§17115a Development of National Smart Manufacturing Plan

Summary

The Secretary of Energy must, working with the National Academies, create a national plan within 3 years after December 27, 2020, to speed up smart manufacturing and make U.S. factories more productive and energy efficient. The plan must say what federal agencies should do to help show, deploy, and adopt smart manufacturing faster; improve energy use and lower environmental impact; and boost U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. It must include an assessment of past Department actions; ways to set voluntary connection and performance rules; using smart manufacturing across supply chains to save energy and cut emissions; steps to strengthen cybersecurity; moving research into real factories; using high-performance computing; and looking at effects on current and future jobs. The Secretary must report to Congress every year until the plan is done and update the plan within 2 years after completion and at least every 2 years after that. "Smart manufacturing" means digital and automated tools that do things like simulate production lines; run computer-controlled machines; monitor and report production status; manage and save energy and costs in production; model and improve factory energy use; monitor building energy; design energy-efficient products with digital prototyping and additive manufacturing (3D printing); connect products in networks to monitor performance; and link the supply chain digitally.