Last year, I published a post on the state of manufacturing, and how I thought that recovery was imminent. I am not a fortune teller and I certainly am not an economist, but you get a feeling based upon sales confidence levels, deals, and industry chat whether it's going to be a good year, or a down year. Well, like last year, I think it's going to be a good year. Not just for Invensys (becoming a Schneider Electric Company) but because as a whole there appears to be a palpable positive attitude from the industry as a whole. Let's look at some proof points.
The Manufacturer is a publication focusing on the UK economy. They reported on a study to 200 executives, who although were cautious, forecast economic growth of 2.7%, and explicity stated that investments in "improving productivity and increasing flexibility" were required to drive growth forward. Perhaps I'm just an eternal optimist, but to me, it brings opportunities for technologies like #Manufacturing Execution Systems, Enterprise Asset Management and Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence ("big data") to guide, inform and educate companies on the state of their operations and suggested improvements.
Let's look at another indicator, this time from MAPI, who reports four straight quarterly advances in the manufacturing sector, and "few speed bumps" ahead--ie, a continuing upswing.
One last data point from consultant Barnes Denning, who states that the Institute for Supply Chain Management reported seven consecutive quarters of growth, and "The New Orders Index registered at 64.2 percent, its highest reading since April 2010 when it came in at 65.1 percent."
So collectively, globally, it's good, albeit cautious, news, and overall, for we that serve the manufacturing industry, great news for a robust 2014!
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