The conversation surrounding reviving American manufacturing often centers around innovation. As a very tech-focused society, we naturally gravitate toward the idea that newer, faster, more AI-dependent machines will restore American factories to their former glory—and, if this model offers fewer jobs, at least they are “better”—that is to say, more highly skilled jobs.
The truth, though, is that U.S. industries already excel at imagining new technologies, yet manufacturing has recovered very few of the millions of jobs lost, with a more than 20% decline in workforce share. And more efficient tools haven’t seemed to increase overall profit, either, as manufacturing’s share of GDP is at a historically low level. The biggest challenge, then, might not be innovating technologies at all. For manufacturers, the challenge lies more in bringing the process of innovation back under the manufacturing roof.
