Wisconsin is about to become one of the top opportunities for life sciences and biotechnology manufacturing in the United States after the announcement of $49 million in federal funding for the state. These funds awarded through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and funneled through the Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub are designed to stoke biotech manufacturing technology and reshoring in Wisconsin. Today we want to show you why even if you aren’t directly receiving incentives from these funds, you need to start your turnkey automation plan with a turnkey automation integrator immediately.
Historic Expectations for Growth
While impact figures on job creation, increased revenue, and manufacturing growth will need time to reveal themselves (though Wisconsin recently reported ranking first in hourly earnings growth), the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act is based on one of the most successful federal investment programs in the history of the United States: The 1960’s investment in the space race. Not only did the United States win the space race, this carefully structured wave of federal investment transformed the United States into a manufacturing technology powerhouse:
- Converted the United States manufacturing complex into the leader for aerospace manufacturing technology for decades.
- Yielded a series of revolutionary American inventions and technological byproducts such as the integrated circuit, insulin pumps, water purifiers, LEDs, wireless technology, and portable computers.
- Created hundreds of thousands of jobs.
- Uplifted brands and manufacturers from small niche markets to multinational corporate entities servicing customers across the globe.
- Positioned “Made in America” as a signature of quality, integrity, and efficiency.
- Captured the imagination of the American public, stoking a boom in American leadership in science education and by consequence, science professionals.
Similar opportunities are expected for Wisconsin life sciences and biotechnology manufacturers. This $49 billion federal funding stimulus aims to position Wisconsin as a global leader in personalized medicine. American entrepreneurs, small businesses, large businesses, and economic development programs expect to require 141,000 new workers to tackle the opportunities made available by these funds. Accommodating the investment will require a mobilization effort from Wisconsin manufacturers, industry adjacent businesses, and Wisconsin economic development agencies. The safest strategy for biotech and life science manufacturers to take to ride the current of the Wisconsin funding boom is to scale capacity, improve production efficiency, and update manufacturing technology. These are the most common benefits of custom machines and robotics in your manufacturing line.
Stoking Incentives for American Businesses for Good Reason: Foxconn Failure in Wisconsin
America needs to build medical manufacturing and biotech supply chains it can count on, and it will only achieve that goal with onshore businesses. Lured by promises of cheaper parts and labor, these executive orders have recognized that not only has offshore manufacturing dependence been detrimental to American jobs and American manufacturing self-sufficiency, but the savings also don’t add up without robust competition from American biotech and life science.
The Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub is looking to grow biotech businesses that have a stake in Wisconsin for a reason: Foxconn. Wisconsin was wooed in 2017 by the Foxconn Technology Group (known in Taiwan as Han Hai Precision Technology) to create a $10 billion dollar 20 million square foot campus and bring 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin in return for $3 billion dollars in financial incentives and tax breaks. Since then, Foxconn has failed to deliver on it’s promises, reneged on manufacturing LCDs in Wisconsin, reduced it’s hiring prospects to a low thousand, and still taken millions of dollars in credits. While the details of their failure to deliver on their promises remain murky, common assumptions stem from a lack of understanding of American labor practices, a lack of commitment to American contracts, and an overestimation of their profitability. Wisconsin residents looking to build a future based on the promises of an offshore manufacturer were left with weak platitudes, anemic delivery, and lowered expectations.
The Tech Hub incentives prevent another Foxconn through a series of controls outlined in Sections C, D, and E of the Tech Hubs Notice of Funding Opportunity document. In summary, the Wisconsin Tech Hub upholds control expectations for fund use that support American businesses, suppliers, and consumers:
- Leadership checks and balances comprised of a combination of American representatives from higher education, state government, private technology firms, economic development institutions, and labor organizations.
- A stated mandate to approve funds for businesses and organizations dedicated specifically to scaling technology and manufacturing in the United States.
- Stipulations that serve the goal for a globally competitive technology hub that remains in the United States.
- Environmental protections that promote technological pursuit while promoting safe use of American natural resources.
- Stimulus promoting American labor with additional funding, training opportunities, retention forward initiatives, and community support.
- Incentives to repurpose neglected infrastructure and revitalize economically depressed areas of the United States.
- A requirement to use American construction materials such as iron and steel products.
- Intellectual property protections, cybersecurity protections, and whistleblower protections.
- A clear and diligent list of application instructions, requirements, and definitions.
We’re already seeing American businesses picking up the slack left behind by Foxconn. Microsoft is building a $3.3 billion dollar cloud computing and AI infrastructure lab on the abandoned land set aside for Foxconn. Not only will they drive thousands of technology jobs back into the Wisconsin economy, they are ethically partnering with the local energy grid to offset and stoke water and energy production to prevent community utilities from being overwhelmed.
Automated Manufacturing: Don’t Miss Out on the Life Sciences Boom
This is the largest national investment in American investment and infrastructure since the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. You risk missing out on the best chance to grow your business with automation in decades. The institutions and businesses created, supported, and developed by these funds will need to tap every manufacturer in Wisconsin to support increased production, updated technology, and expanded capacity. Expect traditional manufacturing businesses to pivot and reallocate their capacity to anticipate a deluge of new biotech and life sciences technology manufacturing resources. If you haven’t started making a plan to adapt to the surge in biotechnology and life sciences manufacturing, you shouldn’t be treating your reaction like an opportunity, you should be treating it like a crisis:
- The companies that take advantage of these life science tax credits, funds, and incentives will have a much higher capacity to grow, take risks, and reach new markets than the ones that don’t (If you’re curious about some Wisconsin grants and tax credits, check out the WEDC website. If you’re looking for economic development resources in your state, look at EDA.gov.
- Manufacturing demand won’t go away, they’ll just move from the manufacturers that can’t to the manufacturers that can.
- The upper limit for capacity from purely manual labor-based manufacturing is dramatically lower than the capacity brought to your company by an automated manufacturing line and comes with a much higher long-term cost.
- Your business will need to grow eventually, growing your business when there are publicly available funds to help you grow, innovations pumping demand into the market, and opportunities that can provide stable revenue while you pay off capital investment is the ideal time to invent in automated machinery.
- If it was 15 years since the last major federal investment in our manufacturing, how many years do you think it will be for the next investment boom if you let this opportunity pass you by?
- In a new status quo, you have the opportunity to redefine your reputation as a leader, or risk being seen as obsolete.
Lead the Pack with Custom Automated Life Science and Biotechnology Manufacturing
You won’t be the only manufacturing business trying to take advantage of the life science and biotechnology boom, but you can beat your competitors with custom turnkey machines and robotics.
- Quality– Whether you need to pass the applications for the Tech Hub incentives or you are simply trying to attract those Tech Hub businesses to your manufacturing, these Tech Hub applications want global leaders in technology. To be a global leader, you need maximum quality. A scoped automated machine can maintain quality that satisfies these requirements in a way manual manufacturing cannot.
- Productivity- A global tech hub is going to need to grow beyond the local market. Scaling that production long term requires the requires specialized automated manufacturing equipment and robotic speeds.
- Consistency- To be a global leader and satisfy the conditions of these Tech Hub incentives, every life science or biotechnology product you manufacture must demonstrate uniform design. A custom automated machine will maintain consistent tolerances, singulation, and orientation whether you are making dozens or hundreds of thousands of SKU’s.
- Efficiency- Whether you’re applying for the Tech Hub incentives, or your client is hiring you to create those products, you are going to have to demonstrate peak technological prowess. Your production needs low waste, efficient resource usage, and low effort manufacturing that can only be achieved by a turnkey automated machine.
- Safety- Those that benefit from Tech Hub Council life science and biotechnology funds inherit a higher profile for safety scrutiny. A turnkey machine or robotic solution doesn’t just reduce your safety concerns, it itemizes your safety practices in an ideal way for grant applications and grant seeking businesses.
Learn more with our Top 4 Tips for Getting Tax Credits and Grants for Manufacturing Automation.
DEVELOP LLC Can Manage a Project that Meets Tech Hub Expectations
If you haven’t started on your life science and biotechnology automated manufacturing plan, the best decision you can make will be partnering with DEVELOP LLC.
- We have over ten years of experience taking the burden of machine design, build and integration off of our customers and creating custom turnkey machines.
- We have helped customers automate their manufacturing lines to qualify for tax credit, grant, and incentive programs with similar requirements to the Wisconsin Tech Hub.
- We’ve helped customers achieve their turnkey automation project goals with swift ROI without publicly available incentives, imagine your manufacturing potential when partnering with our team of engineering professionals, manufacturing experts, and project managers AND benefiting from Tech Hub Funds.
- There are a dozen different Tech Hubs across the lower 48 with different manufacturing and technology focuses, DEVELOP LLC has experience in those manufacturing industries too.
Take our free Automation Assessment Questionnaire. We’ll help you find the targets that don’t just satisfy the life science and biotechnology requirements of the Wisconsin Tech Hub but set you up to be a global leader in biotech manufacturing.
Contact DEVELOP LLC today or use our free resources to get ahead to a more efficient, productive, and competitive future.
About the Author:
Matt Moseman leads as President of DEVELOP, with a strong foundation from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in New Product Management. Moseman’s career highlights include his pivotal role in founding NodeUDesign, innovating in automation hardware, and driving DEVELOP LLC to the forefront of industrial robotics with a focus on enhancing productivity and efficiency.