*Crenshaw Die & Mfg.

Safety is as much a part of manufacturing as the equipment, trained employees or leadership. However leadership, trained employees and maintained equipment help the cause and benefit safety. The following article shows the idiocy of government bureaucracies; holding the potential to fine a company out of business! As you read the article and become as incensed as I was that our government thinks they are God, understand that safety is important to us here at Crenshaw.

Plan Outlines What is Needed to Create Jobs, Boost the Economy and Put the Country on a Course for Growth
from the National Association of Manufacturers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) today unveiled a comprehensive strategy

Washington Monument

for U.S. competitiveness. The “Manufacturing Strategy for Jobs and a Competitive America,” prompts political leaders to consider the big picture – what it will take for manufacturers in the United States to succeed in the global marketplace. The Strategy explains in clear terms what is at stake for manufacturing in the United States and provides a roadmap for policies that will enable manufacturing to create jobs and compete.

“The United States continues to stand as the number one manufacturing economy in the world, yet the nation’s leadership in manufacturing faces unprecedented challenges,” said NAM President John Engler. “Maintaining our manufacturing leadership requires clear thinking, a global vision and a plan. Manufacturers need our nation’s leaders to consider the impact of each decision on the country’s overall competitiveness. Manufacturers are calling for action on critical priorities such as energy, education, trade and regulation.”

Specifically, the Strategy sets out the following goals:

* The United States will be the best country in the world to headquarter a company. We want companies to be based in the United States.
* The United States will be the best country in the world to innovate, performing the bulk of a company’s global research and development.
* The United States will be a great place to manufacture, both to meet the needs of the American market and serve as an export platform for the world.

“Manufacturers call on members of Congress, candidates for office and opinion leaders to join us in supporting and publicly endorsing this comprehensive strategy,” said Engler. “Most important, once elected, advocates for manufacturing should seek to implement the Strategy through their actions and votes.”

The “Manufacturing Strategy for Jobs and a Competitive America” is the first phase of the NAM’s Manufacturing Means Jobs! campaign. In the coming weeks, the NAM also will announce the creation of manufacturing councils at the state and district levels. These councils will be a platform to educate candidates, policymakers, employees and the general public about how to keep manufacturing competitive in an increasingly challenging global marketplace.

For the complete Strategy, please click here.

http://www.nam.org/Communications/Articles/2010/06/~/media/99977BFAD78B4DA1B812C4DD3F3CC94F.ashx

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The manufacturing sector grew for the ninth consecutive month in April, and at its fastest rate since June 2004, according to a report released Monday.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index rose to 60.4 in April, from a March reading of 59.6. Any score above 50 indicates growth in the manufacturing sector.

April’s number is slightly better than expected, driven by increases in productivity, new orders and manufacturing jobs. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting a reading of 60.

“Overall, the recovery in manufacturing continues quite strong, and the signs are positive for continued growth,” Norbert Ore, chairman of the ISM’s survey committee, said in a release.

Of the 18 industries surveyed in the report, 17 reported growth. Apparel, non-metallic minerals and wood products were among the industries showing the strongest growth.

New orders, productivity, imports and commodity prices all rose at faster rates in April than the month before, indicating that demand for products is driving a recovery in manufacturing.

As for factory jobs, trends continue to look up. The employment component of the report grew for the fifth consecutive month, rising to 58.5 in April from 55.1 the month before.

“It affirms something we already know — manufacturing is in a full-blown recovery,” said Tim Quinlan, an economist with Wells Fargo Securities. “Now, the markets are waiting for that recovery to spread to other sectors.”

The inventories part of the index shrunk slightly in April, though, to just under 50 — the tipping point — from 55.3 in March.

That decline is not entirely surprising, Quinlan said, as manufacturers are still taking their time to rebuild inventories after scaling back at unprecedented rates during the recession.

The ISM manufacturing index is determined by a survey of purchasing managers and reflects the number of people who say economic conditions are better, compared with those who say conditions are worse. While the index can paint a picture of broad trends, some analysts warn that because it stems from a survey, the index can be subjective.

Managers at Orange County manufacturing companies expect to increase production, hire more employees and otherwise grow during the second quarter, according to the results of a Chapman University survey released Monday.

Hiring in the rest of the economy typically lags manufacturing, so a positive outlook – for a second quarter in a row – bodes well.

“Unlike last year, when there wasn’t much hiring at all, the second quarter is going to be much better,” said Raymond Sfeir, an economics professor at the Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research and the author of the report.

The report (pdf) publishes an index based on a survey of purchasing managers. It is currently at 62, up from 59 in the first quarter of 2010. The last time the index reached 62 was in the fourth quarter of 2005.

All three of the groups of manufacturing companies are forecast to expand: those in the high-tech industries; the durable goods industries (other than high-tech); and the non-durable goods industries.

One interesting indicator is the inventories of purchased materials: that index is expected to increase from 50 in the first quarter to 58 in the second quarter. Companies stock up materials in anticipation of new orders, but low demand has been one of the biggest drags on the recovery thus far.

“That must indicate that they believe the consumers will be spending more,” said Sfeir.

The largest bump in employment is expected in computer electronic products, primary metals, fabricated metal products, furniture and related products. Employment is expected to contract most rapidly in wood products and plastics/rubber products.

Read more: http://www.oclnn.com/orange-county/2010-04-12/business/report-oc-manufacturing-sector-to-grow-add-jobs#ixzz0l1Hucsqn

From SME Daily Briefing: In an opinion piece in the Tampa Tribune (3/1), James McGregor, vice chairman of McGregor Metalworking Companies, notes the Obama administration’s new Manufacturing Agenda, which states in part, “If we want to capture the positive benefits from a vibrant and thriving manufacturing sector, the government must help to create a competitive business climate.” McGregor argued for quick implementation of the agenda, and offered “four initial steps toward revitalizing manufacturing,” such as understanding “the cost structure of the manufacturing sector,” dealing with “the credit crisis in manufacturing,” and incentivizing “manufacturing in America.” As a member of “the Manufacturing Council, a forum set up by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke,” McGregor noted, “I strongly support the council’s recommendation to conduct an international cost and competitiveness analysis of the sector…to identify all areas where we are at a competitive disadvantage with companies overseas.”

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/mar/01/na-help-businesses-compete/news-opinion-commentary/

Connecticut Plus (3/1) reported ten US Senators, including Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), “joined a bipartisan group of nine U.S. Senators to send a letter today to President Barack Obama urging the adoption of a national manufacturing policy.” The letter asked for “a multi-industry strategy to propel job and economic growth” that would deploy “federal resources and private-public partnerships to promote emerging manufacturing opportunities.” The letter also asked for a strategy including “developing a highly skilled and productive workforce, investing in new and emerging technologies, ensuring stable capital markets, providing support for communities in transition, strengthening infrastructure, improving market access for U.S. exports, and fostering entrepreneurial talent.”

For the whole story:

http://www.connecticutplus.com/cplus/information/news/politics/Ten-U-S-Senators-write-to-President-urging-creation-of-national-manufacturing-policy75957595.shtml

Michigan Green Incentives Expected To Create 2,500 Jobs

The Detroit Free Press (2/25, Walsh) reports, “Solar, wind and advance battery technologies are turning the corner from potential growth industries into serious job-creating engines in the Midland and Saginaw region two hours north of Detroit.” It is expected that today, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority will “approve tax credits for Dow Chemical projects to makesolar roof shingles and lithium-ion battery cells, adding a total of 2,500 jobs in the Midland area.” Additionally, “Dow and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory got the green light Wednesday for a $20-million research center to develop low-cost carbon fiber used in wind turbines.”

http://www.freep.com/article/20100225/COL06/2250575/1001/NEWS/2500-job-surge-to-energize-Michigan

NCR’s change in direction has raised the possibility that U.S. manufacturers are getting serious about “backshoring” some of the production they shifted overseas in the wholesale offshoring movement that started in earnest in the 1990s… But the logic behind backshoring is compelling enough that it cannot be easily dismissed as a mere short-term aberration. Higher transportation costs as well as rising wages and raw materials prices in China, inevitable by-products of the huge gains that the developing country’s GDP has made despite the global recession, have frightened some U.S. companies away from Asia.
Full Article: http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00017?gko=b0c37

The Wired (2/2, Pierce) “Danger Room” blog reported, “Later this year, American troops fighting in Afghanistan will begin to get gadgets designed to peer inside buildings and detect the heartbeat of people buried under rubble.” The TiaLinx Eagle Scanner works “by sending out low-power, wideband radio-frequency signals toward a target, and measuring how the signals bounce back.” Popular Science (2/3, Fox) reports, “By measuring the various densities of the materials its radio waves pass through, these hand-held scanners can look through concrete.” According to the company, “the models deploying with the troops to Afghanistan can see up to 20 feet behind an eight-inch-thick concrete wall, and identify whether or not there are any people on the other side.” It also features a wireless connection, “and send images back to HQ immediately. Find the full story from the New Yorker here: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/troops-in-astan-will-see-through-walls-in-2010