Balerion General Partner, Dan Wallman, sits down with Balerion Advisor, Doug McAdams, to discuss advanced manufacturing and the rebuilding of America’s industrial base. Balerion’s most recent report on advanced manufacturing, Forging Ahead, structures the discussion.
00:00 – 01:00 — Welcome and contextDan Wallman introduces the webinar and Doug McAdams, framing the discussion around Balerion’s new report Forging Ahead and the state of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
01:00 – 03:00 — How the U.S. lost manufacturing dominanceDoug explains how decades of underinvestment, aging equipment, and workforce attrition hollowed out American manufacturing while China scaled to ~30% of global production.
03:00 – 05:00 — National security consequences of supply-chain fragilityExamples from defense aviation and the Navy illustrate how parts shortages ground platforms and delay deployments.
05:00 – 06:45 — Why reshoring must look different this timeThe U.S. path forward isn’t cost competition—it’s innovation, capital allocation, and process reinvention.
06:45 – 08:30 — Federal momentum behind advanced manufacturingDiscussion of the White House National Strategy for Advanced Manufacturing, the Office of Strategic Capital, and new Navy manufacturing initiatives.
08:30 – 10:15 — Flexible manufacturing and the “software-first” factoryHow robotics, software, AI, and digital twins are encoding tribal knowledge and enabling rapid, low-labor production.
10:15 – 12:00 — Fixed tooling vs. small-batch flexibilityWhy legacy tooling economics failed defense and aerospace—and how modern factories enable rapid turnaround for low-volume, mission-critical parts.
12:00 – 14:00 — Additive manufacturing: reality vs. hype3D printing’s true role is not mass production, but enabling speed, tooling, dies, and iteration—especially in casting.
14:00 – 16:00 — Casting reinvented through additive toolingHow 3D-printed dies collapse timelines and capital costs, enabling iterative engineering and bespoke production at scale.
16:00 – 17:45 — Overview of the Forging Ahead reportDoug outlines the report’s thesis and structure: rebuilding the “middle” between raw materials and final assembly.
17:45 – 19:30 — The six categories of advanced manufacturingIntroduction to casting & foundry, forming & forging, additive, subtractive (CNC), joining & welding, and finishing.
19:30 – 22:00 — Casting and forging as foundational bottlenecksWhy casting underpins ~90% of manufactured goods and why its decline is a systemic risk.
22:00 – 24:00 — Company examples from the reportDiscussion of Fabri (casting), Machina Labs (forming/forging), Hadrian (CNC), Path Robotics (welding), and GrayMatter Robotics (finishing).
24:00 – 26:00 — Centralization vs. distributed manufacturing hubsWhy advanced factories may centralize expertise but deploy modular “franchise-like” facilities near customers.
26:00 – 28:00 — Vertical integration as a serviceA vision where startups gain instant access to vertically integrated manufacturing through a national network of advanced suppliers.
28:00 – 30:00 — Manufacturing in space: promise and limitsLow gravity, vacuum environments, energy abundance, and why pharma may lead in-space manufacturing before metals.
30:00 – 31:30 — Rare earths, magnets, and strategic autonomyChina’s dominance in materials processing and why reshoring manufacturing must extend beyond mining.
31:30 – 32:30 — Leadership vs. technologyWhat separates a great manufacturing technology from a great manufacturing company: execution, leadership, and systems thinking.
32:30 – End — Closing thoughts and next stepsDan points viewers to the Forging Ahead report, and previews upcoming advanced manufacturing webinars.
