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Washington Examiner event highlights area’s role as advanced manufacturing hub
YOUNGSTOWN
The world is beginning to take notice of Youngstown and Northeast Ohio’s leading role in advanced manufacturing.
That was one takeaway Thursday at Examining Youngstown: Innovation through Advanced Manufacturing, an event at Youngstown State University’s Williamson College of Business Administration that was organized by the Washington Examiner and sponsored by Vallourec Star.
“That recognition that this is the epicenter of advanced manufacturing in North America is starting to happen,” said Youngstown Business Incubator CEO Barb Ewing.
The event opened with video messages from U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican, and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, and a welcome from city Mayor Jamael Tito Brown.
It featured three panels moderated by Examiner reporter/columnist Salena Zito.
The first was made up of community and organization leaders; the second featured industry experts; and the third was about infrastructure and economic development.
Ewing explained how YBI began in 2001 and later helped bring the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining’s America Makes – tasked with accelerating the application of additive manufacturing and 3D printing – to Youngstown. YBI also supports entrepreneurs who work in additive manufacturing, and partners with YSU on some additive manufacturing programs.
Vallourec Star – a Youngstown-based seamless pipe manufacturer that serves the oil and gas industry – gave the perspective of a company that has integrated additive manufacturing into its operations.
Panelists also discussed how automation has impacted jobs. Some noted that jobs in advanced manufacturing, on average, pay much better than traditional manufacturing jobs.
Brett Conner, a YSU engineering professor who also is a founder of YBI portfolio company Freshmade 3D, said there has been a “paradigm shift” with regard to manufacturing jobs.
“It’s a much different ball game when you’re doing digital manufacturing,” he said. “It’s not so much that the jobs go away, it’s that the jobs are changing.”