In a first for IMTS, the well-regarded Industrial Automation show is now on site in the East Hall of McCormick Place. More commonly known as the “IA” show, the Hannover, Germany-based event has been held at a number of other venues around the world, including China, India and Russia. IMTS 2012 marks the first time the show has come to North America, and it is very appropriately co-located with this continent's largest manufacturing event.

 

Industrial Automation North America (IANA) is organized by Deutsche Messe AG and its U.S. subsidiary, Hannover Fairs USA. It features an exhibition of more than 100 booths displaying a wide variety of products for factory automation, microsystems technology, software and electrical systems. The event also features three conferences for executive management, plant managers, engineers and industry professionals.

 

“Thanks to our longstanding and excellent working relationship with AMT, we are able to bring three outstanding conferences to IANA and IMTS,” says Dr. Andreas Gruchow, member of the managing board at Deutsche Messe AG. “We have also been working for many years with CFE Media, ISA, NFPA and Penton at Hannover Messe in Hannover, so we are very excited to work with them in their home market. Together we have created programs that complement the IMTS conference and offer IANA and IMTS attendees a great chance to keep up with the latest best-practices, solutions and technologies in manufacturing automation.”

 

Those conferences include:
 

All IMTS attendees have full access to the IANA exhibit. Space is still available for conference sessions. You can sign up in the main IMTS registration areas or go online for a full review of IMTS conferences here.

article courtesy of Greg Jones

 

In July, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a report on “Capturing Domestic Competitive Advantage in Advanced Manufacturing” outlining a list of recommendations, some of which mirror the things that we have been saying and doing in the industry, as well as some of the things you’ve heard coming off the campaign trail.
 

The whole report focuses on three top-level items:

 

 

For the purposes of this discussion, I am focusing on “securing the talent pipeline” and the six recommendations outlined in the report.

 

The President’s Council wants to:

 

1)      Correct public misconceptions about manufacturing and recommends building excitement and interest in careers in manufacturing.

2)      Tap the talent pool of returning veterans.

3)      Invest in community-college-level education.

4)      Develop partnerships to provide skills certifications and accreditation.

5)      Enhance advanced manufacturing university programs.

6)      Launch national manufacturing fellowships and internships.

 

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

 

To get a glimpse of how the industry is getting behind initiatives that will encourage parents, students and educators to get excited about careers in manufacturing, take a step out on the Mezzanine above Hall C1 in the North Building to get a view of the NIMS Skills Center at IMTS.

NIMS, the National Institute for Metalworking Skills has been managing the student area at IMTS for years. The institute sets skills standards for the industry, certifies individual’s skills against the standards and accredits training programs for machine operators.

 

At IMTS 2012, the NIMS Skills Center includes “Career Launch Pads” for high school, community college and engineering school students to talk with “MTAmbassadors,” people close to the students in age who already have careers in engineering, applications, service or sales in our industry.

 

Getting young people excited about careers in manufacturing by having them talk about their school and career choices with young engineers who are already in the industry is just one way that we can build a smarter workforce for U.S. manufacturing.

President Obama’s 2013 Budget Proposal outlines a few major—but positive—changes for small- to medium-sized business owners, according to Brian Cameron of Paradigm Partners, an international consulting firm specializing in complex federal and state tax and funding incentives across a host of industries.

 

Included in this proposal are changes to the R&D Tax Credit, adding a new job creation incentive, increasing the Domestic Production Deduction (DPD) as well as introducing the “Buffet Rule” as an alternative to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

 

“Most small- to medium-sized business owners will be able to take advantage of most, if not all, of these proposed enhanced tax incentives,” Cameron says.

 

 

The R&D Tax Credit, also known as the Research Tax Credit, provides an incentive to companies and their owners for performing activities called Qualifying Research Expenditures (QREs). The budget proposes to make the credit permanent, thus eliminating the uncertainty that companies face when making a commitment to perform ongoing research and development.

 

“The President has also requested that the credit be simplified and that the rate of the Alternative Simplified Credit be increased from 14 to 17 percent,” says Cameron. He adds that the R&D tax credit has been around since 1981, yet many business owners have never heard of it or, worse, falsely think they do not qualify.

 

“Unlike a tax deduction, the R&D tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of a company’s tax liability,” he says. “In addition to the current year’s tax savings, a business can claim the credit back up to three open tax years and receive back any ‘overpaid’ taxes with interest.”

 

 

A tax credit for new-job creation and wage increases is proposed for qualified employers and will be available for just one year, beginning January 1, 2012. Cameron says the credit would be equal to 10 percent of the increase in eligible wages for 2012 over the employer’s wages in 2011. The credit tops out at $500,000 because the maximum amount of the increase in eligible wages is $5 million per employer.

 

Cameron says another aspect of the President’s overall plan is to increase U.S. manufacturing.

 

“He is targeting the domestic production incentive, also known as the Domestic Production Deduction, which provides an incentive to companies that manufacture here in the United States,” he says. “The Administration is proposing to reform the current deduction for domestic production by more narrowly focusing it on manufacturing activities—for example, removing coverage of oil production.”

 

Cameron says the savings derived from eliminating some previously covered activities would be used to expand the deduction for manufacturers, as well as increase the DPD from its current level of 9 percent to 18 percent for advanced manufacturing technologies.

 

The budget characterizes the Buffet Rule as: “No household making over $1 million annually should pay a smaller share of its income in taxes than middle class families pay.” Its name is derived from Warren Buffet’s observation that his effective tax rate is lower than his secretary’s.

 

Cameron says the budget proposes that those making more than $1 million should pay at least 30 percent of their income in tax.

 

“The President is proposing that this Buffet Rule replace the current AMT,” Cameron says. “The elimination of the AMT could provide an opportunity for many taxpayers to take advantage of tax incentives previously unavailable to them, including the R&D Tax Credit.”

 

The Senate rejected Obama’s Buffett Rule legislation in April, but Cameron says that this will be a very hot topic during the election campaign and, if the President is re-elected, will be introduced again.

 

 

According to Cameron, many manufacturing groups hope the incentives remain part of the budget when passed. From an R&D Tax Credit perspective, he says many more companies will be able to add staff and commit other resources to research and development activities with the knowledge that the credit is now a permanent fixture in the tax code.

 

“The Buffet Rule could potentially open up the credit to tens of thousands of taxpayers of small- to medium-sized businesses,” Cameron sats. “As general tax credits are unable to reduce AMT, replacing the AMT with the Buffet Rule will enable small business owners to take advantage of many more tax incentives, including the R&D Tax Credit.”

 

Cameron says that the proposed increase in the DPD should help increase U.S. manufacturing and add new employees needed to support the increased manufacturing.

 

The reshoring worm has turned for many manufacturing businesses. Work is coming home from distant shores, and it’s a good time to learn how best to take advantage of the trend.

 

Harry Moser, a 45-year industry veteran and founder of the Reshoring Initiative, is presenting on the topic during IMTS to help U.S. manufacturers recognize the profit potential of using local sourcing and production, as well as the critical role they can play in strengthening the economy. Reshoring has been an important driver for manufacturing’s ascendency in the past few years, and it’s also important to maintain the momentum.

 

Moser presents on reshoring from the IMTS main stage, located between the North and South halls of McCormick Place, from 9:30 to 9:55 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, Thursday, Sept. 13, and Friday, Sept. 14. He explains how reshoring is an efficient means of reducing imports, increasing exports and regaining manufacturing jobs in the United States.

 

Reshoring is not passive. Moser will present manufacturers with tools to help explain the importance and profit potential of domestic manufacturing, such as recovery from offshoring’s poor quality, trade secret thefts, supply chain disruptions and lengthy delivery times.

 

Another aspect of the Reshoring Initiative’s mission involves proprietary Total Cost of Ownership Estimator software that’s free and available 24/7 at reshorenow.org. With this software, users can account for all relevant factors when trying to determine their total cost of sourcing decisions. Many of these factors can be overlooked, and this software is a tool to help make more informed decisions.

    

Visitors to this year’s IMTS are well-advised to plan some time on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday to hear what Moser has to say on the subject of reshoring. It may have a very positive impact on your business.

No one is promising that everything you see on display in the Emerging Technology Center (ETC), Booth N-650, will be in your shop next year.  But based on past IMTS ETCs, it’s a good bet that something there will directly impact your company’s future.

 

“The premise of the ETC is to provide a glimpse of technology that may well become common somewhere down the road,” says AMT’s vice president of exhibitions, Peter Eelman. “We are trying to highlight technology that may not be on the radar of most people, but still has a very good chance of transforming manufacturing in the coming years.”

 

IMTS 2012 has a particularly strong lineup with several big ideas and technologies, of which many industry observers believe the question is not so much if they will go primetime, but when?  Those technologies include:

 

Additive Manufacturing – While the term “rapid prototyping” may still be more familiar, this generation of additive technology is moving out of the design department and on to the shop floor to make production parts and tooling impossible to manufacture with other processes.  You literally can go directly from CAD model to complex functional parts in hours, and with an increasing variety of metallic and plastic materials. The display includes working 3D printing and laser sintering processes and parts from leading companies such as Objet, 3D Systems, ExOne and Renishaw.

Collaborative Manufacturing – In one of the most interesting displays ever featured in the ETC, the Collaborative Manufacturing section features a live, on-site car build done by Local Motors, an open-source automaker that collaborates with a community of engineers, designers, and car enthusiasts to produce its vehicles. Will open source become a key part of durable goods manufacturing much as it has in the computer industry? Local Motors is living proof that it can be done. Or as Eelman puts it, “You can come see a manufacturing company in action that has figured out how to tap into a wider market of ideas.”

 

 

 

See the future now in the Emerging Technology Center at the front of the North Hall.