Some industry sectors have a lot of overlap. But mobility, construction and textile, at least at first blush, don’t fall into this category. And it was for that reason that U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing CEO Cynthia Hutchison said she brought them together.
“That was pretty intentional,” Hutchison told SME Media at the first-ever Innovation Summit, held Wednesday in Detroit. The summit brought together leaders and representatives from companies such as General Motors, Ford Motor Co., FANUC America Corp., Carhartt Inc. and Bedrock Management Services LLC, to name a few.
Hutchison got the idea to bring the seemingly disparate sectors together when she was working with clothier Ralph Lauren and met a woman who makes 3D-printed pants in an effort to reduce waste in the textiles industry. Hutchison knew this kind of approach could be applied to different aspects in automotive, for example, an industry that has indeed been dabbling in additive manufacturing.
Of the three sectors, mobility has progressed the most from a technology standpoint. Construction, in particular, has been little changed over the last century-plus and is ripe for disruption, Hutchison said. But all three areas can learn from each other. “And that’s what the goal was, to get those conversations where they cross pollinate,” Hutchison said.
During a panel at Wednesday’s Innovation Summit, FANUC America CEO Mike Cicco said the robotics company has started to get into farming with custom sensors that are used to identify good and bad fruit, or to see the difference between an almond or a stick or a rock. It’s something he mentioned to fellow panelist Andi Donovan, the senior vice president of wholesale at Carhartt Company Gear, casually on the sidelines of the event. “And we start talking about maybe those same sensors can be used in the textiles industry to see the difference between cotton and silk, or to see the difference between a high-end piece of apparel or a low-end piece of apparel,” Cicco said.
Donovan said the best collaborations come out of identifying common problems across various sectors or industries. “And I think our common problem is speed to market, leveraging our data, embedding AI into our processes to get more predictable and reduce the volatility of our supply chains,” she said.
Hutchison is already considering a topic for next year’s summit: sustainability. “I think I would bring the same three industries together and put that lens on it,” she said. “Because they have the capability of transforming things in a huge way.”
The U.S. Center for Advanced Manufacturing was created in 2022 through a partnership between Automation Alley and the World Economic Forum, with support from the state of Michigan and its Oakland County. The center’s goal is to accelerate the U.S. transition towards advanced manufacturing, and to help manufacturers, leaders and the workforce navigate obstacles and challenges in that transition.
