MAPI — Manufacturers Alliance News and Reports — Manufacturing Megatrends and More

Issues in the Brief

Taking Command of Corporate Security: Q&A With Altria’s David Trice
In this interview, David Trice discusses the benefits of Altria’s custom-built enterprise command center, the key vendors and services they employ and a common blind spot in security strategies. He also traces the evolution of his career, including lessons from his time in law enforcement. In his presentation at our February 4 Corporate Security Forum, he’ll dive deep into a discussion of technical physical security programs.

Generating Controversy: EPA’s Clean Power Plan
The EPA’s Clean Power Plan creates winners and losers, with anticipated advantages for the environment, but higher electricity costs and lower GDP relative to baseline forecasts. Two dozen states have already filed lawsuits over the plan and the House passed two joint resolutions to kill it.

Manufacturing Megatrends
Did you know that a typical B2B buyer is more than halfway through the purchasing process before contacting sales? It is clear that information is the new currency in manufacturing; this is one of a handful of transformative trends rumbling through our sector. What are the others — and how can you get (and stay) ahead?

U.S. Jobs, Global Stress
Amid unseasonably warm weather in the closing weeks of 2015, construction employment showed very strong growth, but jobs in the retail sector decelerated dramatically. While overall job gains are solid, there are still sizable risks to the US economic outlook, including global financial turbulence resulting from concerns about the short-term outlook for the Chinese economy.

Appeals Court Issues Significant Decision on Age Discrimination Concerning Job Applicants
The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a significant decision interpreting the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The court decided on an issue of first impression that job applicants may bring disparate impact claims of age discrimination under the ADEA against prospective employers whose policies and procedures lack a discriminatory intent and are purportedly neutral on their face, but nevertheless have a discriminatory effect.

How Megatrends Affected Business in 2015
We surveyed manufacturing executives about 30 megatrends and their effects on business performance. Read the full report to see how trends in data, workforce composition, global economies, regulations and technology are disrupting manufacturing’s future. One interesting finding from our survey: the skills gap is a more common concern for middle managers than for CEOs and presidents.

Durable Good Report: Concerns Rise on Weak Data
For 2015, new orders for durable goods excluding transportation fell by a discouraging 2.6%.  “Adding to concerns about a significant slowdown in U.S. economic growth, new orders for long-lasting (durable) goods tumbled by 5.1% in December,” noted Waldman.

Economic Update

European Industrial Outlook: Recovery Picking Up Speed
The European economic recovery is on solid ground, with domestic demand growing robustly in virtually all countries.  Manufacturing is expanding more quickly in Europe than in the U.S., driven increasingly by pent-up consumer demand and growing appetite for investment goods.  Central Europe’s industrial markets continue to grow about twice as fast as their developed counterparts in Western Europe.

Manufacturing Update, January 2016
For last year as a whole, manufacturing output grew a very slow 2% and the trade imbalance worsened. The sector’s employment was up by 30,000 for the year, a far cry from the 2014 increase of 215,000.

Industrial Production Report ‘Should Allay Fears’ that Manufacturing is in Recession
MAPI Foundation Vice President and Chief Economist Daniel J. Meckstroth notes that while industrial production fell 0.4% in December, following a 0.9% decline in November, the makeup of the downturn is important. The reason for the decline in the fourth quarter of 2015 was due to energy production, not manufacturing.