Department of Defense holds workshop to better understand manufacturing needs, technology opportunities

Assembling its Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MII) and stakeholders last month, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) held a Chicago-based workshop on its efforts to modernize and how the manufacturing innovation ecosystem could support it.

“OSD ManTech, through the MIIs, spearheads innovation and adoption of advanced manufacturing capabilities to improve the U.S. supply chain and national security readiness,” Berardino Baratta, CEO of Manufacturing x Digital, said. “MxD and our fellow MIIs convene government, industry and academia to accelerate innovation through public-private investment in technology. With a better understanding of the OIB’s challenges and needs, we can leverage our collective ecosystems to support DOD modernization priorities.”

In all, nine MIIs attended the event. These represent public-private partnerships that utilize commercial investments in manufacturing technologies, allowing for private commercialization and growth while backing Pentagon goals.

Senior DoD leaders spoke at the event – the Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization workshop. The OIB in and of itself consists of 47 government-owned sites and thousands of affiliated facilities. The government wants to invest billions of dollars into their modernization and overhaul, but each comes with challenges and a need for new technologies – a key focus of speakers at the workshop. For the DoD then, this event emphasized much-needed collaboration to get the job done.

“The more we connect between public and private, the more we can innovate, accelerate capabilities, and lower the risk of modernization,” Stephanie Hoaglin, acting director of the Army’s OIB Modernization Task Force, said. “What’s necessary is for the services and the MIIs to partner together and share best practices and help each other to stay up to date on topics such as cyber security, engineering, and advanced manufacturing. Industry partners are key to accomplishing Army modernization goals and ensuring that the services have the equipment they need to succeed.”

The event was hosted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Manufacturing Technology Program. It ran from Oct. 25-26, 2023, and noted that the OIB Modernization Challenge will kick off in February 2024.