From how manufacturers can secure their connected operations in the age of edge computing to how to ease the burden of technical debt, executives converged in Marco Island, Florida, last week to discuss the industry’s most pressing issues at the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s 2024 Rethink conference. … READ MORE >
Activity at top 10 U.S. ports signals softening economy; manufacturing activity contracts
February inbound container shipments at the top 10 U.S. ports hit their lowest level since before the pandemic, according to the latest available port data aggregated by Bloomberg. … READ MORE >
U.S. manufacturing payrolls negative for first time in 21 months
The negative figure wasn’t unexpected; the soft manufacturing labor data is simply catching up to the slowdown in activity. … READ MORE >
Manufacturing labor market tightens further as pace of hiring slows
The United States added 8,000 manufacturing jobs in December, making for a total of 379,000 new manufacturing jobs added in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This marks a 3% rise in new manufacturing jobs compared to 2021 but the hiring pace in the last few months is slowing. … READ MORE >
Globalized manufacturing enters a new era
Globalization is not dead, but the makeup of its participants has shifted and the rules of global trade continue to be rewritten as businesses diversify where they source and make their goods. … READ MORE >
October data: Manufacturing jobs show little sign of slowing, but openings still elevated
After three months of softening manufacturing payroll data, hiring continued and experienced an uptick in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. … READ MORE >
Positive manufacturing jobs data masks broader issue of tech investment
The shortage can only be filled in the future through incorporating more technology alongside workers and replacing hard-to-fill positions that involve repetitive work. … READ MORE >
Inflation and gross margins—who is winning? Part 1: The transportation sector
RSM took a detailed look at gross margins across different peer groups in the industrials sector to see how each has fared during this time of high inflation. … READ MORE >
The U.S. may see another supply whipsaw amid transport logjams
The months-long lockdown in Shanghai, China’s most populous city and home to the world’s largest container port, is causing a pile-up of ships at anchor off the Chinese coast. Factory shutdowns and the reduced flow of goods from the city’s port will cause another jolt to U.S. supply chain in the weeks and months to come.
The predictable knock-on effects of the Shanghai lockdown–while far from a total supply disruption akin to that of the early days of the pandemic—will certainly sustain or worsen supply shortages and sustain worldwide inflation. … READ MORE >
Rapid-fire sanctions: What do they mean for industrial companies?
Given the wide-reaching implications of these sanctions on everything from energy and metals to airplane parts and shipping, we can reasonably expect that manufacturers and companies in the broader industrial space will need to brace for impact—if they haven’t felt it already. … READ MORE >