With the placement of major automation companies like Siemens and B&R, and automotive companies like Porsche and GM into the Atlanta area, Atlanta is beginning to look like the manufacturing and automation capital of the US.
McGowan says he sees Atlanta as being well suited to advanced manufacturing. “Advanced manufacturing requires a higher level of skill, and skill is increasingly gravitating toward cities more and more,” he said. With Georgia Tech, Emory, and the Centers for Disease Control all located here, he sees Atlanta as having a definite advantage for medical device manufacturers. He cited CardioMEMS, a new startup in Atlanta, as a good example of the future of medical device manufacturing in Atlanta. “CardioMEMS is manufacturing here in a small way now, but as they ramp up, we want to capture that in the city of Atlanta,” McGowan said.
A major manufacturing development Invest Atlanta is working on now involves discussions with the Department of Defense over the Fort McPherson site just south of the city.
There’s also a major the rail line convergence here, which has been the case since the founding of the city (when it was called Terminus because of its position as the end point of multiple rail lines). This fact, coupled with the recent Army Corps of Engineers’ approval to deepen the port of Savannah leads Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed (McGowan’s boss) to see Atlanta becoming a major logistics center for the eastern seaboard, and that will serve as another big attractor for manufacturing.
Read the article at http://www.automationworld.com/atlanta-positions-itself-manufacturing-center