For years the U.S. manufacturing sector lost ground to lower-cost producers in Latin America and Asia, especially China. But now higher costs for labor and energy in those developing economies, coupled with a new industrial revolution of innovative methods for making almost anything, may be setting the stage for a U.S. manufacturing renaissance.
Additive manufacturing, also called 3-D printing, is the best known of the new methods. But there are also an array of advances in hand or coming soon in digital manufacturing technologies, nanomanufacturing (working on an atomic or molecular scale), robotics and other areas.
How do you feel about the future of manufacturing in the U.S.? Vote and let us know what you think in the comments, which may be excerpted and published in a coming Journal special report.