According to the NAM/IndustryWeek Manufacturing Index — 2nd Quarter 2010, published by the National Association of Manufacturers and IndustryWeek, 74% of manufacturers were optimistic about future prospects in 2Q 2010: a sharp contrast from the 28% who said that in Q1 2009.
Business Outlook (% of firms with a positive business outlook)
2008.1 64%
2008.2 52%
2008.3 41%
2008.4 33%
2009.1 28%
2009.2 42%
2009.3 55%
2009.4 60%
2010.1 70%
2010.2 74%
For a fifth consecutive quarter, the share of respondents with a positive business outlook increased, however the pace of improvement slowed compared to the previous four quarters. Does that mean that the manufacturing recovery will decelerate? Not if Washington reads the signals and holds on regulatory changes that stifle growth. Not if exchange rates hold and US manufacturers continue to find customers in the global marketplace. The biggest challenge will be putting American workers back to work so consumer spending rebounds.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Manufacturers Deserve a Coherent Energy Policy
Allan Sloan, in A Good Energy A Good Energy Strategy Doesn’t Fit in a Slogan (Washington Post, July 13, 2010), states “So now, you ask, since I don't believe in a magic solution, what should we do? It's easy, though not politically palatable. You put a heavy tax on electricity, gasoline and other energy sources whose use you want to discourage.”
While a coherent energy policy is critical for America, heavily taxing electricity would have a disastrous effect on US manufacturing.
Think for a moment of the manufacturing operations we’ve retained in the United States: industry verticals like plastic film, wire and cable, petroleum refining, glass, chemicals, steel and aluminum to name a few. When the cost to produce an energy-intensive product like chemicals rises because the cost of energy rises, corporations evaluate lower-cost locations for production. We all know pricing for energy is extraordinarily complicated, but a wholesale increase across the board will affect a large user of power like Alcoa or ADM much more than it will affect a household. It will affect a college campus or research hospital much more than a car dealership. A large Google data center must have consistent, redundant power to operate. A large pharmaceutical manufacturing facility also needs high quality, redundant power: an outage can trigger product destruction and the need for plant revalidation. Sloan’s prescriptive may have the unintended consequence of further driving US manufacturing offshore.
He ends the article by stating, “Of course, nothing like that is likely to happen. Because ‘Raise prices, support some energy research, but don't shove solutions such as compact fluorescent bulbs down consumers' throats’ doesn't make for a good bumper sticker or sound bite. It's not magical. It's just right.”
Well… it may not be right for US manufacturing.
While a coherent energy policy is critical for America, heavily taxing electricity would have a disastrous effect on US manufacturing.
Think for a moment of the manufacturing operations we’ve retained in the United States: industry verticals like plastic film, wire and cable, petroleum refining, glass, chemicals, steel and aluminum to name a few. When the cost to produce an energy-intensive product like chemicals rises because the cost of energy rises, corporations evaluate lower-cost locations for production. We all know pricing for energy is extraordinarily complicated, but a wholesale increase across the board will affect a large user of power like Alcoa or ADM much more than it will affect a household. It will affect a college campus or research hospital much more than a car dealership. A large Google data center must have consistent, redundant power to operate. A large pharmaceutical manufacturing facility also needs high quality, redundant power: an outage can trigger product destruction and the need for plant revalidation. Sloan’s prescriptive may have the unintended consequence of further driving US manufacturing offshore.
He ends the article by stating, “Of course, nothing like that is likely to happen. Because ‘Raise prices, support some energy research, but don't shove solutions such as compact fluorescent bulbs down consumers' throats’ doesn't make for a good bumper sticker or sound bite. It's not magical. It's just right.”
Well… it may not be right for US manufacturing.
American Ingenuity
The smartest guys in the room, former Ford Motor Company executives and a team of first responders, asked a simple question: why hasn’t anyone developed a purpose-built vehicle for law enforcement? A passenger vehicle like the Crown Victoria is dramatically modified in an attempt to make it usable in the tough environment that is police work and, even then, the vehicle does not deliver on safety, efficiency, fuel economy, speed, or maneuverability.
While the mail carrier has a purpose-built vehicle, our first responders, the men and women who patrol our streets every day and every night, make due with a civilian sedan that is after-market modified to the point where the warranty is invalid and officer safety is compromised.
So why hasn’t anyone developed a purpose-built vehicle for law enforcement?
A team of Ford Motor executives spent years talking to police officers to find out what they want in a vehicle, and that vehicle has been designed: Carbon Motors E7. E7 is the brainchild of Chairman and CEO William Li. Li and VP and Chief Development Officer Trevor Rudderham know everything there is to know about designing a vehicle and bringing it to market. Another Carbon executive, Stacy Stephens, is a former police officer for the Coppell (Texas) Police Department and member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Stacy knows everything there is to know about the needs of the officer. He sits on the Law Enforcement Stops and Safety Subcommittee (LESSS) of the IACP Highway Safety Committee and IACP Division of State Associations of Chiefs of Police (SACOP) SafeShield Project which examines technologies for the purpose of preventing and minimizing officer injuries and fatalities.
William Li and the Carbon Motors team are going to deliver an unbelievable gift in the E7 to the law enforcement community, our everyday heroes. And the other part of the story that makes us smile is the where: this vehicle will be manufactured in America: in Connersville, Indiana, in a shuttered Visteon components plant. A gift to a town that really needed a hero.
While the mail carrier has a purpose-built vehicle, our first responders, the men and women who patrol our streets every day and every night, make due with a civilian sedan that is after-market modified to the point where the warranty is invalid and officer safety is compromised.
So why hasn’t anyone developed a purpose-built vehicle for law enforcement?
A team of Ford Motor executives spent years talking to police officers to find out what they want in a vehicle, and that vehicle has been designed: Carbon Motors E7. E7 is the brainchild of Chairman and CEO William Li. Li and VP and Chief Development Officer Trevor Rudderham know everything there is to know about designing a vehicle and bringing it to market. Another Carbon executive, Stacy Stephens, is a former police officer for the Coppell (Texas) Police Department and member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Stacy knows everything there is to know about the needs of the officer. He sits on the Law Enforcement Stops and Safety Subcommittee (LESSS) of the IACP Highway Safety Committee and IACP Division of State Associations of Chiefs of Police (SACOP) SafeShield Project which examines technologies for the purpose of preventing and minimizing officer injuries and fatalities.
William Li and the Carbon Motors team are going to deliver an unbelievable gift in the E7 to the law enforcement community, our everyday heroes. And the other part of the story that makes us smile is the where: this vehicle will be manufactured in America: in Connersville, Indiana, in a shuttered Visteon components plant. A gift to a town that really needed a hero.
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