Manufacturing & Technology News articles from February 2005

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from February 2005

Defense Department hires science academy to assess vulnerability of U.S. circuit board industry.
February 9, 2005... The National Academies of Sciences is engaged in a study to help the Defense Department determine if the diminished health of the domestic printed circuit board (PCB) industry is posing a security risk to the country. The study, "Manufacturing...

Congress must deal with Bush budget deficits.
February 9, 2005... It was budget day in Washington on Monday, Feb. 7. President Bush described spending $2,479 billion (19.9 percent of total GDP), that requires the federal government to borrow $390 billion (or 3 percent of GDP) in 2006. Now it's up to Congress...

Manufacturing jobs continue to hemorrhage.
February 9, 2005... The manufacturing sector shed another 25,000 jobs in January, the third consecutive month of declining employment in manufacturing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 14,305,000 people working in the manufacturing sector,...

Businesses, universities press for R&D funds.
February 9, 2005... The business community is teaming with the university research establishment for a day to press the case in Washington for additional federal funding for research and technology. The "Task Force on the Future of American Innovation" is holding...

Digital TV sales skyrocket.
February 9, 2005... Consumers are on a digital television-buying binge. Sales during December 2004 increased by 45 percent over the same month in 2003, to 927,000 units. Total digital television sales in 2004 increased by 75 percent to 7.2 million units. Since the...

Economic development help.
February 9, 2005... The Department of Commerce and the State Science and Technology Institute have created a new Web site to help communities and economic development agencies develop a high-tech industrial base. The TBED Resource Center...

Two trade groups merge.
February 9, 2005... Two non-profit organizations involved in the U.S. automation industry are merging operations. The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA) is assuming control of the Open Modular Architecture Controls Users' Group (OMAC). ISA will...

Robust growth for ethanol.
February 9, 2005... U.S. production of ethanol set an all-time monthly production record last November, reaching 232,000 barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Production was up 20 percent compared to the previous November when...

NAM members agree on trade.(SOME SAY SMALLER FIRMS WERE 'RUBES')
February 9, 2005... Members of the National Association of Manufacturers have adopted a new trade strategy that calls on the U.S. government to take a more aggressive role in the enforcement of trade agreements. The strategy, shaped in part by a contingent of...

How a manager can survive a merger.
February 9, 2005... Increased merger and acquisition activity in the United States is leading to the destruction of mid-level management jobs, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "We may see mergers become the leading cause of job cuts in 2005 if corporate...

Sex appeal in mfg. careers.
February 9, 2005... An "unprecedented" new initiative has been launched to attract a new generation of highly skilled workers into the manufacturing profession. The "Dream it. Do it" awareness and economic development campaign was launched on Feb. 8 in Kansas City...

Growth of offshore outsourcing in IT services continues unabated.
February 9, 2005... Offshore outsourcing of service sector jobs continues to grow at a "phenomenal" rate, as measured by the financial results of the big Indian companies that provide offshore outsourcing services. "Financial reports from the leading service...

MAPICS is bought for $173m.
February 9, 2005... Manufacturing software provider MAPICS Inc. has been acquired by Infor Global Solutions, a privately held company that sells enterprise resource planning and supply chain management software. Atlanta-based Infor has agreed to pay $12.75 per...

High tech workers see pay decline.
February 9, 2005... The median income for electrical and electronics engineers, computer hardware and software engineers and computer scientists and systems analysts declined for the first time in 31 years, according to IEEE-USA. Median income for IEEE members...

Letter to editor.
February 9, 2005... The U.S. metalcasting industry like all U.S. manufacturing has received a large amount of negative press recently. While our industry saw a downturn in production from 2000 to 2003 due to a down economy and increased foreign competition, it is...

R&D funding shortfalls are beginning to express themselves in benchmarks measuring U.S. wealth.
February 22, 2005... Some of America's leading industrialists, researchers and academics are working together to raise alarms over the declining state of science, technology, engineering and innovation in the Untied States. Fast-growing rivals in Asia and the...

Feds seek ideas on how to invigorate manufacturing.
February 22, 2005... A senior-level federal government manufacturing coordinating body is seeking input from technology experts on the latest developments in nanotechnology, hydrogen and intelligent and integrated manufacturing systems. The Manufacturing Research...

What is the real health of the defense industrial base?
February 22, 2005... For many in the defense community concerned about the health of the U.S. industrial base, one person is believed to stand in the way of persuading the Pentagon to do something new and perhaps radical to reverse the slide of U.S. industry. That...

Wind industry expects a banner year in 2005.
February 22, 2005... The United States wind energy industry went into a slump in 2004, due to the expiration of federal tax credits. A total of 389 megawatts of wind capacity was added to the grid last year, down significantly from the 1,687 megawatts added in...

HubZone program expanded.
February 22, 2005... The Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program run by the Small Business Administration is being changed to encourage more investment in economically depressed areas. SBA has updated rules to allow companies with minority...

A disconnect emerges between auto industry sales and employment in Midwest auto states.
February 22, 2005... Light vehicle sales in the United States have continued at very solid levels over the past several years, averaging 16.7 million units since 2001. Yet the unemployment rate in Michigan--the country's most auto intensive state--has stayed above...

What the scribes want to know of NAM.
February 22, 2005... John Engler, the recently named president of the National Association of Manufacturers, went before a live national audience on Feb. 10, as a luncheon speaker at the National Press Club. Engler, the former three-term governor of Michigan, spoke...

Calendar of upcoming events.(Calendar)
February 22, 2005... February 28-March 2 International Conference on ISO 9000, Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Fla., www.iso9000conference.com. March 1-2 ShipTech 2005, Biloxi, Miss., http://www.ncemt.ctc.com. March 1-3 RFIDWorld 2005, Dallas,...

NAM takes get-tough approach to China.
February 22, 2005... The National Association of Manufacturers is taking a more militant stance toward China's unfair trade practices. China is "shameless about wholesale counterfeiting of products," said NAM president John Engler. The burgeoning trade deficit with...

Mfg. & technology news: no fluff. No advertisements. Objective, hard-hitting journalism from the nation's capital.
February 22, 2005... "The publication Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can't do without doesn't contain classified information or sensitive intelligence. Instead, it dishes up an exhaustive collection of the day's most influential military reporting from around...