Economy

Harry Moser, the founder and president of the Reshoring Initiative, an industry-led group out to prove offshoring is not always the best economical decision for companies, takes issue with the recently released 2015 A.T. Kearney U.S. Reshoring Index, which suggested that the reshoring trend was an aberration. A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, reported in December that its reshoring index dropped to -115 in 2015. A negative value is said to indicate net offshoring, according to the consulting firm.

A partnership between GF Machining Solutions, Lincolnshire, Ill., and a Colorado community college that brought 5-axis training to the school's machine technologies program recently earned recognition from the Obama administration for its efforts to confront an estimated 2 million manufacturing jobs expected to go unfilled over the next decade, according to a GF Machining Solutions news release issed Jan. 21.

U.S. manufacturing reshoring trends appear to have been short-lived, according to a Dec. 21 news release from A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm headquartered in Chicago. "The reshoring phenomenon appears to have been more a one-off aberration than an inexorable trend," the firm reported, citing new data from its second annual A.T. Kearney U.S. Reshoring Index. "Data from 2015 confirms that offshoring is gathering steam, while the reshoring train has yet to leave the station."

Manufacturers face "unprecedented global complexity," according to a Jan. 12 blog post on the website for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI). "The sector is now powered by software and data every bit as much as by steel and electricity," continued the post, which was authored by MAPI Marketing Council Manager Cam Mackey. "The ability to access insights about how to survive and thrive has never been more critical. "Recent shifts in technologies, demographics and markets have created a new normal for manufacturers. Those that adapt quickly will emerge more innovative and agile than their competitors, but not without undergoing a transformation in everything from the people they hire to how they create value," Mackey observed in report titled, "The Impact of Megatrends on U.S. Manufacturers." 

Hardide Coatings Inc., a U.K.-based provider of advanced surface coating technology, recently opened a new production facility in Martinsville, Va. The $7 million expansion, which began a year ago, allows Hardide to expand its production operations to North America.

Jay Timmons, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) president and CEO, will kick off the 2016 State of Manufacturing Tour on Jan. 28 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Joining Timmons will be Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics and Political Library, and Jim Roche, president of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire.

Speedgrip Chuck Inc., an Elkhart, Ind.-based designer and manufacturer of highly engineered workholding mechanisms, has been sold to an affiliate of Stratford-Cambridge Group, a private investment firm headquartered in Plymouth, Mich. Speedgrip announced the transaction in a news release issued Dec. 16.

Labor productivity in the manufacturing sector increased at a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.1 percent during the third quarter of 2015—the largest gain recorded since a 6.1 percent increase during the third quarter of 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Output increased 3.2 percent while hours worked decreased 1.8 percent.

As Kirtland Community College puts the finishing touches on its new Computer Numerically Controlled lab, the Roscommon, Mich., school is nearly set to launch a certificate program aimed at meeting the growing demand for workers with computerized tooling training.