Are Indiana auto suppliers already behind Michigan's suppliers on ADAPT grant funding and OEM relationships?

Michigan finished its first grant round in September with 11 suppliers splitting $21 million and locked EV startup Slate into its supplier network separately, so Indiana suppliers applying through Jan. 8 are chasing the same OEM sourcing cycle from behind, and the reimbursement structure means you need the cash on hand before any of it comes back.

Where in our supply chain do we depend on a single overseas source that a policy change in Beijing or a permit delay in Michigan could cut off?

Canadian Solar's Jeffersonville HJT line and Fibrosan's Cassopolis plant both show the same pattern, a domestic build that still depends on a single foreign input or a single regulatory approval, so map any process tooling, raw material, or permit dependency in your own supply chain that has no second source.

If small-company AI projects are cheap and labor is already short, what's stopping us from running a real pilot instead of just talking about one?

Conexus found 57% of small-company AI projects cost under $25,000 in year one, so budget usually isn't the actual barrier, pick one production-scheduling problem, name a single owner, and agree on what success looks like before you start.

Manufacturing News TEG Daily

November 8, 2026 · Clark

Indiana's ADAPT Grant Program for Auto Suppliers Opens Behind Michigan's Head Start

Indiana's ADAPT grant program for auto suppliers opens behind Michigan's head start, while Jeffersonville solar, Elkhart RV supply, and new automation data test Hoosier plants.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Indiana opened applications for the ADAPT grant program for auto suppliers on Oct. 26, a $10.79 million federal pool aimed at roughly 320 small and mid-size Indiana suppliers retooling for hybrid, electric, and hydrogen vehicle production, and Michigan already has $22.6 million deployed under a nearly identical program chasing the same suppliers and the same OEM contracts. A solar export fight out of Beijing just put Jeffersonville's biggest new cell plant on a licensing clock, and a Michigan permit fight is pushing back an Elkhart supplier's long-promised domestic plant. Here's what landed on Indiana manufacturers' desks this week.

01Statewide

ADAPT Grant Program Opens With Michigan Two Rounds Ahead

Gov. Mike Braun opened applications Oct.

For the huddle: If we'd need to front our own capital before ADAPT reimburses us, do we have the cash position to apply at all, and are we already behind Michigan's suppliers in qualifying for the next 5-7 year OEM EV sourcing cycle?

SourcesGovernor Braun powers automotive industry; Jobs with $10M+ Grant Program (wbiw.com)

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02Statewide

Conexus AI Maturity Assessment Scores Small Indiana Manufacturers Against Each Other

Conexus Indiana launched a free AI Maturity Assessment Oct. 27 that scores small and mid-size advanced manufacturing and logistics companies, those with fewer than 150 employees, from 0 to 100 against Indiana peers, then routes them to workshops and a use-case catalog.

For the huddle: If 57% of small-company AI projects cost under $25,000, is budget really why we haven't moved past a pilot, or do we lack the single day-to-day owner and pre-agreed definition of success Conexus says separates production systems from stalled tests?

SourcesNew Tool Shows Manufacturing and Logistics Companies Where They Stand on AI (buildingindiana.com)

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03Clark

China's Solar Export Controls Put Jeffersonville's HJT Cell Plant on the Clock

China's commerce and science ministries proposed adding heterojunction (HJT) and TOPCon solar cell manufacturing technologies to its export control list, citing national security, and Tesla and Canadian Solar shares both fell on the news, Canadian Solar's by more than 7%. Canadian Solar's $1 billion CS PowerTech plant in Jeffersonville, Clark County, is the only U.S. facility producing HJT cells domestically, and its Phase II build, targeting 6.3 gigawatts of capacity and roughly 1,200 jobs by the first half of 2027, depends on process tooling that could now require Chinese export licensing.

For the huddle: If Canadian Solar's Jeffersonville HJT line depends on Chinese-sourced deposition equipment now under licensing review, where in our own process do we have a single-sourced Chinese tooling dependency we haven't mapped?

SourcesTSLA, CSIQ Stocks In Focus As China Tightens Solar Manufacturing Technology Exports (stocktwits.com)

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04Statewide

Fibrosan's Michigan Retrofit Pushes Back Elkhart RV Sidewall Supply

Fibrosan, the Elkhart-headquartered FRP supplier, filed a revised air permit Oct. 14 proposing a regenerative thermal oxidizer at its Cassopolis, Michigan plant after regulators logged 93 public comments over hazardous emissions, including the probable carcinogen styrene.

For the huddle: With Fibrosan's Michigan plant now running past its original March 2027 target, are we still budgeting RV sidewall sourcing on old overseas lead times, or should we be requalifying a domestic backup supplier now?

SourcesAfter outcry, Michigan fiberglass plant proposes pollution controls (mlive.com)

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05Statewide

Penn State Researcher Flags a Labor Market Splitting in Two Directions at Once

Penn State's Ilya Kovalenko, who leads the university's Control and Automation for Intelligent Systems Lab, said in a Nov. 5 interview that U.S. manufacturing has drawn trillions of dollars in investment since the start of 2026 and now accounts for more than half of private-sector research spending, with custom automation and humanoid robotics as the near-term way to staff the repetitive, dangerous jobs smaller shops can't fill.

For the huddle: If nearly half of Indiana jobs are flagged as automation-exposed while we still can't fill our own open manufacturing roles, where should automation go first, backfilling the jobs we can't staff, or replacing the ones we already have filled?

SourcesNew Tool Shows Manufacturing and Logistics Companies Where They Stand on AI (buildingindiana.com)

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