About ManuFuture NEO

Did you know that there is a group of manufacturers meeting weekly to tackle some of the most wicked problems in manufacturing?

ManuFuture is a guided, peer-to-peer learning community dedicated to transforming and modernizing manufacturing in Northeast Ohio. By leveraging the Strategic Doing methodology, ManuFuture empowers manufacturers to expand their capabilities and remain competitive in the digital age.

Combining online and in-person interactions, this initiative creates an organic knowledge network where members can share insights, develop new skills, and collaborate on innovative solutions. ManuFuture NEO is at the forefront of shaping a future where manufacturers can thrive and strengthen their communities.

Video credit: Sam Massey, Massey Media Co.

Mike Yost: We started ManuFuture at the request of some of our members, who said that they wanted to have a peer problem solving network here in Northeast Ohio. We got everybody together, we got a group of about three dozen manufacturers together and asked them,

"What are your biggest challenges?"
"What are you worried about?"
"What are you working on?"

And they came back with the laundry list of items that we ended up categorizing into three logical areas. They ended up being workstreams, and those workstreams were represented here today. One of them was around operational efficiency. How do I make my plants perform better? All sorts of challenges in that area.

Another area organized around culture and learning. How do I care for my existing workforce? How do I nurture those folks and how do I develop a future workforce?

And then the third workstream is around a strategy and growth. So, we have business leaders, business owners coming together and saying, "How do we continue to grow and drive value for the community and our employees?"

We are helping to design and guide conversations, but they're really the engine that is deciding what they want to do, where they want to focus, what resources and assets that they can bring. What's most important is that the manufacturers are at the center. They're at the wheel, they're driving this.

We work very hard to provide and maintain a safe space where they feel comfortable sharing with each other, learning from each other, and then there's opportunities for us to invite and supporting members of the communities, supporting members of the ecosystem in to help them, but it starts and ends with the trust that we have with the manufacturers.

Matt Duplin: ManuFuture is very much a collaborative environment to get industry together, without sellers in the room, without vendors, and without any pitch men. And they're all learning from each other, so Cleveland State (learn more about the center) fits into this because as a higher education institution, we're conveners, we're innovators, and the convening aspect of this is that CSU is perfectly centrally located in Northeast Ohio, to host these types of events.

My role is to really engage with industry on the manufacturing side and bring them into the fold of what we're doing here at Cleveland State.

There's 5,000 plus manufacturers in the area, right? So that's a tall task, and you have to take very small bites. But what I found with manufacturing works is that they provided that network and that doorway into a very close-knit, a very collaborative group of manufacturers that convene often, that have events, that are doing things like this ManuFuture. We're in the very early stage of this, but it's just another example of how Manufacturing Works, provides that pathway for me and for CSU to interface with industry.

Brian Perry: We did a roadmapping for Industry 4.0, so it was something that was, like, on our strategy deployment of our facility last year, and we' partnered with Tim here, and he led us through that whole process. So, we had projects and had identified some things to help us through the industry 4.0 roadmap, but his guidance kind of helped us really create where we were at for our current state and where he wanted to go for our future state.

Brad Beach: This is really about creating value in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. We finally figured out last year that we could establish ManuFuture Hub in Northeast Ohio, and perhaps we could grow the number of people learning how to address this really important challenge of value in manufacturing together.

Mike Yost: This is not a Manufacturing Works thing. This is doing our best to help as many people as we can, and we have an energy, we have people that are invested, people are excited.

And there's a role for us to be here, as knowledge keepers and conveners and facilitators, guides, and there's roles for others in the ecosystem to be a part of, as well, but it all starts with the manufacturers and I'm super excited about the energy that we saw here today, and we continue to see with them leaning into this work.

Share the video with someone you know, and if you work in manufacturing, please join us! Connect with Mike Yost to get started.