About Me

Hi, I’m Greg Strosaker. A chaotically organized, distractedly focused, approximately precise, thoroughly brief, passionately disinterested, hesitatingly decisive and rigidly spontaneous study in consistent contrast.

The roles I play:
Product manager for a materials company.
Daddy to 3 boys 8 and under, oldest is autistic.
Hubby to rock star pediatrician.
Hardcore runner - marathon winner.
Amateur economist.
Unrepentant beer snob.
Aspiring sommelier.
Lifelong NE Ohioan, born in Akron, live near Cleveland.
Fascinated by technology and the interwebs.

Please visit Constant Cogitation and Predawn Runner
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manufacturing

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The Internet of Things - and What it Can Mean for Productivity and Service Opportunities

Internet_of_things
via mckinseyquarterly.com

This article neatly organizes six different big ideas on how companies can take advantage of the emerging "Internet of Things", where machines communicate with each other without direct human intervention. While we already see some of these applications in everyday life (such as the growth of location-based marketing), we are most certainly only scratching the surface of what is possible.

It is especially clear that opportunities in manufacturing are still to be uncovered. While many manufacturers may be aware of or even using "tracking behavior" techniques to monitor their supply chains, the possibilities for process optimization and automation could provide not just gains in performance for manufacturers (the primary goal of the MT-Connect initiative) but potential whole new revenue streams based on intelligent service offerings for providers of manufacturing technology. More than just remote diagnostics, network capabilities can even automate the scheduling and routing of service orders, consumable components, and more, overcoming the tendency of most customers to continue cutting back on preventative maintenance activities. Leadership in developing and implementing such technology would be one important element of improving the competitiveness of US manufacturers.

Filed under  //  internet   manufacturing   marketing   technology  
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A Continued Restraint on Economic Growth: Tight-Fisted Banks

Media_httpeiudatapoin_mousa
via economist.com

This chart shows one of the major remaining risks to economic growth, and that is the continued stinginess of banks in loaning to businesses. The blog posts speculates that it may well be related to banks' uncertainty over pending regulations requiring larger cash reserves. While the need for higher cushions is clear, this high level is unhealthy, as the velocity of the money supply is reduced.

Filed under  //  economics   finance   manufacturing  
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US BLS job growth outlook. Hottest industries list includes no mention of alternative energy.

(download)

Steve Tobak, on The Corner Office blog on BNET, picked up an an interesting publication from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on job outlooks from 2008 - 2018.  It includes forecasts, as shown above, of the industries with the largest job growth and largest job declines.  There are several surprises on this list worth mentioning, with the obvious caveat that this is strictly one forecast and, as you can always say about forecasts, the only thing that is certain is that it is wrong.

First, Steve points out that, for all the hype over alternative energy and the schemes being devised to create "green jobs", the industry does not appear on the lists with the best outlooks.  I do believe we will see a bubble in alternative energy as too many firms chase too small of a reality, and 10 years may just be long enough for this to play out fully. However, Steve also does point out that gas station jobs are predicted to decline; without much productivity really possible in that industry, the only implication one can read into this is reduced demand for gasoline.

It is also interesting that semiconductor manufacturing has the second worst outlook.  On one hand, this is a highly productivity-driven industry where increasing wafer sizes (and I make no prediction as to whether 400 or 450mm wafers are on the horizon, as its not a field I have kept up with recently) do rapidly increase throughput without increasing employment. This may also imply greater movement of the more advanced chip types that are still produced in the US abroad.

But what should concern us the most about this list is that nowhere in the top 10 growth industries is manufacturing represented.  The US cannot afford to become ever more reliant on services as only manufacturing (and agriculture and mining) actually create wealth, as this editorial in Manufacturing Engineering correctly points out.  The US is still the largest manufacturer in the world, and a weak dollar creates an environment where manufacturing can grow, so we must take advantage of this opportunity with smart industrial policy to promote the right types of industrial investment to create the high-value jobs of the future.

Filed under  //  economics   employment   government   manufacturing  
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