Made In America: Success Of Nation’s Manufacturing Depends On U.S. Supply Chain

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SUCCESS OF NATION’S MANUFACTURING DEPENDS ON U.S. SUPPLY CHAIN
In a thought-provoking post on the official blog for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), author Mark Schmidt talks about the importance of U.S. supply chains on the nation’s global competitiveness in the manufacturing sector.

“The future success of any manufacturing company relies upon its ability to deliver the right product at the right time with the right quantity at the right price,” Schmidt, manager of national accounts at MEP. “Products are branded and sold by individual companies, but those products are produced by supply.”

The importance of supply chains in U.S. trade policy has been all the rage in the manufacturing sector of late. Just last week, the White House assembled over 30 executives from some of the top U.S. manufacturers at the Supply Chain Innovation Initiative Roundtable. Kim Souza with TheCityWire.com brought the subject to the forefront in her widely-read weekly Supply Side analysis.

You can read more of Schmidt’s post, infographic and analysis at The Manufacturing Innovation Blog.

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY ORDERS SLIDING FAST, DOWN 6.2% COMPARED TO 2014
U.S. manufacturing technology orders are on the decline as business owners feel less sure about the economy and are increasingly cutting back on capital spending, according to monthly data compiled by the Association for Manufacturing Technology.

For the month of May, U.S. manufacturing technology orders were down 13.2% from April’s $388.43 million and down 6.2% when compared with the total of $359.28 million reported for May 2014. Year to date, orders totaled nearly $1.8 billion for the first five months of 2015, down 7.9% when compared with 2014.

“In large part, the decline in manufacturing technology orders is due to smaller manufacturers feeling a sense of economic uncertainty and therefore hesitant to make any kind of capital investment,” said AMT President Douglas Woods.

The U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report, compiled by AMT, provides regional and national U.S. orders data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment. Analysis of manufacturing technology orders provides a reliable leading economic indicator as manufacturing industries invest in capital metalworking equipment to increase capacity and improve productivity. To view the full report, click here.

AG RUTLEDGE FILES COMMENTS ON EPA’S PROPOSED REGIONAL HAZE PLAN
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Thursday that her office has submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Arkansas’ proposed Regional Haze plan following rejection of the state’s plan to improve visibility in wilderness areas. The comments, filed Wednesday, state that the EPA acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in its decision to require billions of dollars in compliance costs for very limited improvement in visibility.