Editor's note: This viewpoint article was co-written by Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation and Carolyn Lee, executive director of The Manufacturing Institute. Barrels of e-ink have been spilled in recent months on the radical realignment of the workplace during COVID-19. The commentators' usually narrow focus on the work-from-home revolution, however, ignores the equally rapid shifts in onsite employment, work practices and technologies that will continue to transform how Americans do their jobs every day. The pandemic necessitated immediate, iterative adjustments to business operations, demanding agility and resilience from companies and workers. But change is intensifying across the U.S. economy, especially in modern manufacturing.

The vast vacant lot along the Monongahela River has been a scar from Pittsburgh's industrial past for decades. It was once the site of the Jones and Laughlin steelworks, one of the largest such facilities in the city back when steel was the dominant industry there. Most of the massive structures are long gone, leaving behind empty fields pocked with occasional remnants of steelmaking and a few odd buildings. Next to the sprawling site is one of Pittsburgh's poorer neighborhoods, Hazelwood, where a house can go for less than $50,000. As with many of the towns that stretch south along the river toward West Virginia, like McKeesport and Duquesne, the economic reasons for its existence--steel and coal--are a fading memory. These days the old steel site, called Hazelwood Green by its developers, is coming back to life.