Management

Donald Trump promises to bring factory jobs back to the U.S. from overseas, but many blue-collar workers are hurt more by a lack of skills than by globalization.

The U.S. manufacturing industry is rushing to embrace technology as a critical part of its processes and plans to make new technological investments in 2017, but barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption still exist, according to Automation Alley’s 2017 Technology Industry Report. According to the report, 85% of national manufacturing executives said their company plans to increase budgets for technological advancements; nearly a third of them plan to increase their budgets by 10% to 15%.

At Manufacturing Tomorrow, Greg Dyer of Randstad Commercial Staffing writes about “The hottest jobs in manufacturing in 2017.” He notes “new technology, innovative production systems, a growing preference for American-made goods and a decline in offshoring are transforming U.S. manufacturing. There is an increased demand for technology-savvy workers to not only capitalize on the next industrial revolution, but to fill a critical void left behind by retiring workers.” The hottest manufacturing jobs this year are: “production supervisor, maintenance mechanic, driver, machine operator and warehouse supervisor.”

Mitutoyo America Corporation (MAC), Aurora, Ill., on March 10 named Matt Dye as president and Doug Adkins as executive vice president, according to a company news release. Dye's predecessor, 40-year company veteran Shigeyuki Sasaki, has moved to Germany to support Mitutoyo European operations in an advisory role.

Worldwide manufacturing business conditions showed the largest improvement for more than five-and-a-half years in February, with global trade expanding at the fastest rate for just under six years and optimism about the future continuing to improve. Manufacturing input prices meanwhile continued to rise markedly, albeit with the rate of increase easing slightly during the month. The JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI, compiled by Markit, rose from 52.7 in January to 52.9 in February; its highest since May 2011.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and mHUB’s board of directors announced the official grand opening of mHUB, a physical product innovation center and microfactory designed to galvanize the manufacturing ecosystem by generating innovative ideas, attracting world-class talent and fostering collaboration. Born through the combined efforts of Chicago’s leaders in business, innovation and research, mHUB offers Chicago’s burgeoning product manufacturers access to state-of-the-art facilities, along with resources to develop and bring new products to market.

To a certain extent, other countries have taken advantage of the United States since the turn of the last century. Beginning with World War II and the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after much of it was destroyed, the United States insisted in promulgating our version of democracy and continued to fund economic assistance to underdeveloped countries, and not-so-underdeveloped nations as well.