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2015 Metalworking Trends Survey: the results are in!

PracticalMan

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May 14, 2009
The Metalworking Trends Survey sampled a broad cross-section of North American metalworking professionals – including hundreds of members from Practical Machinist. This edition—the 10th annual—explores general industry trends, shifts in purchasing processes, the effects of increasing Internet connectivity and more. Get all the exclusive insights, straight from the shop floor—view the summary for free here.

Thoughts?
 
Thanks Jes. Just a note for you guys viewing the survey to make sure you are seeing the entire thing. On this iMac for example I need to scroll horizontally to see all the pages...otherwise I would have missed half of it ! Which is not a problem, easy to scroll both directions with the "magic mouse"....just mentioning it just in case.

Now.... how about that "Smart Manufacturing" you guys are not doing enough of ? :stirthepot:
 
Although the report is titled "2015 Metalworking Trends Survey" it would be more accurately titled "How people go about buying machines...".

There was no real presentation of how the various market sectors have been shifting over the past 15 years or so. For example the % of defense work vs. civilian high tech vs. medical and so on and so on.

Interesting that they cite a strong dollar as being bad, as well as cheap oil as also being bad (explicitly saying expect a down turn for 2016)... So demand for US products would be down but it also means you can buy more foreign machine tools... ? Maybe ;-). Strong dollar is working out well for me... :-)... [But if you are solely a defense contractor then weak dollar, high oil prices means you are probably making more hardware for Uncle-Sam? ]. Really depends what industry you serve ?

They cite the "Federal Revitalize American Manufacturing & Innovation Act"... (signed in late 2014, which invests $600M in manufacturing... ) A drop in the bucket perhaps but I'd love to see who "Made out" on that "Gravy train" or how to jump on that one.

For me/personally the most interesting thing in the report was the differences between large and small organizations. In the report they suggest that medium to larger sized businesses place greater value on higher end training and education and as a consequence seem to be more dynamic and fairing better. Whereas they suggest that if you are a small shop you are not going to be placing a high enough value on education and (in the way its written) suggest that your company/small outfit is going to stagnate/be very un-dynamic... [Personally I think this forum challenges that notion quite substantially]. Also interesting the number of small business that replied to the survey (as being the larger fraction) and also reflects that small businesses account for the larger fraction of business in general in the USA. So I wonder if the report is slanted towards making the argument for online training for smaller companies... [Just wondering if they have their fingers in that pie?].

I did not expect the annual investment in additive manufacturing to be anywhere near as high as it was... (although it could mean they just bought a $20K 3d printer, so they did not define "Additive manufacture_ing".

The other thing that they did not factor for perhaps is how many businesses went out of business? If your company goes out of business you can't reply to the survey??? So what's interesting is that in the 2014 report they had 1333 responders and in 2015 they had 777?

I'd be interested to learn who the report is most usefully geared towards or who would make the best use of such information?

Thanks for posting/linking that.
 
Very good insights Cameraman...

I'd be interested to learn who the report is most usefully geared towards or who would make the best use of such information?

Although the report is titled "2015 Metalworking Trends Survey" it would be more accurately titled "How people go about buying machines...".

More simply put - the paying advertisers are polling the audience, and for transparency and a few article's sake, here's what we found... Not that there's inherently anything wrong with that, but you're right, there could have been some more info to be extracted from that, especially regarding the market segments served...
 
Very good insights Cameraman...
More simply put - the paying advertisers are polling the audience, and for transparency and a few article's sake, here's what we found... Not that there's inherently anything wrong with that, but you're right, there could have been some more info to be extracted from that, especially regarding the market segments served...
Fair points and thanks for the opinions. I will discuss this with Lossaso for possible improvements and/or for a possible defense of the survey intentions they might articulate better than I can.
 








 
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