley region, launching in Spring 2026.
This program combines online coursework, with live Zoom sessions, to deliver a flexible and effective learning experience in Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Additionally, an online orientation for the Green Belt training will be held on February 23, providing you with a comprehensive overview before the program begins.
This course is being offered in partnership with Dutchess County Community College through a SUNY Workforce Grant, which helps offset the cost and make it more affordable for manufacturers. The $1,728 registration fee is based on 15 participants; if we have additional registrations, the price may be reduced, and we will be in touch to discuss potential credits.
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Season 5 Ep 6:
Dr. Alison Buckley, President of SUNY Ulster
We’re excited to feature Dr. Allison Buckley on this episode of the Council of Industry Podcast. Dr. Buckley shares her inspiring journey from labor historian to community college president and highlights the vital role SUNY Ulster plays in providing accessible, affordable education to a wide range of students.
During our conversation, Dr. Buckley discusses the unique mission of community colleges to serve diverse learners—whether they’re returning students, first-generation collegegoers, or career changers—and the importance of flexibility in today’s education landscape. She also explores how SUNY Ulster’s innovative programs, including SUNY Reconnect, are helping students build meaningful career pathways and meet regional workforce needs, especially in fields like manufacturing.
Key topics include:
🔹 Dr. Buckley’s personal story and career path
🔹 The mission and impact of community colleges
🔹 Flexible education pathways that meet students where they are
🔹 Workforce training programs and regional partnerships
🔹 Helping students discover their strengths and career goals
Listen to the Podcast Episode Now
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Manufacturing Industry News
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For US Manufacturers Tariffs Are Painful, Reshoring Slow, Ingenuity Ascendant
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As “Liberation Day” hits the six-month mark, reshoring announcements have been plentiful, while reshoring itself has been nonexistent to negative and U.S. manufacturers are in general hurting. But lest we forget—business ingenuity is alive and well. According to a 2025 benchmarking survey by advisory firm Wipfli, small-to-medium-sized manufacturers are reporting “largely negative” effects of tariff and trade policy on their business, with revenue down between 10% and 40%. The survey’s respondents are plastics processors, metal formers, die casters, tool builders and contract machinists. They say their biggest concern is raw material tariffs, followed by inflation, recession risk and rising costs.
The world expected tariffs when President Donald Trump was elected for the second time, but few predicted what ensued: individual tariffs on every country, deals by country that have been slow to materialize and surprise announcements of tariff increases and rollbacks. “You’re planning against Jell-O,” says Eric Lussier, an operations veteran of several large manufacturers who now runs lean consulting firm Next Level Partners. “It’s kind of amorphous because there’s not good fiscal discipline in policy right now that seems to be changing regularly.”
Read more at IndustryWeek (Free Subscription)
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Traditional Risk Models Don't Apply During Tariff Uncertainty
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Today, manufacturing and supply chains operate in an unpredictable world of trade friction, and traditional measures of risk modeling are difficult to apply. Traditionally, risk is modeled by the suddenness of the disruption, its magnitude, duration, speed of recovery and level of the new normal after recovery. Implicit assumptions are that the disruption is related to external factors—without a deliberate intent to cause or sustain the disruption.
For example, natural disasters occur but do not change in their occurrence, and all stakeholders’ efforts aim to jointly overcome the disruption. However, in the case of Liberation Day, an underlying, deliberate attempt to sustain the disruption through actively changing timings and magnitudes of the tariffs can be assumed.
Previous approaches to build resilience into the supply chain are unsuccessful because the cost of materials is no longer constant. Stockpiling inventory has turned out to be a promising strategy only to address short-term tariffs, not continuous ones. And while large corporations may lobby for favorable exemptions, most companies in America are exposed to uncertainty on the applicability of tariffs: on parts, components or finished goods; country of origin or considering upstream countries of origins; product type; industry; etc. This article, discusses mitigation options (real options) every supply chain manager can take despite the limited predictability of what will come next.
These options focus on the basic trade-offs and related business characteristics. We will illustrate the application of real options to guide decision making along distinct aspects. Operationally, options must be assessed against the combined impact of:
· Holding cost
· Tariff cost
· Selling price increases
Read more at IndustryWeek
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US Manufacturing's Moonshot: the Urgent Call to Rebuild Our Industrial Might
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Sound the alarm: America's manufacturing prowess, once the envy of the world, is at risk of being outpaced by rivals who build faster and bolder. Last year alone, China's State Shipbuilding Corporation produced more commercial tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has managed since World War II, as reported in a March 2025 Center for Strategic & International Studies brief. Beijing now commands more than half of global commercial orders, while our share has dwindled to a tenth of a percent. This disparity isn't confined to shipyards—it's a stark signal of eroding economic strength, fragile supply chains and diminished deterrence on the global stage.
These challenges demand a clear-eyed reckoning. The Pentagon's undersecretary for research and engineering, Emil Michael, has warned that our defense industrial base must expand to include innovative newcomers, yet barriers like cumbersome procurement processes force companies such as SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril to sue the government just to secure their first contracts. Speaking at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies for Defense conference, as reported by SpaceNews, Michael asked, "The question is, how do we create an environment where new companies that have real solutions can come in through a front door as opposed to a side door through a court case?"
Faster procurement and broader embrace of artificial intelligence—from battlefield decision-making to predictive logistics—could accelerate this, much like dual-use technologies such as Starlink have exploded private investment by serving consumer, business and defense needs simultaneously.
Read more at IndustryWeek
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Manufacturing's Economic Power Is Grossly Underestimated
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There is a widespread belief among lawmakers and the public that manufacturing is not an especially valuable part of the U.S. economy. This misapprehension has undermined federal support for American manufacturing and contributed to its current crisis. Where does this costly mistake come from?
It starts with the idea that manufacturing isn’t even that big a sector. For example, people misinterpret the statistic that manufacturing is “only” 11% of GDP and 8% of employment. Or that from 1953 to 2015, manufacturing’s share of American employment dropped from 32 to 9%, and its share of GDP from 28 to 12%. Manufacturing, like railroads, seems to be something associated with America’s past—not its future.
But the economic importance of a sector is not simply a function of its share of GDP. Restaurants (6% of GDP and 9% of jobs) could disappear tomorrow and we would only be inconvenienced. If the entire internet disappeared, we would experience huge disruption, but ultimately collapse back to the economy of 1994, which was not exactly primitive.
But manufacturing produces goods that every modern society needs, such as steel, automobiles and telephones. America can’t defend itself with websites and financial speculations: We can only defend ourselves with physical machines, generally made of steel or aluminum and stuffed with physical electronic components, not just software.
Read more at IndustryWeek
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Why Strategy Execution Fails (And What To Do About It)
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Most organizations treat strategy as a one-way cascade: Leadership decides, management translates, frontline executes. The result? A game of telephone where the original intent gets lost at every level. Hoshin kanri works differently. It’s a structured process for building alignment—not just through better communication, but through purposeful dialogue and shared learning called catchball.
Here's how it works:
Top-down AND bottom-up: Leadership proposes direction. Those closest to the work refine it based on reality. The final plan reflects both strategic intent and operational feasibility.
Horizontal alignment: Functions negotiate resources and support before committing. No more "not my job" when cross-functional work is needed.
Regular PDCA: Monthly or quarterly reviews catch misalignment early. Adjust based on what you're learning, not just push harder on the original plan.
Capability development: The process itself develops leaders who can think strategically and execute effectively.
Organizations using hoshin kanri don't just execute strategy faster. They build the capability to adapt as conditions change.
Read More at the Lean Enterprise Institute
Learn more about our Green Belt Course
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IFS, Anthropic Partner On AI For Industrial Frontline Workers
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Cloud and AI software provider IFS said that it’s teaming up with Anthropic, a large language model developer, to scale artificial intelligence that helps frontline workers detect machinery and systems issues they might otherwise miss. As part of the partnership, IFS is using its industrial program Nexus Black to launch Resolve, a tool that places AI directly in the hands of technicians and field workers across aerospace and defense, manufacturing, energy, utilities and other major industries.
Resolve leverages Anthropic’s Claude LLM to analyze thousands of equipment images, interpret sensor readings and recognize patterns to “catch problems before they become failures,” according to a news release.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
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Larger Qualified Business Income Deductions Will Soon Be Available To Many Manufacturers
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In a 2024 National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) survey, 93% of respondents who operate as pass-through entities stated that the impending expiration of the Section 199A qualified business income (QBI) deduction would negatively impact their ability to grow, create jobs and invest in their businesses.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) nullifies those concerns. The new law makes the QBI deduction permanent. (It had been scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2025.) The OBBBA also broadens the phase-in ranges on the deduction’s income-based limits, meaning many manufacturers will qualify for a larger deduction.
The QBI deduction for sole proprietors and owners of pass-through entities (partnerships, S corporations and, typically, limited liability companies) was created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). According to NAM, the deduction has freed up significant capital for smaller manufacturers to reinvest in their businesses through equipment purchases, research and development and hiring.
QBI is defined as the net amount of income, gains, deductions and losses, excluding reasonable compensation, certain investment items and payments to partners for services rendered. Qualified taxpayers can deduct as much as 20% of their QBI. The deduction is available regardless of whether you itemize deductions, and it also applies for alternative minimum tax purposes.
Read More at Dannible & McKee
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World’s First Mass Humanoid Robot Delivery Begins As Ubtech Sends Walker S2 Units
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Shenzhen is now home to a major robotics milestone as UBTECH Robotics confirmed that hundreds of its Walker S2 humanoid robots have been shipped to active industrial facilities. UBTECH stated that production increased in mid-November, and the first batch has already reached partners who need more workers on assembly lines. The robotics company is receiving heavy interest from groups that want to automate tasks that normally require people who are on their feet all day. It secured 800 million yuan in orders this year, which is about 113 million dollars. These deals range from specialized installations to major full-scale deployments.
A standout order in September was 250 million yuan from a well-known Chinese firm that wanted an advanced robot system. Another major customer in Sichuan agreed to pay 159 million yuan. Automakers are a major force behind the growing demand. BYD, Geely Auto, FAW Volkswagen, and Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor have all signed on. Foxconn is also adding robots to support logistics work. These organizations want stable 24-hour operations without constant oversight. Early tests show that the robots are performing well in factories and warehouses instead of controlled labs.
Read more at Interesting Engineering
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An Energy Procurement Strategy Can Help You Manage Downside Risk
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Energy procurement is no longer simply about finding the lowest rate but about designing a sourcing strategy that delivers impact at scale. A major consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, facing a threefold increase in energy spending over five years, asked its procurement team to reshape energy expenses across multiple regions. The team reduced the number of supplier relationships by more than 30 percent, standardized contract terms, and imposed demand thresholds and greater visibility on surge usage. Companies that reframe procurement as a strategic value driver share several characteristics:
Aggregate for scale and efficiency: Leading procurement teams bundle contracts across business units, stores, plants, or regions to secure better pricing, simplify vendor management, and cross-subsidize load profiles.
Optimize contract timing and structure: Procurement leaders actively time market entry, locking in supply 12 to 24 months (or even longer) in advance, when pricing is favorable. They also align contract expirations across plants to synchronize sourcing windows.
Refine commercial practices: Hidden costs add up. Sophisticated procurement teams lower energy delivery costs through measures that smooth energy usage and avoid surprise charges. To avoid “load penalties” for inefficient consumption, for example, procurement teams can work with plant managers to adopt power factor correction (PFC) solutions. Better use of demand-response programs can help companies qualify for financial incentives, while improved meter combinations can reduce demand charges or unlock more favorable rates—or both.
Rethink the ownership model: Energy-as-a-service, long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), and shared-savings agreements can eliminate energy-related capital expenditures. A logistics company’s third-party ownership model for a battery storage and solar project successfully transformed capital expenditure into operating expenditure, and accelerated ROI.
Read more at McKinsey
Learn more about the Council of Industry’s energy consortium
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Scientists Proved We’re Definitely Not in a Simulation – That’s a Relief
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Is the universe a simulation? At first glance, the idea seems preposterous. Then again, within just a few decades, we’ve created entire digital worlds, AI has started to blur the line of what is real, and scientists have continued to probe the fabric of reality down to the quantum level. Factor in centuries or even millennia of similar technological progress—multiplied by the two trillion or so galaxies in the universe—and the idea that maybe our lived experience is simply a hyper-realistic simulation by some ultra-advanced alien species can feel a bit less like pure speculation and more head-scratchingly plausible.
The idea isn’t new—everything from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to the Wachowski sisters’ The Matrix ponders the concept. But this simulation theory has taken on some seriousness within the relatively new field of information physics, which aims to explore the role that information plays in the machinations of our universe. Some scientists have proposed that gravity arises from computation rules, while others suggest that information could explain things like dark matter and dark energy. But the team of researchers behind a new study from scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) now claims that they’ve mathematically proven that simulation theory is impossible. Their work is published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics.
Read more at Popular Mechanics
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