The Barnes Global Advisors Selected to Lead Casting Augmentation Tiger Team (CATT) Initiative
[Sewickley, PA] — [May 2026] — The Barnes Global Advisors (TBGA) will lead the Casting Augmentation Tiger Team (CATT), a strategic initiative under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy (IBP) Automated Trades initiative, which is aimed at improving the nation’s casting industry’s responsiveness for high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) parts. The CATT program will leverage TBGA’s team of industry subject-matter experts to identify and deploy practical and adoptable Industry 3.0 and 4.0 solutions across the casting supply chain.
The casting supply chain continues to face significant challenges in delivering high-quality products on time and at scale for DoW applications, especially those related to the sustainment of DoW systems. These challenges range from workforce shortages to inconsistent demand and production cycles, from upstream and downstream supply chain bottlenecks to predatory business practices, and from the lack of technical data packages to aging facilities and infrastructure.
The CATT initiative will establish a baseline of the state of the industry and develop a repeatable assessment methodology that can be tailored to evaluate individual foundries spanning the major casting methodologies. The framework will provide actionable pathways to modernize operations, optimize HMLV production, and apply best practices to legacy part manufacturing.
“Our nation sits at a critical inflection point,” said Andy Davis, Director of Government Solutions at TBGA. “The DoW has called for industrial base solutions that enable rapid scaling in support of current and future weapons system production and sustainment. The CATT initiative is a fantastic opportunity to not only understand and improve the current casting industrial base, but to prove out a methodology for rapidly unlocking additional commercial capacity.”
TBGA’s extended team brings over 400 combined years of experience in the metal casting industry and includes representatives from leading casting organizations, to include:
The American Foundry Society
The University of Northern Iowa
The Ohio State University
Precision Casting Technologies
Tesseract4D
Aspen Hybrid Technology Solutions
This initiative builds on previous DoW-funded programs, including IBP-funded Castings & Forgings efforts, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Maturation of Advanced Manufacturing for Low-cost Sustainment (MAMLS) and the Component Manufacturing
Technology (ManTech) program, which demonstrated the viability of advanced manufacturing tools within the foundry sector.
About The Barnes Global Advisors
The Barnes Global Advisors (TBGA) is a leading engineering consultancy specializing in additive and advanced manufacturing. With a team of experts and a deep commitment to advancing the industrialization of additive manufacturing, TBGA provides comprehensive consulting, training, and communication services to organizations worldwide. Through their innovative solutions, TBGA helps clients harness the full potential of advanced technologies to achieve mission and business success.