The latest National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) quarterly survey found that 59.6 percent of respondents were positive about their own company’s outlook, down sharply from 91.2 percent one year ago. Export expectations help to explain much of the deceleration in the economic outlook for the sector. 

The AGMA Fall Technical Meeting will be held October 2-4, 2016 in Pittsburgh, PA. Abstracts are now being accepted for presentation at this event. Complete details here.

The November rebound continued the see-saw pattern of growth and decline that has characterized the local manufacturing sector since the summer.

Plans have been submitted for what will be the company's U.S. headquarters which includes office space, a warehouse facility and a garage. Zoller Inc. is part of a German-based parent company that runs its U.S. operations out of Ann Arbor.

The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index declined to 50.3 in November from 50.7 in October, data released on Tuesday showed.

Researchers in UT’s College of Engineering are spearheading a novel approach to help keep the lights on. Professor and Condra Chair of Excellence in Power Electronics Fred Wang leads a team working on microgrids, systems that can operate independently of the overall power grid when the situation arises.

The 12 hardware and software projects which received awards will coordinate generation, transmission and end-use of electricity, including increasing integration of renewable energy.

A new study on future global competitiveness, by Deloitte Global and the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, predicts that the U.S. will dislodge China as the most competitive manufacturing nation in the world in 2020.

New orders for machine tools and related technology dipped only slightly from September to October, falling 0.3% to $327.4 million, according to data reported by AMT – the Association for Manufacturing Technology in its latest U.S. Machine Tools Orders report. It was the second-consecutive monthly increase in order volumes, an encouraging detail in what has been a 15-month stall in overall growth for the manufacturing technology sector.

The IoT in manufacturing market is estimated to grow from USD 4.11 Billion in 2015 to USD 13.49 Billion by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.9%.

Samsung and Baidu express their interest in manufacturing self-driving cars. The former company has just started its production with components for use in autonomous vehicles, while the latter company has just successfully tested a self-driving BMW in China. Published reports say that this move from the two big companies is a preparation in the event that mobile industry seems to come to an end.

AM General, manufacturer of specialty military and civilian vehicles, has named Andy Hove CEO, replacing Charlie Hall, who is retiring. The transition will take effect in early 2016.

Hillary Clinton rolled out a plan to boost manufacturing in the United States and assist recovering post-industrial communities on Tuesday, part of a package of tax credits and federal research funding.

The largest union at Bath Iron Works approved Sunday a four-year contract that contains provisions aimed at making the shipyard more efficient before bids are submitted on key contracts in the coming year.

This article outlines the key takeaways from the Deloitte Global and Council on competitiveness study. Deloitte and the council interviewed nearly three dozen CTO, CRO, CEOs and company presidents from various manufacturing sectors, in addition to nearly a dozen directors of U.S. national laboratories and research facilities.

The pain for iron ore producers is not expected to let up anytime soon, as numbers out of China indicate that steel demand is dropping.

Rumor has it that direct metal laser sintering, or DMLS, is going to put machine shops out of business. To everyone but shop owners and their employees, it’s an exciting thought; DMLS produces fully dense parts made of stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and even Inconel and cobalt chrome alloy, to tolerances of a few thousandths of an inch and with features smaller than the tip of a pencil.

As part of its ongoing partnership building with academia, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center is collaborating with the University of Mississippi in additive manufacturing.

I talk to a dozen or more companies involved in Internet of Things (IoT) every week. One thing they all have in common is their desire for the projected IoT volumes and revenues to come to fruition...the sooner the better.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is on the cusp of a high-growth age and will reach almost $1.3 trillion in spending in 2019, according to a new report. The Asia-Pacific region is currently leading the way, while manufacturing and transportation are the industries currently seeing the biggest IoT spending.