At this year’s Ohio Manufacturing Association Workforce Summit, one message came through clearly: It’s time for U.S. manufacturing to go on offense.

For decades, workforce development has been played defensively: scrambling to fill positions, reacting to retirements and patching talent gaps after the fact. The stakes are now much higher. According to the Reshoring Initiative, reshoring and foreign direct investment accounted for nearly 245,000 U.S. manufacturing job announcements last year, and early reports suggest 2025 will finish at a similar pace.

The opportunity is real, but so is the pressure. As companies bring production closer to home and new technologies reshape operations, manufacturers can no longer afford to wait for the next labor shortage to dictate their strategy. They must design for it. Many already are defining roles more precisely, investing in people and building community-rooted cultures to turn workforce challenges into competitive advantage.