Managing Automation - January 2008 - (Page 23) a ma pollgility PROCESS CHANGES REMAIN BIGGEST HURDLE TO AGILITY Q: Please rate the following challenges in becoming agile: Sustaining management focus 10.9% 13% 7.5% 7% 5% 6% 6.2% 5% 9.9% 11% 52.2% 46% 49.8% 47% 42.1% 42% 57.3% 50% 52.9% 56% 36.2% 30% 40.2% 46% 45.1% 46% 51.7% 53% 32.7% 39% 2008 IT MODERNIZATION MOVES AHEAD STRONGLY Q: How do you assess your IT infrastructure (ITI) to support the idea of agility? ITI is currently substantially inadequate 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 12.5% 11% ITI can support some aspects of what’s needed Ability to quickly access, analyze information 31.3% Ability to collaborate with customers, partners 37% ITI is being modernized to support agility 41.6% 33.5% ITI is fully capable of supporting agility Ability to quickly implement process changes Sufficient financial resources 14.5% 18.4% 2008 = 2007 = Low = Medium = High = More Studies See Trouble Ahead wo other studies conducted in the industrial market in the final months of last year also show that economic growth and confidence levels among manufacturers are in troubled waters as 2008 begins. An economic forecast by The Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a nonprofit economic and policy research organization whose membership includes U.S.-based and international companies in manufacturing and related business services, predicted in November that inflationadjusted GDP growth in the United States would slow to 2.1% in 2007 and to 1.3% in 2008. The Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI also predicted that manufacturing production growth would decline to 1.9% in 2007 and would remain flat this year, compared with 4.7% growth in 2006. In an earlier forecast conducted in August, manufacturing production growth was estimated at 2% in 2007 and 2.9% in 2008. “The U.S. economy in the past has experienced a recession from fewer shocks than we are now experiencing,” said Daniel J. Meckstroth, the chief economist of The Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, in a prepared statement. “By itself, the housing collapse would probably not cause a recession, but when combined with a credit crunch, falling housing prices, record oil prices, falling corporate profits, low consumer confidence, and decelerating employment growth, the risk of recession has climbed to at least 50%.” Another study, by PricewaterhouseCoopers, showed a 17-point decline in confidence levels among senior manufacturing executives. PWC said that its Manufacturing Barometer for the third quarter of last year, conducted with 60 senior executives of large U.S. industrial manufacturing companies, showed that 45% of those surveyed were optimistic, 17 points below the 62% expressing optimism in the prior quarter. High energy and oil prices were cited as the most likely barriers to growth over the next 12 months by 57% of the respondents. Other factors cited were lack of demand, by 53%; legislative and regulatory pressures, by 50%; and decreasing profitability, by 48%. Only 42% of respondents said they were planning new business initiatives, compared with 57% saying so in the previous quarter. Of those planning new investments, 57% plan to spend more on IT, PWC said. T A LARGE MAJORITY STILL PLANNING UPGRADES Q: If ITI isn’t adequate to support agility, is your company planning to modernize? No: 31.6% No: 31.5% 2008 2007 Yes: 68.4% Yes: 68.5% If yes, in what time frame? In 2008: 55.6% Later: 21.8% In 2009: 22.6% Percentages may have been rounded and may not equal 100%. 23 January 2008
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