“While total cost parity certainly doesn’t exist today, the gap between manufacturing in North America and in places like China has narrowed dramatically, especially when shipping and inventory carrying costs are factored into the equation,” notes Russ Dillion, a director at AlixPartners. “Company leaders, at an increasing rate, are realizing that customers don’t have the pa- tience to wait three to four weeks for their products to cross the ocean. Today’s speed of business usually won’t allow for that.” The outlook for the security and safety situation in Mexico, an important factor in any decision to relocate manufacturing there, was essentially unchanged in this year’s survey. About half of those surveyed each year, 45% last year and 43% this year, say they expect modest improvement in the security and safety situation, while 13% said they think it will “worsen somewhat,” vs. 14% in last year’s survey. Only 4% predicted the situation will be “spiraling out of control,” down from 7% who thought that a year ago.
The survey also asked executives in this election year about the US government’s role in promoting the reshoring
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of manufacturing jobs to America. While a majority say there are useful actions the government can take (including cut- ting corporate tax rates), a sizeable number (31%) say there is nothing at all the government can do, and only 3% note that lower healthcare costs—a big part of this year’s political debate—would lead to more reshoring.
The AlixPartners Manufacturing Re-shoring and Near- shoring Outlook Survey was conducted March 7 to April 27, and included responses from 116 C-level and other senior executives in manufacturing-oriented companies that sell into the US market. Respondents were from a broad range of middle-market (at least $100 million in annual revenues) and large companies, in a broad range of industries, includ- ing automotive, aviation, consumer products, durable goods and packaging. For more information on the report, visit www.alixpartners.com.
Additive Manufacturing Surging A
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The Truth Is: A probe may be an effective way to verify tool lengths between cuts, but it is not the most efficient way to set your tools. A “guess-and-check” process for making adjustments wastes valuable cutting time. A Speroni MAGIS Tool Presetter can verify runout, measure length, diameter, radius, and other geometries using measuring icons, and it can also inspect tools for wear. Spend less time adjusting and more time cutting.
dditive manufacturing and 3-D printing are riding a wave of popularity, as lower-cost 3-D printers make their impact along with increasing adoption of direct metal manufacturing methods. The additive manufacturing industry’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was 29.4% in 2011, according to the latest Wohlers Report 2012, an in-depth analysis of addi- tive manufacturing (AM) and 3-D printing worldwide recently released by Wohlers Associates Inc. (Fort Collins, CO). The latest Wohlers Report marks the 17th consecutive year of its publication, a 287-page report including 30 charts and graphs, 55 tables, and 219 photographs and illustra- tions. The annual study was created with support from 71 service providers, 27 system manufacturers, and the valuable
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Direct part production in additive manufacturing has grown dramatically since 2003 to reach nearly 24% of additive’s total product and service revenues in 2011.