§ 17115a. Development of national smart manufacturing plan

• (a) Not later than 3 years after December 27, 2020 , the Secretary of Energy (in this section referred to as the “Secretary”), in consultation with the National Academies, shall develop and complete a national plan for smart manufacturing technology development and deployment to improve the productivity and energy efficiency of the manufacturing sector of the United States.
• (b)
  • (1) The plan developed under subsection (a) shall identify areas in which agency actions by the Secretary and other heads of relevant Federal agencies would—
    • (A) facilitate quicker development, deployment, and adoption of smart manufacturing technologies and processes;
    • (B) result in greater energy efficiency and lower environmental impacts for all American manufacturers; and
    • (C) enhance competitiveness and strengthen the manufacturing sectors of the United States.
  • (2) Agency actions identified under paragraph (1) shall include—
    • (A) an assessment of previous and current actions of the Department relating to smart manufacturing;
    • (B) the establishment of voluntary interconnection protocols and performance standards;
    • (C) the use of smart manufacturing to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in supply chains across multiple companies;
    • (D) actions to increase cybersecurity in smart manufacturing infrastructure;
    • (E) deployment of existing research results;
    • (F) the leveraging of existing high-performance computing infrastructure; and
    • (G) consideration of the impact of smart manufacturing on existing manufacturing jobs and future manufacturing jobs.
• (c) Not later than 2 years after the date on which the Secretary completes the plan under subsection (a), and not less frequently than once every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary shall revise the plan to account for advancements in information and communication technology and manufacturing needs.
• (d) Annually until the completion of the plan under subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the progress made in developing the plan.
• (e) In this section, the term “smart manufacturing” means advanced technologies in information, automation, monitoring, computation, sensing, modeling, artificial intelligence, analytics, and networking that—
  • (1) digitally—
    • (A) simulate manufacturing production lines;
    • (B) operate computer-controlled manufacturing equipment;
    • (C) monitor and communicate production line status; and
    • (D) manage and optimize energy productivity and cost throughout production;
  • (2) model, simulate, and optimize the energy efficiency of a factory building;
  • (3) monitor and optimize building energy performance;
  • (4) model, simulate, and optimize the design of energy efficient and sustainable products, including the use of digital prototyping and additive manufacturing to enhance product design;
  • (5) connect manufactured products in networks to monitor and optimize the performance of the networks, including automated network operations; and
  • (6) digitally connect the supply chain network.