Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.

GM Invests in Supply-Chain Stability 

What’s the value of some more peace of mind when it comes to your supply chain? For General Motors Co. CFO Paul Jacobson, the answer to that question is “a little bit of cost to us on the interest line.” 

GM this week said it has finalized a financing deal with Procura Auto Parts LLC that will have several GM suppliers buy and hold extra inventory so that the auto giant has enough parts available when the next crisis – be it related to geopolitics, weather, cyberattacks or other disruptions – hits the sector. 

Detailed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the so-called Master IPU Agreement (with IPU standing for irrevocable payment undertakings) provides Procura with up to $4.5 billion in funding from JPMorgan Chase Bank and Banco Santander to advance to suppliers. GM will pay interest on its payment pledges (a little more than 5% at today’s rates) as well as a fee for the unused section of the $4.5 billion credit line – a tab Jacobson is fine with picking up. 

“We think this is going to be a really important step,” he told attendees of the JPMorgan Automotive Conference on the morning of Aug. 12. “It will add a little but of cost to us on the interest line […] What it will allow us to do is essentially maintain that continuity of cash flow, despite the fact that we are going to build a fairly sizable inventory [and] allow us to maintain production even in the midst of some of the global disruptions that we have seen over the past few years.” 

Word of GM’s deal comes about a month after Proxima Group released a report showing that more than 70% of CEOs are willing to pay 10% more to third-party suppliers if it guaranteed the resilience of their supply chains. Looks like GM is getting a deal relative to that benchmark. 

— Geert De Lombaerde 

Recent US Cyber-attacks Currently Limited to Water Treatment Facilities, Not Plants

The number of states hit by recent cyberattacks on U.S. water and wastewater systems is reportedly up to 12, including Minnesota, Michigan, and New Jersey. In Minnesota specifically, more than 30 water systems were affected.

Warnings on July 30 from Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency describe “a loss of monitoring and control functionality” in systems across seven states.

The attacks mostly have been targeting exposed programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to lock out operators and disrupt operations. The most severe activity known at this time involved Georgia, where an attack against Clayton County caused a water pressure drop and forced the agency to issue a boil water advisory, with service restored within hours of the advisory.

“We urge critical infrastructure owners and operators to remove publicly exposed PLCs and other operational technology from the Internet as soon as possible,” said CISA Acting Director Nick Andersen. “We also encourage all organizations to review the latest guidance on CISA.gov and to report suspected incidents or anomalous activity to us for further support.”

There are a few notable things about these attacks. First is the geographic breadth of the targets with a simultaneous sharpness of focus on the water/wastewater sector. There are no known attacks at this time on the physical infrastructure of U.S. manufacturing facilities; however, the breadth of attacks on upstream water resources should have IT and OT managers reviewing their preventive measures as well as their response plans.

Second is the good news that no one to date has been hurt by these cyberattacks; and, while the attacks are geographically spread out, there have been no widespread disruptions to water supplies or wastewater treatment. In most cases, utilities successfully maintained a safe water supply by switching to manual operations.

For manufacturers looking to bolster the security of their own physical infrastructure and OT assets, two podcasts are available to help:

• Wastewater Digest’s What We Know about the Cyberattacks on Water Systems examines the challenges facing smaller utilities, as well as the need to preserve operator expertise and manual control capabilities.
• Control Design’s Why Exposed Wastewater PLCs are Being Hacked features automation industry veteran Jeremy Pollard reviewing the vulnerabilities of PLCs, and what machine builders can learn from this to keep industrial equipment secure.

—Thomas Wilk

Register Now for the 2026 IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit

Manufacturing company owners, plant managers, vice presidents of operations and other people tasked with operational excellence will gather in Spartanburg, S.C., from Oct. 20-22 to learn about continuous improvement, industrial safety and manufacturing technology from a growing slate of top experts.

IndustryWeek’s Operations Leadership Summit features networking events, educational workshops, plant tours of world-class facilities and the chance to learn from peers who have spent decades learning what really works on the shop floor.

The event will be held at the world headquarters of presenting sponsor Performance Solutions by Milliken, and will include keynote presentations from Mark Whitten, president and CEO - Spartanburg Steel Products, and Darrell Edwards, assistant professor at the University of Tennessee and former chief operating officer at La-Z-Boy Inc.

Other speakers on the program include:

• Paul Sinanian, BMW Manufacturing Corp. LLC, speaking on how BMW Plant Spartanburg's weLEAD program prepares the next generation of manufacturing leaders to sustain operational excellence amid tariffs, EV adoption, workforce transitions and evolving market demands
• Missy Boedeker, EHS manager at Albany Engineered Composites, presenting on how manufacturers can move beyond compliance-based safety programs to build a culture of employee engagement and ownership.
• Marc Kermisch, chief technology and AI officer at Protolabs, who will focus on the critical initial steps required for AI to successfully drive process improvements, as well as discuss the future vision of AI within manufacturing.

Click here to register for the event or to learn more about the summit.

—Thomas Wilk

Prysmian Boosts US Presence with Atkore Purchase, Expansion Plans in North Carolina

Italy’s Prysmian is stepping up its North American presence with two big moves in recent days.

The global wire and cable manufacturer earlier this month announced it would acquire U.S.-based Atkore in a deal valued at approximately $3.8 billion, adding approximately 30 major manufacturing and distribution centers to its portfolio and instantly increasing its presence in the data center market. Atkore produces electrical and infrastructure solutions.

The deal brings together complementary products to serve growing markets, the company said.  

“Electrification, AI-driven data centers and digitalization all require major investments in infrastructure, and they are critical to the modern economy, and the opportunity is substantial in the United States,” Prysmian CEO Massimo Battaini said in a statement. “… our priority has been to find the right solution to enhance our outstanding growth and profitability by adding the right commercial platform and product portfolio to maximize our potential. Atkore offers an attractive combination of complementary products, structural growth exposure and meaningful synergy opportunities – and represents a major acceleration in Prysmian’s evolution into a fully-fledged electrical solutions provider.”

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to normal regulatory approvals and closing conditions.  

In other Prysmian news, the manufacturer will invest more than $1 billion to expand its 1.2- million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Catawba County, North Carolina, located approximately an hour northwest of Charlotte. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein made the announcement Aug. 12, which was shared by the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.

The investment will more than double Prysmian’s fiber optic production capacity; construction is expected to take up to two years.

—Jill Jusko

Hadrian Snags Major Funding for Its Factories-As-A-Service 

Early this week, we published Christopher Tang’s thoughts on how the United States’ defense manufacturing sector needs a dual-use factory base far greater than it has today. The team at Southern California-based Hadrian Automation thinks they have part of that need covered. 

Founded nearly six years ago by private-equity veteran Chris Power, Hadrian builds highly automated precision machining factories focused on strengthening the supply chains of the aerospace, defense and space industries. Power and his team have raised nearly $1.4 billion from an investor group co-led by WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group and others who now value Hadrian at about $7.9 billion.  

The new cash gives the Hadrian team fuel to build out its vision for a network of ‘factories-as-a-service’ that can quickly scale up or for Hadrian to rapidly drop production lines into customers’ plants. The company’s operations today span two plants in Torrance, near Los Angeles, as well as new facilities in Arizona and Alabama. Combined, those cover nearly 3 million square feet. 

“Production is now the frontline of deterrence,” Power said in a statement that also said Hadrian will look to soon start making munitions and autonomous systems. “America’s ability to lead will depend on whether we can build, train, and scale faster.” 

Hadrian is itself scaling quickly: This $1.4 billion funding round is more than five times what it raised 13 months ago for its Series C financing. 

— Geert De Lombaerde 

Siemens Names President for New Automation Unit

Siemens Digital Industries COO Rainer Brehm soon will take on a new role at the global manufacturer. Brehm has been named president of the company’s new automation unit, which will combine the organization’s four automation business units—customer services, factory automation, motion control and process automation—into a unified organization simply titled: Automation. The combination is part of Siemen’s ONE Tech Company strategy.

The new organizational structure, as well as Brehm’s appointment, are effective as of Oct. 1.

“Artificial intelligence is transforming industry. This makes a strong automation partner more important than ever. I look forward to working with our teams around the world to further strengthen Siemens’ leadership in automation,” Brehm said in a statement. “Together, we aim to shape the next phase of industry and advance AI-enabled autonomous production, helping our customers become more flexible, productive and competitive.”

—Jill Jusko