📌 Top Highlights
Manufacturing jobs decrease in 2025 (they’re down, but not out!)
From submarines to trains, let’s get digital!
Welding continues to wield power
🔍 Deep Dive: The Future of Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry recently got a glimpse of its future through two important and related developments. The sector reported a loss of 33,000 jobs in 2025, while Congress made the 100% bonus depreciation for capital investments permanent. These factors point toward the modernization of the manufacturing industry, an industry where faster production is increasingly rewarded.
From a people’s perspective, all is not lost. For one thing, the tax break encourages domestic production over outsourcing. For another, automation is not set to eliminate the demand for human labor. Rather, the assembly lines of yore are becoming a thing of the past while skilled technicians and those trained in installation, operation, and maintenance of specific systems rev up. The result is an industry where man and machine are complements, not competitors.
🖨 Technology Trailblazers
General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB), a company that designs, builds, and maintains nuclear-powered submarines, is upping its production game by implementing semiautomatic gas tungsten arc welding. This approach streamlines the process without skimping on durability or quality. The result is a better-prepared and stronger US Navy. Ahoy, innovation!
Honeywell has launched its Honeywell Ionic Modular All-in-One, which is a scalable battery storage system designed for commercial use. This system revolutionizes the battery industry and offers businesses customization options, cybersecurity protection, and real-time analytics. Who knows: It might even make the Energizer Bunny jealous.
Hiatchi Rail has officially opened a lighthouse digital factory in Maryland. This new carbon-neutral factory strives to reinvent the railcar industry across North America. It officially opened on September 8th and features an interactive and immersive customer experience center, giving visitors a chance to learn about Hitachi’s vision, technologies, and use of AI.
🪧 Boeing Workers Reject Deal
Striking defense workers have rejected Boeing’s modified contract deal, as over 3,000 workers in St. Louis continue to take part in the first walkout in nearly 30 years. Per union officials, the rejection stemmed from Boeing’s failure to offer sufficient signing bonuses or a raise in 401K benefits. This comes at a time when Boeing, as a whole, has been subject to public side-eye for its noncompliance and safety issues.
🏢 Movers and Shakers
Caracol has announced a new 10,000 sq. ft. headquarters and production center in Austin (because everything’s bigger in Texas!). This company specializes in additive manufacturing technologies, with a focus on large-format 3-D printing. Its new production center probably won’t be 3-D printed, however (although that would be impressive!).
Ram’s electric plans run out of gas: After several delays, Ram has slammed the brakes on its plans to develop a full-size 1500 pickup truck due to lower-than-expected interest in all-electric vehicles. Instead of going full electric, Ram is now planning to launch a truck complete with an electric generator and a gas engine.
Colorado Mesa University Tech (CMU Tech) is doubling its Sturm Family Manufacturing Center, taking its welding program to grander levels as the need for welders surges. While welding jobs have increased in various regions, Colorado has seen a particularly acute demand. Just wait until the state builds a new football stadium.
🥸 Manufacturing Marvels
Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913, which cut the time to build a Model T from roughly 12 hours to about 90 minutes. He didn’t invent the assembly line, as the concept had been around and used for centuries, but he did perfect it and apply it to scale in the automobile industry.