Developing the Digital Manufacturing Commons: A National Initiative for US Manufacturing Innovation

Abstract

The manufacturing sector is at the core of the American economy. With American leadership in advanced manufacturing at risk due to changes in the global economy and new competitors rising across the globe, the U.S. President announced an investment of $1 billion in a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). The key focus is on new technology paradigms that can improve the competitiveness of American manufacturing – with a focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – through digitization of design and manufacturing, democratization of technology, and collaborative design and analytics to sustain leadership across the U.S. manufacturing ecosystem.Funded through the newly established Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute and supported through a Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Defense, the Digital Manufacturing Commons (DMC) is an open-source platform based on previous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and General Electric (GE) projects and built to democratize development and access to the tools for manufacturing innovation across small and large companies, universities, institutes, and entrepreneurs. The DMC will bring together one hundred thousand or more users, thousands of SMEs, large manufacturing companies, and universities to collaborate on manufacturing and to accelerate technologies that integrate the digital thread from design to manufacture and service.The initiative to build the DMC is led by GE Global Research Center. The DMC will be transitioned to the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute and made available to the U.S. manufacturing base to enable a digital revolution in manufacturing innovation.