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How Cleveland Turns National Manufacturing Programs Into Local Results

Manufacturing Happy Hour · ▶ 48:41 · 19 min read
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Overview

Manufacturing Happy Hour, hosted by Chris Luecke, usually records one-on-one interviews over drinks. This episode was a live show at Collision Bend Brewing in Cleveland, the first stop on the show's "Rust Belt Renaissance" tour. Luecke framed it around one question he and friends in Cleveland had asked while brainstorming: what can other places learn from this region? Their answer was that manufacturing strength and national impact start at the regional and local level. The episode is aimed at manufacturers trying to figure out how to use the many resources and programs available to them.

19 min read

The show ran as three short panels. The first covered the organizations that make up Northeast Ohio's manufacturing ecosystem. The second was a case study of one manufacturer, Novagard, that used those resources. The third brought in two people from CESMII, the Smart Manufacturing Institute, for takeaways. Luecke asked listeners not to get lost in the names of organizations. The broader point, he said, was how much support exists and how it gets put to work locally.

Manufacturing Works as the "tissue" of the ecosystem

Adam Artman, executive director of Manufacturing Works for about two years, gave two descriptions of the organization. The standard one is that it is a membership-based organization that works with manufacturers and professional service firms and connects them to a network of providers. His less formal description was that Manufacturing Works is "the tissue that binds the manufacturing ecosystem together in Northeast Ohio."

In Artman's view, an ecosystem has many kinds of stakeholders: manufacturers, professional services, universities, workforce providers, and workers themselves. Something has to connect them, and Manufacturing Works sees itself as that infrastructure. Luecke summarized its role as the place where programs actually get implemented at the local level, and the panel agreed.

Cleveland State's Advanced Manufacturing Center and the four-year end of the pipeline

Matt Duppenthaler manages the TransDigm Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC) at Cleveland State University. He described CSU as a local public research university whose engineering college has a 100-year history. His argument was that talk about the manufacturing talent pipeline usually focuses on skilled trades and vocational training. Four-year engineering education is a different part of the pipeline, but he considers it an essential one.

As a public university, Duppenthaler said, CSU should serve the public and the region's manufacturers. The AMC gives students hands-on, experiential learning that complements their undergraduate coursework and co-op rotations. It is also meant to be a gateway for collaboration with industry. He described the university's "product" as its students, and called the AMC's place "the back end of the pipeline."

He later stressed another point about CSU. Its students are largely local, proud Clevelanders who come from the surrounding region and tend to stay there. Luecke tried to recall a figure of around 80%, and Duppenthaler confirmed it referred to local students. His conclusion was that a school whose graduates want to stay is an ideal place for regional employers to look for engineering talent.

NSF Engine: federal funding tied to regional strengths

Kyle Zeller described the NSF Engine as a federal program from the CHIPS and Science Act. It carries a $160 million award to be paid out over 10 years, with a focus on "place-based innovation ecosystems." The program brings private industry, academia, and workforce development together around a specific regional research agenda.

Zeller tied Northeast Ohio's agenda to its industrial history. The region's strengths, he said, are metals, chemicals and coatings, and polymers. Metals trace back to the steel mills. Chemicals and coatings trace back to John D. Rockefeller and the start of the oil industry. Polymers reflect the work being done in Akron. The goal is to pull these activities together in a coherent way to grow the regional economy.

Luecke noted that the region is currently one of 15 teams being evaluated for this funding, and asked what that says about the area. Zeller said it reflects the level of collaboration. Something like this "doesn't just get spun up overnight," he said. It comes from years of work among Manufacturing Works, Cleveland State, other universities, and the private sector. He added that it signals federal confidence in the region's ability to compete globally.

ManuFuture and the case for peer-to-peer problem-solving

Artman described what he called Manufacturing Works' "theory of change": manufacturing as a community has the brainpower to solve its own problems, and the job is to build infrastructure that helps it define and solve them. When he visits plants, he said, he often finds manufacturers trying to solve problems alone, with a team confined to their own four walls. Meanwhile, the brainpower outside those walls working on similar problems is, in his words, incredible.

That led to ManuFuture, which Manufacturing Works developed with several partners, including Purdue University. It brings manufacturers and subject matter experts together to tackle the "wicked, complex" problems that every manufacturer faces, drawing on each other's experience.

Artman gave technology adoption as an example. He finds that manufacturers feel pressure and even fear about investing in technology, and that urging from outsiders doesn't move them. What does move them is hearing from another manufacturer who made an investment and can tell them directly what return they are seeing. ManuFuture's work streams are designed to create that kind of exchange.

Duppenthaler explained CSU's role. Working groups meet on specific topics, at times weekly. Every six months, a larger group meets in person at the Advanced Manufacturing Center. He said he wished it happened more often, because that is where ideas start flowing. Artman added that CSU plays a key role in moving companies from awareness toward adoption of technology in a way that feels comfortable to them.

The "secret ingredients"

Luecke recapped the ingredients so far: practical manufacturing education, an institution that keeps talent local, peer-to-peer networking, and a formal organization to support it. He then asked each panelist for one secret ingredient.

  • Zeller returned to collaboration. He said he did not think the region would have reached this point without everyone rallying around an initiative like the NSF Engine. Asked why other regions struggle to do the same, he said a strong foundation helps, and that it gives the federal government confidence its taxpayer dollars will be well spent here.
  • Artman joked that Zeller had taken his answer, then approached it differently. What sets Northeast Ohio apart, he said, is a willingness to share and a belief that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. He cited about 7,700 manufacturers in the region and asked what that density could achieve with assets like CSU and Lorain County Community College. Other areas may have assets and manufacturers too, he argued, but they are fragmented. He summed up his answer as density plus collaboration.
  • Duppenthaler named history and location. From the brewery, the panel could see the river where cargo ships travel to a nearby steel mill, infrastructure built more than a century ago. That history, he said, is how the region got to 7,700 manufacturers, and it underpins local pride.

Duppenthaler also said the region's population is rising, and Luecke asked what besides manufacturing is driving that. Duppenthaler is from Northeast Ohio but spent five years in Chicago before moving back. He said he sees many things that made Chicago renowned now appearing in Cleveland on a smaller scale, which he considers sometimes a good thing. He listed restaurants, Playhouse Square, three professional sports teams, universities on the east side, and nearby community colleges. Luecke shared his own first visit to Slyman's for a corned beef sandwich with stadium mustard, and closed the segment there.

Novagard: from rushed technology purchases to a roadmap

The second panel paired Greg Schumacher, director of manufacturing at Novagard Solutions, with Mike Yost of Manufacturing Works. Schumacher described Novagard as a maker of silicone adhesives and sealants, PVC foam, and silicone greases.

Yost said he works mainly with manufacturers and solution providers to help them find value in each other. He does this through a Manufacturing Works program called Manufacturing Excellence. His target audience, he said, is whoever in a business "has to run the plant better to run the business better." He also works with ManuFuture, the NSF Engine, and a smart manufacturing cluster, always with the goal of helping manufacturers understand the role, value, and fit of modern technology.

Schumacher said technology adoption at Novagard originally meant "here's a new technology, get it, do it now." That doesn't work, he said, if the team isn't ready. He had been tasked with digitizing the plant, but some changes felt rushed and forced. Several technologies were adopted without a clear understanding of what the company was doing, and the value never materialized. In his words, the result was "ROI in the toilet." The Smart Manufacturing Roadmap process helped the company step back and ask what had to come first.

What the Smart Manufacturing Roadmap is

Yost explained the roadmap in plain terms. Everyone, he said, is learning how to be digital, and people need a shared language to work out what technology means for them. He described CESMII as the national authority on smart manufacturing. Manufacturing Works adopted CESMII's approach, language, and tools and is building a community of practice among local manufacturers. Novagard is one example. More than a dozen companies are actively going through the process, and dozens more in ManuFuture and other programs may take it on if it makes sense for them.

Yost emphasized that Novagard was already forward-looking and fast-moving with strong leadership. It was not waiting for someone to rescue it. He said he often meets people who have been told to figure out what Industry 4.0, digital transformation, or smart manufacturing means for their company, and who wonder how to do that alone. His view is that it is not a one-person job. The roadmap process involves the whole organization, top to bottom and across functions, and gives people a structure for the right conversations.

Yost also pushed back on treating smart manufacturing as a destination. He called it a tool for leaders to lead, and said he found it hard to take credit when the company is the one owning and driving the work. He connected this back to the ecosystem theme. Once a company knows where it stands and where it is heading, it is much easier to bring in partners. Its talent needs, technology needs, and implementation and architecture gaps become clear, and supporting organizations can bring in the right resources.

"People first, process strong, technology enabled"

Asked how daily operations changed, Schumacher said life used to be "go go go," with 20 priorities that were apparently all equally important. The biggest lesson from the roadmap, he said, was a phrase the company adopted: "people first, process strong, technology enabled." You can buy technology, he argued, but if your people aren't ready and your processes aren't in place, you won't get full value from it.

Novagard therefore started with people. It invested in training and began recruiting from a CSU program. It also connected with ManuFuture and worked with MAGNET, another local organization Schumacher called very helpful, to build its processes. The goal was that when technology arrived, the company would be ready, implement it correctly, and see value. Things now run much more smoothly, he said.

Luecke asked whether this meant less stress, clearer priorities, and less guesswork on the floor. Schumacher agreed and pointed to connected workers. He said the CESMII process also leads a company to create its own internal language, including memorable taglines. Besides "people first," the team working on data-driven processes called its effort "data unleashed." With help from outside partners, Novagard connected its PLCs so that real-time data reaches engineering and operations. "We have unleashed the data," he said. "We are making decisions faster, smarter, with the right information."

Yost joked that before the roadmap, Schumacher never got invited to events like this. Now they bring him on stage whenever they can as an example.

Six weeks instead of twelve, at zero cost

Luecke noted that Novagard finished the roadmap unusually fast and at a reasonable cost. Schumacher credited the company's owner, Sarah Nash, whose "superpower is creating pressure," he said. She wants everything done in half the time people expect, and she gets it. Their roadmap consultant said these projects usually take about 12 weeks, and most companies take a couple of months. Nash insisted on six weeks because, as Schumacher recalled, the company couldn't afford not to. Hitting that deadline required organizing a leadership team of directors and VPs, since the work could not rest on one person.

On cost, Schumacher gave a precise figure: exactly $0. Yost had connected Novagard with Tri-C, which had a grant that fully funded the program for a limited number of manufacturers. Schumacher said he didn't know how much longer the grant would last.

How the model spreads: a standard toolset and peer pressure

Luecke asked how to produce more stories like Novagard's across the country. Yost made two points. First, the roadmap is a standardized toolset taught nationwide, with about 100 certified roadmap professionals across the country. It is designed to be low-cost and low-touch. He described it as an education project rather than a consulting project, because it teaches manufacturers to use the tools themselves. That means manufacturers outside Northeast Ohio can get the same approach wherever they are. He also offered to talk with other regions that want to build community around their manufacturers.

Second, he told a story about peer influence. One company now about halfway through its roadmap had said it wanted to do one but kept getting pulled away by other priorities. Then its CFO joined a plant tour at a company that had already finished a roadmap and had it posted on the wall. The host company pointed to it at the start of the tour. The CFO said he needed to do that, and the host team chided him on the spot, asking what he was waiting for. Yost said that peer moment was worth more than anything he, the host, or CESMII could have said. That, he explained, is why they keep putting practitioners like Schumacher on stage: they are the people manufacturers want to hear from. Luecke named vehicles for peer-to-peer problem-solving as one of his main takeaways for listeners outside the region.

CESMII's national view and other active regions

The final panel featured two people from CESMII. Jillian, CESMII's director of marketing, said she feels lucky to live in such a well-organized region, which makes it easier to talk about. Nationally, she said, CESMII is building tools, workflows, and processes to help other places replicate this model and connect the right people with the right manufacturers.

Asked which other regions to highlight, Jillian named four:

  • the Digital Foundry in New Kensington, a Penn State branch and one of CESMII's innovation centers, led by Sherry McCleary, which has completed several roadmaps;
  • RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic), which trains the certified roadmap professionals and has a strong network;
  • the Los Angeles area, where CESMII is starting to grow;
  • the Maryland MEP, which she called "a little unassuming" but very involved in getting roadmaps started.

Luecke linked RPI to Rochester, New York, the tour's next stop.

Three technology imperatives: model, contextualize, interoperate

Jonathan Wise, CESMII's chief technology architect, first agreed with Schumacher: technology is a means to an end, and buying it won't solve problems unless you know which problems you are trying to solve. Drawing on the roughly 50 projects CESMII has funded and his work with manufacturers nationwide, he laid out three technology imperatives.

The first starts from his blunt view that manufacturing data is generally a mess, "garbage." The imperative is to model your data: learn the discipline of data modeling and move existing data sources toward models built around the business problem you are solving.

The second, which he said sounds similar but is different, is to contextualize your data. Standards for what data looks like are a good start. You also need to know where data comes from, what it means as it moves, and what it relates to.

The third is to make your data accessible through interoperability. Wise said no single technology will solve every problem, so manufacturers will end up with a "heterogeneous architecture" made of different pieces that must work together. Interoperability is a deep passion for CESMII, he said, and the first thing it asks vendors about. For the past 18 months, CESMII has been developing I3X, which he described as a common programming interface for these contextualized information sources. Starting at the end of April, CESMII is also offering an information modeling course to help the community work through the first two imperatives.

Luecke recapped the three points and agreed they deserved a separate episode. He noted that about a quarter of the show's audience are engineers or engineering managers, which is why he includes technical material.

A closing toast to the region

Luecke ended by asking each guest to name something they love about Northeast Ohio, framing the show as a celebration of the region as much as its manufacturing. Jillian recommended the restaurants of the Hangry group, especially Jolene's on East 4th, a country music bar with live music on weekends that she said feels like Nashville. Wise praised Collision Bend's beer and the local craft brewing scene. He also recommended 11 3 Brewing in Geauga County, opened by a former CESMII colleague, Dave, who spent years solving smart manufacturing problems before starting his own brewery.

Across the three panels, the main lesson was consistent. National programs and standardized tools matter. What made them work in Cleveland, according to the speakers, was local infrastructure: an organization connecting stakeholders, a university keeping talent in the region, and regular chances for manufacturers to learn from peers who have already done the work.

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