$120 million bet on American Manufacturing, Plus Show News and Additive Forecasts

General Catalyst Drops $120 million on Re-Build Manufacturing

This week, General Catalyst announced it was investing $120 million in Re:Build Manufacturing , which comprises 13 different businesses across multiple engineering disciplines. Re:Build's industry focus areas span aerospace and defense, cleantech, health, industrial equipment, and mobility. Its expertise is in product innovation, advanced components, systems production, and industrial automation.

Re:Build gained attention in 2023 by partnering with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Regional Industrial Development Corporatation to build a state-of-the-art 175,000-square-foot fabrication and assembly operation in Westmoreland County just east of Pittsburgh, transforming an old Alcoa industrial complex.

Today, the true potential for U.S. manufacturing remains obscured by antiquated perceptions of industrial labor, manual assembly lines, and sluggish growth. For those builders and innovators actively choosing to work on specialized production, they are met with an alternate reality: their skill sets today are valued at a premium, and modern factories are the nexus of physical and digital innovation, converging advances in connectivity, robotics, sensors and AI into core processes." - General Analytics

Re:Build has been very forward in emphasizing its 16 core values - what it calls the Re:Build way. These include caring about team members and putting their safety first, being as proud about the process taken as about the results (i.e. not about winning at all costs), recognizing diversity and constructive dissent, and protecting the environment and supporting science-based sustainability efforts. Most of the company's blog posts lately have been celebrating its new hires. The company's enthusiastic tone is hard not to like.

Additive Manufacturing Dependent on Embracing What's Not Possible Any Other Way

In a webinar this week, Additive Manufacturing Research analyst Scott Dunham said to prepare to keep waiting if you're looking for signs that additive manufacturing is going to replace traditional manufacturing. It's not that additive manufacturing isn't real and growing. Rather, much of the growth is based on being able to make things that simply wouldn't be possible with traditional manufacturing methods.

At AM Research, I think we're starting to see that the make-up of the industry is a lot more that green field opportunity that we're winning, and it's not quite as much of we're taking over some of traditional manufacturing. - Scott Dunham, Analyst

For example, metal additive manufacturing makes highly complex heat exchanger designs possible that maximize surface-to-volume ratios. Similarly in polymers, 3D printing can be effective in microfluidics with non-linear flow channels, common in medical applications.

Dunham's industry bright spots include aerospace, defense, and healthcare. Demand for drones is off the charts due to global conflicts. We're talking about the market doubling in a 3-5-year span. Many of these drones have traditionally been manufactured by Chinese companies, and there is a lot of political pressure to change that so there is a market opportunity for U.S. manufacturers who can act quickly enough. On the service bureau side, aerospace applications are currently extremely strong. AM for end-of-arm tooling is another bright spot.

IMTS Is Coming - Will You Be There?

The IMTS show is fast approaching. Every corner of McCormick Place will be bustling. There are ten sectors spanning everything from additive manufacturing to software to automation to quality assurance. Hotels will be filled all the way to O'Hare and probably beyond.

Whether you're exhibiting or just networking, I'd love to connect and talk industrial innovation communications with you - drop me a note at aaron@pearsonconsulting.co.

ABI Research Recaps Automation Take-Aways

Speaking of automation, I'm playing catch-up a little here but I wanted to summarize ABI Research's key takeaways from Automate Show this year. Here's three:

AI gets the buzz but it's not GenAI on the factory floor, it's general AI. That encompasses things like machine learning and computer vision, keys to digital twin projects like this BMW plant.

"Switzerland of X:" Cross-platform orchestration of automation is needed but even as everyone says they want to be the "Switzerland of X," the fact is they don't have a lot of competitive incentive to be.

Software-defined automation continues to grow but at a slow pace as vendors look more to keep up with the competition than to truly lead their customers. Schneider Electric has made an IDC paper available on the subject here.

The full write-up is available here, from analyst Ryan Martin.