• Has been appointed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to be one of a half dozen U.S. representatives on the OECD Advisory Expert Group (AEG) on Sustainable Manufacturing & Eco-innovation. 2008.
• Is a member of an international technical working group to develop product life cycle guidelines for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, being developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World resources Institute. 2008.
• Leads Sustainable Manufacturing projects for several companies. 2008.

• NACFAM partnered with the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center in conducting a STEM Talent Development Forum to build a regional collaborative to enhance STEM education.
• NACFAM began work on the Penn State University nanotechnology skill standards definition phase.  September 2008.
• NACFAM is the leader of the Advanced Manufacturing Career Cluster Career Path & Curriculum Effort (Department of Education, DoEd).  2005 – present.
• NACFAM partnered with the Massachusetts MEP for its STEM Talent Development Regional Conference.  December 2008.
• NACFAM worked on an outreach contract for the Department of Labor ETA Advanced Manufacturing Competency Model (AMCM), 2007 - 2008, which NACFAM helped develop earlier, 2005 – 2006.
• NACFAM has built broad-based support for America’s 21st Century Learning System recommendations developed by our Workforce Education & Training Advisory Council and the April Policy Conference.  So far 29 trade associations and professional societies are signatories to our Learning System recommendations.
• NACFAM is one of several associations overseeing the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Institute’s development of a comprehensive certification system for manufacturing worker competencies.
• NACFAM serves on the Congressional STEM Education Coalition along with 293 other companies, education entities and national organizations.
• Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) - National certification system for production and production support workers.  Begun in 1998, NACFAM co-led and managed the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council to develop the first comprehensive and validated skills standards, assessment and certification system for manufacturing.  This was a $10 million effort with $5 million from the Department of Labor and $5 million in-kind work by Industry, Labor and Education.  The standards were validated in 2002, assessment and certification programs were validated in 2005, and MSSC was spun off as a separate non-profit organization in November 2005.
• National certification system for production and production support workers. Co-founded by NACFAM in 1998.
• National Skill Standards for Computer-aided Drafting & Design – Standards sold to over 5,000 CADD teachers and trainers. 1992-present.
• National Skill Standards for Advanced Manufacturing – Standards now integrated within multiple state and community skills programs. 1993-1997.

• Since the successful April 2008 release of Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth through a National Innovation Foundation, by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), NACFAM has been working closely with ITIF and the Brookings Institution on building support for improved federal innovation policies particularly focused on COMMERCIALIZATION.  Collins/Clinton legislation introduced in the Senate in 2008.
• NACFAM prepared the NIST report “industry Views Towards Innovative and Potentially Disruptive Advanced Manufacturing Technologies”.  This was a research project based on interviewing dozens of companies.
• NACFAM led an Industry-Government Advisory Group activity for the multi-million dollar Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative (NGMTI) funded by the Department of Defense.  NACFAM’s role was to guide technology road-mapping and R&D project definitions.
• Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP) - $1.5 billion in new programs in manufacturing R&D, dual-use technologies, industrial engineering. 1993-1995.
• Advanced Technology Program (ATP) – An average of $250 million per year since to help fund high-risk, longer-term research. 1989-present.
• Advanced Manufacturing Science & Technology Initiative (AMSTI) – A proposed increase in federal R&D by $5 billion over 3 years.
• Tech Transfer Initiative (TTI) - $250 million per year to help federal labs form cooperative research and development agreements with industry. 1992-95.

• NACFAM managed and led a $35,000 Network Centric Manufacturing (NCM) project for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (LMA).  NACFAM’s role in this effort was to organize and conduct three workshops:

1.       for LMA to understand the needs of its suppliers, especially smaller suppliers (SMMs), in this emerging manufacturing paradigm as well as the capabilities of NIST MEP centers to help train SMMs

2.       for policy-makers to begin to understand the new NCM paradigm, and

3.       to develop proposals for Federal programs like MEP to improve the ability of SMMs and OEMs alike to compete in the NCM paradigm.

• NACFAM conducted for NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) a $99,000 research project on how product development gets done in the emerging paradigm of NCM.  NACFAM interviewed 20 companies, including aerospace, automotive and defense companies.
• NACFAM partnered with NIST, NASA, IMTI and the University of Alabama – Huntsville in conducting a national forum on Supply Chain Optimization for the Interagency Work Group on Manufacturing R&D.
• NACFAM partnered with the DSN Innovations in Pittsburgh to conduct two “Network Centric Manufacturing Forums” in Pittsburgh.  NACFAM CEO Eric Mittelstadt led a workshop session on National Infrastructure Requirements and spoke at the plenary session in 2007, and at the 2008 Forum led a workshop session on Management/leadership in the NCM paradigm.
• NACFAM CEO Mittelstadt spoke on NCM at the Plenary Session of the 2007 Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC), and at the 2008 DMC organized the nine Technical Sessions on Global Collaborative Manufacturing (GCM), the term being used by the Department of Defense for NCM.
• Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) – Grown from 3 centers in 1989 to 60 today with over 300 branch offices. Expanded through TRP (above).
• Enterprise Integration – A bill to achieve higher levels of interoperability of standards used in supply chains. Signed by President Bush, 2002.

• NACFAM serves on NAM’s R & D Credit Coalition along with 53 national associations and 221 companies. The Coalition helped secure an extension of this important legislation in 2008..
• Accelerated Depreciation – Legislation passed since 2002, to accelerate depreciation schedules and expensing.
• Investment Tax Credit (ITC) – Lead advocate of effort to restore ITC. 1992-1993.  

• NACFAM and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) have joined forces with reciprocal memberships for collaboration on a broad-based manufacturing policy agenda. 2008.
• NACFAM CEO Eric Mittelstadt and Board member Rick Jarman are two of about 25 manufacturing leaders participating in the Manufacturing 2040 initiative organized by Assistant Secretary Sutton’s Manufacturing & Services (MAS) section of the Department of Commerce.  In a nutshell the objective is to identify those issues common to multiple possible future scenarios. 2008.
• NACFAM engages in activities and projects that help both NACFAM members and the Washington, D.C. policy community through: