Advanced manufacturing — broadly defined as the integration and utilization of new technologies to improve products and processes — is a sector that Oxford Economics estimates now accounts for 44 percent of all U.S. manufacturing employment and supports 19 percent of U.S. GDP through its operations, supply chain, and payroll. Companies all too often must choose between introducing advanced manufacturing equipment and processes into existing plants or shutting down operations and beginning production somewhere else. Consequently, many communities are anxious to support manufacturers that are modernizing plants rather than risk seeing those plants close.
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