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Current State of Manufacturing

Author
James Manyika, Katy George, Eric Chewning, Jonathan Woetzel, Hans-Werner Kaas

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored manufacturing’s role in providing products that are critical to health, safety, national security, and the continuity of multiple industries. It has also revealed the extent to which global supply chains are exposed to shocks and disruptions. All of this has occurred at a moment when new technologies, process innovations, and demand growth are reshaping the sector worldwide.

Author
Ball State University

The Manufacturing Scorecard shows how each state ranks among its peers in several categories that are of particular interest to site selection experts for the manufacturing and logistics industries.

Author
Désirée Rückert, Reinhilde Veugelers, Christoph Weiss

Using the EIBIS Digital and Skills Survey on digitalisation activities of firms in the EU and the US, this study confirms the trend toward a growing digital divide in the corporate landscape with, on one side, many firms that are not digitally active, and on the other side, a substantial number of digitally active firms forging ahead. Old small firms, with less than 50 employees and more than 10 years old, are significantly more likely to be persistently digitally non-active.

Author
World Economic Forum

The COVID-19 global crisis continues to disrupt manufacturing and global supply chains with severe consequences for society, businesses, consumers and the global economy. This has raised new and unprecedented questions on the level of resilience of global value chains and the overall approach to manufacturing. The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Kearney, brought together C-level executives from different industry sectors to identify best responses to the current COVID-19 crisis.

Author
IU Manufacturing Policy Initiative, Hudson Institute

The IU Manufacturing Policy Initiative, in partnership with the Hudson Institute, organized a spring 2020 conference, to bring together leading thinkers to identify concerning trends and discuss policies that will enable domestic manufacturing to remain internationally competitive. The conference was postponed due to the emerging pandemic. Four academic papers from noted experts were commissioned for this conference. Taken together, these four papers describe weaknesses in U.S. manufacturing cap

Author
Anna Waldman-Brown

This paper explores how small factory owners in Ohio conceptualize automation. Due to the risk of replacing entire production processes and the still-relevant capabilities of old equipment, the firms interviewed for this study primarily automated in order to complement rather than replace existing technologies.

Author
MForesight

The purpose of this report is to help SMMs focus on realistic objectives achievable with appropriate implementation of digital technologies to cut costs, improve existing processes, and lay the groundwork for continued progress. It is also important to recognize that the biggest hurdles to effective implementation are not likely to be technical, but rather managerial and cultural.