3D solid model software has come a long way.  It  makes complex finite element analysis an integrated feature so that new designs can be explored in hours, rather than days or weeks of building prototype parts and making changes.  New product development costs have been falling consistently since the advent of this technology. The logical […]

For seventy years what was good for Detroit was good for America.  The major auto makers could sell as many cars as they could make.  And Americans were enthusiastic about the freedom offered by relatively inexpensive personal transportation.  Since Henry Ford’s introduction of the mass produced Model T and John D. Rockefeller’s agreement to provide […]

Energy density by itself is not a sufficient measure of anything.  It is only useful in a specific context.  For example, one can refer to the energy density of battery technology.  And that is an extremely useful comparison because the weight of the battery in an electric car is critical to its success.  The General […]

CFOs of American companies’ optimism toward the U.S. economy continued to sink to an all-time low in the second quarter, according to a recent survey of CFOs conducted by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. The CFO Optimism Index for the U.S. economy was 48.92 for the quarter, plummeting even […]

Ever since Inc. started ranking the Best Cities for Doing Business in 2004, the bottom rung of the rankings has been largely dominated by older industrial cities where factories have long been abandoned and once booming economies have dried up. The 2008 list bears this sobering fact: among the largest regions surveyed, Detroit sits on […]

Falling orders, a strong euro, and high oil prices have put Germany’s manufacturers in a tight spot, but they are responding to the challenge and are better placed to handle the global slowdown than their euro zone peers. The recent news flow from the manufacturing sector has made for grim reading: orders fell for the […]

With economic gloom descending on many sectors of the UK economy, a new report suggests that manufacturers who are innovative, efficient, and export effectively are outperforming the rest of the economy to weather the worsening economic situation.   The “Modern Manufacturing – The High Performers” report highlights the top 20 high performance sectors within UK […]