Why Biden's Supply Chain Plan Doesn't Go Far Enough

President Biden recently unveiled initiatives aimed at strengthening America’s supply chains, reducing costs for families, and protecting key sectors.

I’m thrilled by this new focus on strengthening America’s supply chains.

Manufacturing is a national security issue. Without a robust, efficient, resilient supply chain, one can’t win in a globally competitive market.

BUT Biden’s plan doesn’t go far enough.

“You can't manage what you can't measure,” said Peter Drucker.

Well, it seems like the White House is adopting the DMAIC playbook: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control...which is the foundation of the “Six Sigma” methodology.

While Six Sigma can improve a mediocre business, it can’t magically deliver the bold, imaginative thinking we need on a national scale. Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions.

Take reshoring. Bringing manufacturing back to the United States seems like a great idea, but reshoring will never work without solving massive problems upstream.

Here are five of those problems, and some ways they might be solved:

Energy

Nothing happens without energy, and we need a LOT more of it. China is currently building 21 new nuclear reactors. The US? Two. It’s a joke. We need to take a long, hard look at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Rather than perpetuating the scaremongering bureaucracy that crippled the construction of nuclear plants back in the 70s, the NRC should be dropping barriers to building the new reactors reshoring requires.

Or here’s a crazy idea. Let's have Elon build a solar farm – a 100 x 100-mile solar farm in the southwest desert, with the batteries to support it. Do it like the Rouge River Plant in the days of Henry Ford...silica, copper, lithium, aluminum, and steel in one end, a solar farm out the other.

Raw Materials

Where is the review of mining regulations? Let’s cut that mountain of red tape so the private sector can develop the steel and aluminum mills of the future.

Or why not go all the way, imagine war has broken out in the Taiwan Strait, and invoked the Defense Production Act. Can we greenfield a 5,000,000-ton-per-year steel mill in 18 months?

Building a fully functioning steel mill in less than 18 months would restore the self-confidence that Americans used to be famous for.

It would provide valuable lessons to a new generation of engineers, craftspeople, regulators, and planners, showing how a collective will to make something happen is really all you need when you put Americans to a task. It would serve as a national security exercise by showing our allies and adversaries that the refrain of WW2 Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is still relevant today: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Transportation

How do we reboot shipbuilding in the US?? Where’s the ship-building version of SpaceX? Call it ShipX, and call the mass-produced ships Liberty Ships, just like we did during WW2. That’s it. That’s the pitch.

Then do the same thing for rail.

Education

America is going to need a lot more skilled labor to staff all these new factories.

That’s why education is ALSO a national security issue.

We need more trade schools, apprenticeships, and tax incentives for careers in the blue-collar sector. Why not offer specialized benefits for welders, electricians, carpenters, and plumbers?

We also need to provide a path to “New Collar” Jobs — because automation doesn’t run (or fix) itself. Millions of people need to learn how to program a welding robot, troubleshoot a warehouse robot, and repair an automated mining excavator.

American Dynamism requires a modern, tech-focused education ecosystem that teaches job skills at the intersection of atoms AND bits. This is not going to happen inside traditional 4-year colleges, nor should it.

Where is the innovation in education?

Housing

We’ve got a housing crisis, and the only solution is to build our way out of it. Where are workers, especially those starting families, supposed to live?

Zoning regulations are terrible, but they’re not the only constraint. Construction itself — from methods to supply chain and productivity — is stuck in the past.

Where’s the innovation in construction? Most of it is in 3D printed walls, which comprise <9% of the labor to build a house. That’s not a goal. That’s table stakes.

Construction is what Diamond Age is disrupting, and we're playing to win.

How? We reduce build time and cost by maximizing automation to increase worker productivity. We did it by inventing a portable assembly line that shortens supply lines. We call it a M.A.C.E.

While others automate 9% of construction, today Diamond Age automates 27%.

Next year it will be 55%.

We’re 5x faster than traditional builders, and 9x is on the horizon.

Who else is out there in Contech? We know we’re not the only ones pushing the envelope of what this country needs. There’s a lot more to be invented and built. We want to meet you.

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I’m really excited about the future, but businesses (like robots) don’t start or run themselves.

It takes imagination, and no one has a monopoly on that.

Biden's plan is a good start, but like 3D-printed walls, it's table stakes.

What other crazy ideas remain untried? Now is the time to share them in the comments.