Host Fabian Alefeld interviews Dean Bartles, President and CEO of the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group (behind NCDMM, Advanced Manufacturing International, and America Makes), about manufacturing’s evolution, defense industrial base challenges, and additive manufacturing. Bartles recounts his career from shop-floor machining and industrial engineering to international defense manufacturing programs and 31 years through successive owners culminating in General Dynamics, then leading NCDMM and forming a parent organization to expand technology deployment. They discuss consolidation and contracting barriers that pushed small/medium firms out of defense, productivity gains from automation, reshoring momentum driven by tariffs and new investment, and workforce shortages and training pathways via trades, community colleges, and SME/Tooling U. Bartles highlights AI for process monitoring and adaptive control in laser powder bed fusion, the promise of low-cost desktop FFF for drones, the need for shared data and improved repeatability, and sustainability efforts including the Additive Manufacturing Green Trade Association.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
02:54 Dean Manufacturing Origins
04:18 Global Defense Career Path
06:05 Leading NCDMM and America Makes
10:44 Defense Base Decline and Industry 4.0
18:14 Reshoring and Global Models
22:17 AI Capital and Process Control
35:25 Open Data and Repeatability Challenge
38:24 Defense Adoption and Drone Boom
44:08 Workforce Pathways and Community Colleges
50:04 Sustainability and Greener AM
54:27 Closing ABL Always Be Learning
