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Editorial Staff Manufacturing’s New Virtuous Cycle
he bellboy at my hotel said it all. He told me there wasn’t a hotel room to be found in the city of Chicago, and many suburban hotels were sold out, too. He seemed a bit surprised: All of this for a manufacturing show?
Yes, with IMTS registrations surpassing 114,000, it’s clear that we’ve entered a new era of manufacturing technology that's ready to change the global economy. FABTECH 2014, to be held Nov. 11–13 in Atlanta, also promises to be a blowout.
Larry Stockline, CEO of Promess, a Metro Detroit-based company that specializes in advanced monitoring and motion systems, told me that this was easily “the best IMTS of all time.” His sentiment was echoed everywhere I went—except for a few folks who were getting a little nervous about some of their older technologies being displaced by all-new processes, such as additive manufacturing. In any case, I’m going to call it like I see it: We have entered a virtuous cycle in North American manufacturing. An influx of advanced manufacturing technologies has leveled the playing field on labor costs. We’re now competing on other factors, such as talent, materials, logistics and old-fashioned goodies, like strategy. That is driving old and new manufacturing work back home. And the more the supply chain comes back, the more others see and be- lieve in the business case for these new technologies. It’s a system that is reinforcing itself. Who would have ever guessed—after bleeding millions of manufacturing jobs for de- cades—that we’d be here? No wonder folks were downright ecstatic at the show! All of this revolutionary technology—and, yes, a lot of it can credibly use the “R” word— isn’t just at the high end of the market either. Take Mazak, which showed off a new mill-turn in its Universal Series, at the value end of the market, that shows innovative thinking in a new turret design. Chuck Birkle, VP of sales and marketing, told me that it shows innovation is really springing up at all ends of the manufacturing technology market. If you still have some anxiety about learning the new technologies being layered onto older processes, or all-new technologies, know that you’re not alone. The technology provid- ers know that it's out there, and they're offering more application support than ever. Doosan Infracore, for example, unveiled a new service commitment at the show across its entire product line. Also keep in mind: With this much change underfoot, you have to be on top of your game, learning and assessing how this manufacturing world is chang- ing fast. If you don’t keep up now, chances are good that you won’t benefit from this new cycle of change.
EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah A. Webster 313-425-3252
swebster@sme.org
EXECUTIVE EDITOR James D. Sawyer 313-425-3053
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SENIOR EDITORS Michael C. Anderson 313-425-3258
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Bill Koenig 313-425-3058
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James A. Lorincz 440-779-6946
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Patrick Waurzyniak 313-425-3256
pwaurzyniak@sme.org
ASSISTANT EDITOR Katelyn DaMour 313-425-3251
ASSISTANT EDITOR Darlene M. Pietryka 313-425-3255
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Sarah A. Webster Editor in Chief
2014 by SME.
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2014
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