Trade & Industry Development Magazine

As advanced manufacturing becomes more high-tech, site selection needs to change. The biotech industry has an acute need for well educated workers and clean manufacturing environments to support its complex processes. At the same time, industries are wrestling with how best to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to save time and costs but keep the human touch. In this issue, we discuss the evolving framework for site selection in industries including advanced manufacturing and biotech and address the urgent need for a properly trained workforce.

T&ID examines new site selection and development factors facing food and agriculture, aerospace and automotive technologies. Companies across the country have altered their business models and their supply chains to meet urgent new needs in a changing business landscape. In this issue, we'll share insights into the ways industries have pivoted to adapt to an innovative business landscape. We'll also look at six states - Alabama, Colorado, Indiana Mississippi, Montana and South Carolina - and learn where and how they're innovating to succeed.

In this issue, our 18th annual CiCi awards recognize investment and community impact projects from 2023, and many of them involve the automotive industry, which has been a strength for the U.S. economy for more than a century. We’ve chosen 31 projects that represent high-capital investment or community improvement. Our features cover the latest information in retail, corporate headquarters and commercial real estate, with a special look at adaptive reuse, and our spotlights look at Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

In this issue, our features examine supply chain management and natural gas, a reliable energy source that helps drive economic growth. Our Sites & Programs offers an update on major U.S. ports, and our Shortlist examines America’s Top Sites for Business Development: a compendium of locations from across the country that include critical business infrastructure and transportation. Regionally, we’re presenting six locations – Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia – that are ready for expansions and greenfield projects.

As manufacturing becomes more high-tech, site selection becomes complex. Communications are critical, which is why 5G infrastructure now tops the list of site selection considerations. The biotech industry has an acute need for well educated workers to support its complex processes. At the same time, industries are looking to shift toward carbon-neutral activities to meet corporate sustainability goals. In this issue, we discuss the evolving framework for site selection in the high tech industries including advanced manufacturing and biotech.

AI is a big player in this issue. It is seen across every industry, including those featured in this magazine: Automotive, Aerospace & Aviation and, of course, Agriculture & Food Processing. But AI is starting to affect site selection decisions and it is increasingly driving changes in labor force requirements. Our issue also examines other essential issues, such as being prepared to handle an OSHA inspection. We also have some great state spotlights, as well as a curated list of sites around the nation for food production and agriculture.

In this issue, our features take a look at supply chain management and the transition to a non-carbon energy future. Our Sites & Programs feature covers ports and inland ports, and our Shortlist examines America’s Top Sites for Business Prosperity and An Enjoyable Life: a compendium of locations from across the country that include critical business infrastructure and transportation. Regionally, we’re presenting six locations – Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Ontario and Virginia – that are ready for expansions and greenfield projects.

In this issue, our 17th annual CiCi awards recognize investment and community impact projects from 2022, and many of them involve reshoring vital manufacturing, particularly of critical semiconductors used in everything from vehicles to computers to appliances. We’ve chosen 30 projects that represent either high-capital investment or significant community improvement. Our features cover the latest information in retail, corporate headquarters and commercial real estate, and our spotlights look at Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and Georgia.

The process of site selection has always been complex. In the past, companies looked for a good building site in close proximity to suppliers and transportation routes, a suitable workforce and educational resources that helped them fill positions, a location that came with local and state incentives and quality of life factors that made for happy employees. While all these things are still necessary components, new parts have been added to the site selection clockworks in recent years, and in this issue, we discuss these new factors.

It has been an eventful year for food and agriculture, aerospace and automotive, our themes for this issue. Companies across the country have altered their business models and their supply chains to meet urgent new needs in a changing business landscape. In this issue, we'll share insights into the ways industries have pivoted to adapt to an innovative business landscape. We'll also look at five states -- Alabama, Maryland, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina -- and learn where and how they're innovating to succeed.

In this issue, our features take an in-depth look at supply chain management and aluminum manufacturing and processing. Our Sites & Programs feature covers ports and inland ports, and our Shortlist examines America’s Top Sites for Business Prosperity: a compendium of locations from all across the country that include critical business infrastructure and transportation. Regionally, we’re presenting six locations – Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Virginia and Washington – that are ready for expansions and greenfield projects.

Trade & Industry Development’s 16th Annual Corporate Investment/Community Impact Awards (CiCi Awards) issue honors key projects around the country that promise — through extensive capital investment or influential community impact — to help shape the communities in which they are located, and in which they continue to develop and grow. Coverage begins on page 12. This issue also has three special reports covering the influence of talent in corporate headquarters decisions, evolving financial services needs and the future of the commercial real estate market.

In this issue, our features take an in-depth look at industrial and advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, and free trade zones. Our Sites & Programs feature covers ports and inland ports, and our Shortlist examines business locations around the country that help companies attract an educated workforce with ample educational and training assets and a high quality of life. Regionally, we’re presenting six locations – Florida, Ontario, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, and Ohio – that are ready for advanced manufacturing business.

2021 has been a year of recovery, particularly for food production, aerospace and automotive, our themes for this issue. Companies across the country have retooled their supply chains, changed the way they manufacture and used technology creatively to tie it all together. In this issue, we'll share insights into the ways industries have pivoted to adapt to a new way of doing business. We'll also look at six states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, and South Carolina -- and learn where they're innovating for the new economy.

This issue features several timely topics, including supply chain management and logistics, plastics, and metalworking and fabricating. In the COVID-19 era, the norms of supply chain logistics have been thrown out, and companies are discovering that the processes that once worked well to keep costs down are actually driving up the cost of doing business. In this issue, we feature several editorials that discuss the new challenges to supply chain, and how manufacturers, suppliers, warehouses and ports and depots are handling these new realities.

Trade & Industry Development’s 15th Annual Corporate Investment/Community Impact Awards (CiCi Awards) issue honors key projects around the country that promise—through extensive capital investment or influential community impact—to help shape the communities in which they are located, and in which they continue to develop and grow. Read about our 30 winners in our CiCi Awards coverage starting on page 12. This issue also has three special reports: finding the best location for a corporate HQ (even in a pandemic), short-term realities and the commercial real estate long game, and workplace flexibility in the twenty-first century.

Global manufacturing has always been dynamic, but today, we are facing what can only be described as a sea change. Technology-intensive processes being developed in the United States and abroad are helping to drive competitiveness by increasing research, development and manufacturing efficiency. Additionally, challenges to the economy (not the least of which is the COVID-19 pandemic) have wrought other developments that will impact not only the ongoing push for reshoring but the increasingly competitive drive to develop a vaccine. At the same time, companies are striving to keep customers satisfied and to continue to attract a skilled workforce. This issue covers all these topics and we invite you to read on.

To say that 2020 has proved to be challenging to business and industry might be one of the understatements of the century. Most of the world was blindsided by the global COVID-19 pandemic and there was not a sector of the economy that went untouched. But our country is nothing if not nimble and adaptive, and vital industries such as food production, aerospace and automotive, our themes for this issue, began rethinking their supply chains, leading to an avalanche of reshoring plans, with the intention of bringing at least some of that production back to the U.S. In this issue, professionals are sharing their insights on all the ways the country’s industries have pivoted to adapt to the new reality. We can all learn from them.

This issue features a number of important topics, including supply chain management & logistics, plastics and metalworking & fabricating. But there seems to be one theme that continues to find its way into virtually every area, and that has to do with workforce—development, training and availability. One of the biggest concerns and considerations that companies, executives and site selectors need to factor into any decision is how they can conduct their business with their current workforce, how to improve their talent and how to ensure they’ll have the qualified labor needed for the future.

There are both similarities and differences between traditional and advanced manufacturing, as our feature, “Creating an Environment to Attract Advanced Manufacturing,” points out. Another feature in this issue helps to determine if a community is “utility-friendly” for business expansion. We also look at the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Program, which helps an ever-growing number of U.S.-based businesses maintain their international competitiveness. “Sites & Programs” focuses on workforce training and education, and we look at four key states for growth: Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio.