[VIDEO] White House CTO tours NYC’s Adafruit factory for Manufacturing Day

The first Friday of each October is Manufacturing Day (stylized as MFG DAY), a day meant to shine a spotlight on the manufacturing industry and the challenges it faces. This year MFG DAY fell on October 2, and to explore what the day’s all about White House CTO Megan Smith and Senior Policy advisor for Advanced Manufacturing Megan Brewster traveled to New York to visit the manufacturing facility for electronics company Adafruit.

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Limor "Ladyada" Fried, engineer and founder of Adafruit, walks Smith and Brewster through a series of factory components from a circuitboard pick and place machine and precise handwork to prototyping and testing. Fried discusses the jobs that individuals to do bring products to market, what a company like Adafruit looks for in potential employees, and the benefits of onshore manufacturing.

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 “MFG DAY addresses common misperceptions about manufacturing by giving manufacturers an opportunity to open their doors and show, in a coordinated effort, what manufacturing is — and what it isn’t,” reads MFG DAY’s mission statement. “By working together during and after MFG DAY, manufacturers will begin to address the skilled labor shortage they face, connect with future generations, take charge of the public image of manufacturing, and ensure the ongoing prosperity of the whole industry.”

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At 27 minutes it’s a long watch, but an interesting insight into this particular business’s manufacturing process. Through videos like this, MFG DAY is succeeding in bringing a human element to manufacturing and sparking that vital interest in the industry. Check it out: