Managing Automation - January 2009 - (Page 31) The full force of the economic crisis takes its toll on manufacturing as cost reduction again takes center stage, a new MA reader survey reveals. B Y D AV I D R . B R O U S E L L ew can say they didn’t see it coming. For more than a year, as the mortgage financing fiasco began to spread through the financial system, storm clouds were gathering over the U.S. economy. And then, as Labor Day passed, an ear-splitting bolt of lightning struck. The storm had arrived in full fury. As the Obama Administration takes office this month it will face a host of staggering economic problems — flagging confidence in financial markets, an economic crisis that has spread globally, sagging consumer spending, a near-desperate automotive industry, an unemployment rate predicted to reach 8%, and the list goes on. As the new government begins to grapple with these issues, manufacturers are already braced for a tough year ahead. In a new, exclusive Managing Automation poll conducted in mid-October, U.S. manufacturers reported a nearly 13 percentage point drop in expectations for moderate economic growth in 2009, compared with 2008, when expectations slid 14 points. Moreover, the number of those expecting the U.S. economy to actually decline this year more than doubled to 34% of respondents, compared with only 16% last year. In a companion poll of European manufacturers, conducted for the first time this year under the auspices of Manufacturing Executive magazine, MA’s new European sister publication, the number of those expecting the European economies to decline in 2009 is even higher, with just over 50% of respondents saying they expect a slide into the negative column. Only 14.5% expect any 31 January 2009 ma Photo: Chee Ming Wong
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