MT Magazine January/February 2026

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026

FEATURE STORY

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over the next three years, and 85% said a smart manufacturing initiative “will transform how products are made, improve agility, and attract new manufacturing talent.” That last item, talent – people – cannot be underestimated. Deloitte conducted a study in 2024 that projected a need for 3.8 million net new employees in manufacturing by 2033 to meet labor demands. Since the study was conducted before the Trump administration enacted the current reciprocal tariffs to encourage more domestic manufacturing, that figure may be an underestimation. According to the “2025 Reshoring Survey Report” from the Reshoring Initiative and Regions Recruiting, “Even without a surge in reshoring, 2.1 million manufacturing jobs are forecast to go unfilled by 2030.” Deloitte’s 2025 smart manufacturing survey also uncovered that about 70% of respondents have “moderate to significant challenges” in hiring skilled people for IT, OT (operational technology), data science and engineering, application development, and cybersecurity. And this is today.

What To Do Whether for operational improvements and their consequent financial benefits or as part of the smart manufacturing efforts that many companies are deploying, it is clear that the businesses that will succeed going forward not only recognize the need to use advanced technology but actually find it, acquire it, and use it. To that end, IMTS 2026, which will be held Sept. 14-19 at McCormick Place in Chicago, is an excellent place to start your journey toward implementing advanced technology in your operations. Although overall market uncertainty continues to be largely driven by geopolitics, a few things are absolutely clear, like the need to manufacture more products in the United States – efficiently manufactured. Otherwise, an affordability issue arises among consumers. While public attention seems to focus on AI, improved fundamentals, like implementing unattended machining, are opportunities that can make a huge difference.

If you have any questions about this article, please contact Gary at vasilash@gmail.com.