Tomorrow’s Factory Is Already Here 

Business news and US stock markets are freaking out about Trump’s tariffs, expecting them to raise prices and dampen economic growth. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell agrees, telling reporters last week that the Fed now forecasts higher inflation and slower GDP growth in 2025. So why did markets rise during his press conference? 

Maybe because the factory of tomorrow is closer than people think, and investors steeped in AI exuberance intuitively realize that we already have the tools to reshore manufacturing to the US. 

Play the Supply Chain Long Game 

Flexibility and resilience are buzzwords meant to explain how supply chain teams are expected to navigate impending tariffs. Fair enough, but this challenge is qualitatively different from Covid, the Red Sea crisis, East Coast port strikes, and most other disruptions that were essentially logistical problems.  

The Trump administration is focused on forcing business to rebuild manufacturing in the US. This is fundamentally an engineering challenge. US capabilities will need massive upgrades, from raw materials production through to final assembly, including new infrastructure, machinery, skills, and materials.  

Luckily, the generational pivot away from China sourcing started years ago and, although early moves often meant shifting production to places like Vietnam, Mexico, and India, the universal truth is that manufacturing is back in focus for CSCOs. Now, with help from AI accelerating robotic innovation, materials science discovery, and supply network simulation, it is at least technologically realistic to imagine a revival of US manufacturing.  

Politics Matters 

The Trump presidency is part of a worldwide phenomenon of nationalism and arguably a natural reaction to the downsides of globalization. But still, no one expects the return of old-school factories employing thousands of unskilled workers paid middle-class wages. A more compelling picture is painted by liberal journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their new book, Abundance. 

Klein and Thompson, speaking from a left-of-center perspective, criticize Democrats for restraining growth with regulation and a focus on income redistribution. Their call-to-action targets blue state governors and mayors with the idea that an economy of abundance is possible given the technologies scaling right now, including AI, robotics, renewable energy, desalination, vertical farming, and drones. They admit that the “politics of scarcity can be seductive” but urge leaders to imagine and enable growth toward abundance. 

The compelling thing about Klein and Thompson’s vision is that it is not US-specific. Their grasp of engineering possibilities in the physical world aligns to the way supply chain people think. They find practical and scalable solutions to deliver what people need at a sustainable profit. Every nation on Earth is trying to do this because shorter, more local supply chains make sense on many levels. 

Practicality Matters Even More 

The politics of reviving US manufacturing are hard to resist these days, but the practicalities must come first. Now is the right time to explore systems-level, rather than task level, automation. This means rethinking the entire flow of materials, labor, and capital equipment in a manufacturing operation, and defining a data model that can adapt as new technologies come on stream. This approach is being used by manufacturers in the automotive, apparel and footwear, pharmaceuticals, and industrial products sectors to design new plants. 

The idea is to combine AI, robotics, and traditional machinery in plant designs. Mixing strategies across materials handling (AGVs, AMRs, etc.), task robotics, and standard production machinery with an AI-enabled orchestration system can unlock big productivity improvements. Colgate-Palmolive, for example, is doing this in its Hill’s Pet Nutrition plant in Tonganoxie, Kansas, where the entire operation is on a steep performance improvement learning curve. 
 

Last, and most important, is to empower teams to invent on their own while mapping new ideas onto your digital manufacturing roadmap. AI and robotics skill requirements in manufacturing jobs have nearly doubled in the past year as companies like Stanley Black & Decker learn how essential people are to fine-tuning the physical systems we’re building. 

Go With the Zeitgeist 

China’s manufacturing capabilities may still be unmatched, but the worldwide rollback of globalization seems inexorable. Technology and human ingenuity are breaking the barriers to reshoring manufacturing not only in the US, but everywhere. 

The factory of tomorrow is happening.