As interest in reshoring and domestic manufacturing continues to grow, Ohio is well positioned to compete for new investment and jobs. In this Q&A, Ryan Augsburger, president of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, shares what is driving renewed interest in domestic production, what makes Ohio attractive to manufacturers, and what it will take to prepare the next generation for careers in modern manufacturing.
Manufacturing is experiencing renewed interest in reshoring and domestic production. What are you seeing in Ohio, and what is driving that momentum?
We’re seeing companies rethink what resilience actually means. For a long time, the lowest-cost supply chain won. Then manufacturers learned that the cheapest part in the world isn’t very cheap if you can’t get it.
Ohio benefits because we already have the assets companies are looking for. Skilled people, infrastructure, suppliers, customers, and a manufacturing culture that knows how to make things at scale.
The question isn’t whether America can make more things here. We can. The question is whether we’re willing to create the conditions that let manufacturers compete here.
You don’t reshore manufacturing with slogans. You reshore it by making America a place where manufacturers can win.
What makes Ohio, and specifically Central Ohio, an attractive place for companies looking to establish or expand domestic manufacturing operations?
Ohio has something a lot of states are trying to build from scratch. We already have a manufacturing ecosystem.
You have suppliers, logistics, research institutions, community colleges, career-tech schools, and a workforce that understands manufacturing. In Central Ohio, you add enormous population growth, major infrastructure, and some of the largest industrial investments in the country.
Companies don’t choose locations based on one ribbon-cutting incentive. They choose places where they believe they can operate successfully for the next 20 or 30 years.
Ohio isn’t trying to become a manufacturing state. We already are one.
There is still a perception among some students and families that manufacturing means traditional factory work. What do you wish more young people understood about what a modern manufacturing career actually looks like?
I wish more young people could walk into a modern manufacturing facility before somebody else tells them what manufacturing is.
They’d see robotics, automation, engineering, data analytics, advanced materials, and people solving incredibly complex problems. These are technology careers. They’re careers where you can build something you can actually point to at the end of the day and say, “I helped make that.”
And many of those careers don’t require four years of college debt before you can start earning a good living.
Some of the most advanced technology in the world isn’t sitting in Silicon Valley. It’s sitting on a factory floor in Ohio.
What role do hands-on experiences, apprenticeships, internships, and earn-and-learn programs play in helping young people see manufacturing as a career rather than simply a job?
They change everything because manufacturing is hard to understand from a brochure.
When a student walks into a plant, meets a technician, works with the equipment, and sees what the career actually looks like, the conversation changes. Suddenly it isn’t an abstract job somebody told them about. They can see themselves doing it.
That’s why employers have to be part of the education system, not standing outside it waiting for graduates to appear.
You can’t recruit the next generation into careers they’ve never had a chance to see.
Central Ohio is attracting significant investment and new career opportunities. What will it take to make sure the people being trained for these jobs are able to build their careers and lives here, rather than leaving the region?
A job gets somebody’s attention. A career and a community get them to stay.
That means competitive wages and opportunities to advance, but it also means housing, schools, transportation, and communities where people actually want to build a life.
Employers have a role in that, but so do policymakers, educators, and community leaders. Workforce development can’t stop when somebody gets hired.
If we want people to build Ohio’s future, we have to make sure they can build their own future here too.
If we look ahead 10 years, what would success look like for manufacturing in Ohio? What would need to be true for us to say that we successfully brought manufacturing investment back, built the workforce to support it, and gave the next generation a reason to build their careers here?
Success would mean we stopped treating every new manufacturing investment like an exception and started expecting them.
It would mean manufacturers can find the people they need, young Ohioans see manufacturing as one of the best career opportunities available to them, and companies looking to invest in America put Ohio at the top of the list.
But the real test is whether the manufacturers already here are growing too. Economic development isn’t just landing the next big project. It’s making sure the company that has been employing 200 people in an Ohio community for 50 years believes its next investment belongs here.
Ten years from now, success is simple. When somebody decides to make something in America, Ohio should be the first place they think about.