According to the 2011 Next Generation Manufacturing Study/Survey from the Manufacturing Performance Institute, manufacturing companies in the United States have been ignoring maintenance and upgrades for their equipment. This may be due to the increased focus on acquiring clients and satisfying orders as the overall revenue of the manufacturing industry has been declining.
On average, manufacturing companies have invested below 5 percent of their revenue in their equipment. This indicates that manufacturing companies within the United States must now invest their capital in repairing or upgrading their equipment in order to continue to operate. This presents an opportunity for companies who produce manufacturing equipment to increase their earnings with new models or upgrades.
The Next Generation Of Technicians
Expertise in the operations of manufacturing equipment in the United States is dwindling. This expertise and knowledge resides in the minds of engineers and technicians that are now retiring. Unfortunately, these companies have neglected to pass this knowledge on, resulting in a void in expertise. It is estimated that 10 percent of the specialized workforce in this industry will retire within the next three to five years.
This does create an opportunity for employment in the United States manufacturing equipment technician career field. However, some economic experts have postulated that the growth of manufacturing as a whole within the United States will not attract enough students to pursue these fields. This remains one of the biggest problems facing the equipment manufacturing industry today: Who will be the next generation of technicians and innovators?
Extreme Emphasis On Innovation
According to Commerce.gov, the official website for United States commerce, it is estimated that both domestic and foreign sales of manufacturing equipment from the United States in 2010 is $360.9 billion. Machinery exports in 2010 totaled $141.3 billion. This indicates that the United States was the world’s largest supplier of manufacturing machinery. This is largely because companies who manufacturer this type of equipment place extreme emphasis on innovation.
They aim to provide increasingly sophisticated equipment to sell to manufacturing companies throughout the world. The emphasis is always on increasing the automation and value of equipment that is sold. Countries from all over the world have become frequent customers of these companies.
Sustained Levels Of Growth
There are many different subsections of equipment manufacturing. Each of these sectors focuses on a unique type of equipment to sell to companies within corresponding industries. Some equipment is used to increase the automation of food packaging, processing and transportation. Other equipment is created to manufacture various goods using plastic and metal.
Industrial machinery is an important sub sector that focuses on production equipment for items like motors, valves and material handling equipment. Each of these subsectors is constantly exploring new manufacturing equipment in order to improve their flow of operations. This has allowed for a somewhat sustained level of growth as many manufacturing jobs and companies moved overseas.
A National And Global Impact
Equipment manufacturing in the United States is one of the most competitive and important economic sectors in the country. With hundreds of billions of dollars flowing through this market every year, it’s easy to see why the economic impact of this industry can be felt all over the nation. As the world’s largest exporter of machinery equipment, producing this equipment is extremely important for the United States economy.
According to the United States Department of Trade, Canada, Australia, Korea, China, Mexico and Brazil are the largest buyers of machinery manufacturing equipment. Peru, India, China, Chile and South Africa were the fastest-growing purchasers of this vital equipment between 2001 and 2011. Some of the most popular types of machinery being purchased are: turbines and their generators, construction machinery, engine equipment and agricultural machinery.
Article Sources:
http://selectusa.commerce.gov
http://www.manufacturing.net
http://www.trade.gov
Safety is a serious issue. Consider what happened at the Tribe hummus plant in Taunton. A worker got caught in the rotating screws that blend the hummus and struggled to free himself as slowly-winding 9-inch blades kept turning, crushing his arms and part of his head died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. But the horrific accident could have been prevented if the plant had followed a standard safety practice known as “lock out/tag out. It requires employees to be trained to cut power to industrial machinery before cleaning activities begin.