Manufacturing & Technology News articles from March 2006

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from March 2006

DOD refuses delivery of weapons due to contractor violations of 'buy American' laws.(DOD Issues Guidance For Items Containing Foreign-Sourced Specialty Metals)
March 3, 2006... The Department of Defense and its large aerospace contractors are wrestling with a major new conundrum surrounding the requirement that only specialty metals made in the United States be used in weapons systems. Late last year, a large defense...

Service is the key ingredient for success in manufacturing.(Company Profile)
March 3, 2006... Manufacturing companies that do not pay close attention to the potential growth that exists on the service side of their business are "putting their entire business models at risk," says a new study from Deloitte Research's Global Manufacturing...

Latest outsourcing report: protectionism doesn't work.
March 3, 2006... The offshore outsourcing of highly skilled information technology, software development and research jobs is an "inexorable" trend that will continue to occur at an increasing rate, predicts a report from the Association for Computing...

Most jobs are found on internet.
March 3, 2006... The Internet has become the primary source for large companies hiring new employees, according to a survey conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton for the DirectEmployers Association. The Internet produced 51 percent of all new hires last year, with...

America's new growth engine.
March 3, 2006... The U.S. restaurant industry has become "the cornerstone of the nation's economy and a leader in job creation," says Steven Anders, president of the National Restaurant Association. The industry employs 12.5 million Americas (compared to 14.2...

The rust belt is getting rustier: industrial cities rank at bottom of job index.
March 3, 2006... Cities located in the heartland of the country are in bad shape with regards to jobs and wages compared to those located in Florida and California, according to the Milken Institute's annual index of the country's most economically vibrant...

Strange confirmation hearing for new man in charge of technology administration.
March 3, 2006... Robert Cresanti appeared to be a shoo-in as under secretary of Commerce for Technology after being subjected to a scant seven minutes of questioning at his February 7 confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and...

Aeronautics R&D budget gets whacked.
March 3, 2006... A Bush administration plan to cut funding for aeronautics research at NASA by 20.6 percent--from $912.3 million this year to $724.4 million in fiscal year 2007--and to leave it hovering at around that level through 2011 has prompted expressions...

American tragedy: the voice of the voiceless.
March 3, 2006... So often invisible behind statistics are the individuals they represent, depersonalized by policy prescriptions are the human beings they affect. Particularly in Washington, where the air is rarefied and the access limited, feelings and...

Quotable: how the white house views loss of mfg. Jobs.
March 3, 2006... "Trade liberalization remains a controversial subject because competition invariably raises both anxieties and opportunities. Reducing obstacles to trade can help economies grow more rapidly and efficiently in the long run and create better,...

Bush administration priorities are not on tech development or manufacturing improvement.
March 3, 2006... The survival of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) appears to be in the hands of Congress once again. The Bush administration's proposed fiscal year 2007 budget zeroes out funding for ATP and...

New ethanol plants being built.
March 3, 2006... The ethanol industry set a record in 2005 by producing 3.9-billion gallons, or nearly 250,000 barrels of ethanol per day. Ethanol production in December also set a record, increasing by 5,000 barrels per day to 280,000 barrels per day. ...

Harris Poll finds Americans view rail as most favorable transportation option.
March 3, 2006... Americans say they would like a significant portion of the taxes they pay for transportation to fund rail projects, according to a Harris Interactive poll. "The modes of transportation that the largest number of adults would like to see 'having...

Best at supply chain management also lead in stock market.
March 3, 2006... Companies that are best at managing their supply chain are outperforming the S&P 500. AMR Research found that the top 25 companies embracing demand-driven supply networks (DDSN), which are "agile enough to respond to customer demand," are like...

NEMA appoints nano-force.
March 3, 2006... The National Electrical Manufacturers Association has created a new Nanotechnology Advisory Council aimed at providing its 430 member companies with guidance on how to take advantage of the fledgling technology. The panel of experts "will help...

IBM is U.S. patent leader.
March 3, 2006... IBM once again led the patent count in 2005, receiving a total of 2,941, down slightly from the year before when it received 3,248 patents. Japanese companies occupied six of the top 10 positions, followed by three U.S. companies and one from...

Canada Mfg. employment drops.
March 3, 2006... Canada is having a difficult time sustaining manufacturing employment levels. The country has lost 145,000 manufacturing jobs over the past year, with a loss of 41,600 jobs in January alone, the largest monthly decline in 15 years. Economists...

Navy chief wants more ships.
March 3, 2006... The Chief of Naval Operations has announced plans to increase the number of naval ships from 281 to 331. The Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan, which accompanies the 2007 budget request to Congress, places a new emphasis on "expeditionary and...

House members support MEP funding.
March 3, 2006... Congress is voicing predictable opposition to the Bush administration's equally predictable inclusion in its latest proposed budget of a reduction in funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). A letter in the House...

OPEC rolls in dough.
March 3, 2006... The Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries' total net oil export revenues for 2005 are estimated at $473 billion, up by 43 percent from 2004. In 1998, OPEC's oil revenues were $120, according to the Energy Information Administration....

Letter to editor of time magazine: 1981.(Letter to the Editor)(Editorial)
March 3, 2006... April 6, 1981, Letter To the Editor of TIME Magazine: Your article about Japan in the March 30, 1981 [edition of] TIME, is excellent, but the paragraph concerning my work is ridiculous and can do a lot of harm to American industry at...

January tough month for CEOs.
March 3, 2006... A record number of chief executive officers left their jobs in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The departure of 139 CEOs in January "shattered" the previous one-month record of 129 set in March 2005. "The pace of CEO...

BLS issues union member stats.
March 3, 2006... In the manufacturing sector last year, union membership stood at 13 percent, higher than the private-sector average, but still far less than in the transportation and utility industries, which stood at 24 percent, according to the Bureau of...

EU opens green info service.
March 3, 2006... The European Commission's Environment Directorate has launched a weekly alert service intended to disseminate information about the EU's Environmental Action Program to policymakers and the general public. It will also provide information on EU...

New law toughens penalties on counterfeiters.
March 17, 2006... President Bush on March 16 signed the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act (H.R. 32), a law aimed at shutting down worldwide trafficking in fake merchandise, which has swollen in volume to an estimated half-trillion dollars per year....

China trade will boost U.S. wealth, argues China Council.
March 17, 2006... The huge trade imbalance with China is a good thing, not a bad thing, even though trade with China will lead to the direct loss of an additional 500,000 manufacturing jobs by 2010, argues the U.S.-China Business Council, a trade group made up...

Republicans in Congress prefer not to deal with doctored Commerce Dept. report on outsourcing.
March 17, 2006... In the latest chapter of a controversy surrounding a Commerce Department report on the offshoring of U.S. high-tech jobs, the 20 Democratic members of the House Science Committee on March 9 introduced a Resolution of Inquiry (H.Res. 717) that...

New standards for social responsibility.
March 17, 2006... The American Society for Quality (ASQ) is launching the development of a global corporate standard on social responsibility with a projected publication in fourth-quarter 2008. Interviewing 100 officials of Fortune 500 companies and ASQ...

Trade deficit leads to loss of many jobs.
March 17, 2006... The trade deficit in goods in 2005 of $782 billion displaced 757,000 jobs, according to an analysis by economist Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services. With an accumulated deficit of $4.6 trillion since 1993, 6.4 million jobs have been...

PTO conference on manufacturing abroad.
March 17, 2006... The United States Patent and Trademark Office is holding a two-day conference on intellectual property aspects of companies wanting to manufacture their products abroad. The March 27-28 event at the Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Va., will provide...

China's trademark office rules against Leupold's claim for the 'LEUPOLD' mark.
March 17, 2006... China's disregard for upholding its numerous international commitments to intellectual property rights is presenting yet another frustrating struggle for a U.S.-based manufacturer. Leupold & Stevens, the Beaverton, Ore.-based maker of...

China will develop civilian jetliners.
March 17, 2006... China has announced plans to re-start its program to develop large commercial aircraft. Premier Wen Jiabao said on March 5 that China intends to start producing aircraft that can seat 150 passengers with a 4,000-mile range by the end of 2010,...

Tactics need to change to force China to uphold intellectual property rights, argues Harvard law prof.
March 17, 2006... The long-standing tactic of the U.S. government using pressure and jawboning China to enforce intellectual property rights laws isn't working and won't work for a long time to come, says a Harvard law professor with decades of experience...

Council on Competitiveness initiates program to keep America in the mfg. game.
March 17, 2006... The Council on Competitiveness last week took the first step toward a prospective "major initiative" on the future of manufacturing in the United States. The group convened a subset of its Strategy Council to kick off action on what the body...

Uptick in VC funding for new firms.
March 17, 2006... U.S. venture-capital funding for enterprises in the "startup/seed" category jumped nearly 45 percent last year, to $735.9 million in 2005 from $406.6 million in 2004. But they still lagged well behind $3-billion-plus levels for that category in...

Job opportunities at China commission.
March 17, 2006... There are four job openings on the staff of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The congressional commission is seeking two security and military policy analysts, and two economic and trade policy analysts. The job...

Guest editorial: The U.S.-China business council has it wrong.(Editorial)
March 17, 2006... The U.S.-China Business Council's report titled "The China Effect" is flawed and misleading. It claims "the long-term benefits to the United States of trade with China are substantial and likely to endure" and that the average U.S. household...

How the economic news is spun.
March 17, 2006... When the Department of Labor releases the monthly payroll jobs data, the press release will put the best spin on the data. The focus is on the aggregate number of new jobs created the previous month, for example, 243,000 new jobs in February....

SAIC scientist says U.S. needs a broad new system to commercialize technology.
March 17, 2006... The traditional mechanisms by which technology has been commercialized in the United States are no longer working effectively, says Todd Hylton, director of the Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Science Applications...

ASTRA to develop innovation measurements.
March 17, 2006... An effort to identify and measure the "vital signs of innovation"--output indicators for fundamental research activities that impact competitiveness--is under way at the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Science & Technology Research in...