Even small reductions in aircraft weight can result in significant savings on aviation fuel. Global oil prices have plummeted, but that’s not keeping the aerospace industry from exploring new ways to reduce engine weight. “Investment in new-technology aircraft will not stop,” said Frank Pray, Chief Executive of aircraft lessor Intrepid Aviation, in a January 2015 article in the Wall Street Journal.
The American economy has lost nearly 5.8 million manufacturing jobs over the last two decades. Today, over 75% of U.S. manufacturers employ 20 or fewer workers. Although these small companies account for just 9% of the country’s manufacturing jobs, “they are by and large the types of businesses that have been growing and creating jobs” since the Great Recession, writes Kim Gittleson of the BBC News.
Penny Pritzker, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, has announced the extension of a billion-dollar program that’s designed to accelerate the resurgence of American manufacturing. The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) will designate up to 12 additional regions as “manufacturing communities” under the latest round of the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative.
New York State’s medical technology industry is home to multinationals such as Welch Allyn and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and to startup companies whose innovative ideas could be the next big thing. For medical device manufacturers of all sizes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent announcement about expediting the regulatory process is welcome news.
Are you getting the most value from your engineering department? Do engineers have time for tasks that are critical to your company’s long-term success, or are they so busy with today’s projects that there’s too little time to mitigate tomorrow’s risks? In a recent survey from IHS Engineering360 Media Solutions, many engineers reported tighter resource constraints, a faster pace of work, and increasingly complex designs. What does this mean for your manufacturing business both today and tomorrow?
Critics of tax breaks for manufacturers describe state and federal policies as “corporate welfare”, and claim that tax-based incentives are ineffective. As a recent article from the State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI) explains, however, research and development (R&D) tax credits help more than just manufacturing companies. Two new studies show how businesses that claim R&D tax credits are less likely to lay-off employees, and are more likely to support satellite industries through capital expenditures.
The Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) based at UI Labs in Chicago is part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. DMDII is the nation’s flagship research institute for applying cutting-edge digital technologies to reduce the time and cost of manufacturing, strengthen the capabilities of the U.S. supply chain, and reduce acquisition costs for DoD. Through partnerships between industry, government, and universities, DMDII will both develop and demonstrate digital manufacturing technologies and deploy and commercialize these technologies across key manufacturing industries.
Manufacturing executives are feeling bullish about the U.S. economy, and they’re ready to prove it. In a recent survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), 68% of respondents reported that they’re optimistic about the American economy’s prospects for 2015. That’s an 11% increase from the last time PwC checked the Manufacturing Barometer, a quarterly survey of 60 senior executives at multinational manufacturers.
Rising labor costs abroad, abundant energy supplies at home, direct foreign investment, and increasing U.S. demand are all powering America’s manufacturing renaissance. What’s less understood, however, is the importance of available metals and minerals, materials that are used to make everything from cell phones and laptops to body armor, medical devices, and machinery.
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