U.S. Manufacturers Optimistic About Domestic Economy, Not Sure About Global Outlook

82 Percent of Industrial Manufacturers Surveyed Predict Revenue Growth in 2013

Sentiment toward the Global Economy Remains Guarded; Uncertainty Prevails

Optimism among U.S. industrial manufacturers regarding the domestic economic outlook rose to 63 percent during the second quarter of 2013, up from 55 percent in the first quarter and representing the highest level since the first quarter of 2012, according to the Q2 2013 Manufacturing Barometer, released July 18 by PwC US. In addition, 72 percent of respondents believed the U.S. economy grew in the second quarter, up 10 points from the prior quarter. At the same time, sentiment pertaining to the world economy remains guarded with only 31 percent expressing optimism and 59 percent voicing continued uncertainty.

The spread between those optimistic about the domestic economy versus those optimistic about the global economy over the next 12 months was 32 percent, representing the second highest quarterly total since these questions were first asked in the third quarter 2003 survey. At the same time, PwC's Global Manufacturing Current Assessment and Outlook indices show a reduction in overall pessimism among manufacturing executives compared to the first quarter, which appears to be driven by more bullishness over total sales, driven by the U.S., offsetting in part increasing bearishness over international sales.

"There remains a persistent dichotomy in viewpoints regarding the outlooks for the U.S. and world economies. Optimism regarding the domestic economy has increased, while worldwide economic sentiment remains restrained, with global uncertainty reaching the highest level in the past 12 months," said Bobby Bono, U.S. industrial manufacturing leader for PwC. 

"The U.S. is starting to show signs of healthy demand trends and improving pricing power, supporting positive overall sentiment in the year ahead,” he said. 

“However, as a result of the mixed global outlook, combined with the moderate domestic recovery and the specter of increased legislative and regulatory pressures, management teams are continuing to carefully manage their costs, while maintaining a focus on growing profitably."

What does this level of optimism mean for hiring? That question will be answered tomorrow.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance tells the story of the collapse and rise of Michigan manufacturing by showcasing the entrepreneurs who are driving twenty-first century growth.

This ebook essay series is available for immediate download, by clicking here.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan — with the help of two of the richest families in the world — are creating the Medical Mile and changing the way the world sees their community.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever book are sold online, including Abbott Press, as well as on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Autographed editions are available on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com

Auto Sales Expected To Stay Strong In Second Half Of 2013

J.D. Power and LMC Automotive Report: July New-Vehicle Retail Sales -- Let the Good Times Roll

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., July 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- New-vehicle sales are kicking off the second half of 2013 in very strong fashion, with new-vehicle retail sales in July expected to increase by 12 percent from a year ago, according to a monthly sales forecast developed jointly by the Power Information Network^® (PIN) from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive.

Retail Light-Vehicle Sales
New-vehicle retail sales in July 2013 are projected to come in at 1,127,100 vehicles, a 12 percent increase from July 2012.  The seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) in July is expected to be 13.2 million units, nearly the same robust level exhibited in June 2013. Retail transactions are the most accurate measure of true underlying consumer demand for new vehicles.
PIN data shows that in the first half of 2013, new- and used-vehicle transaction prices have increased 3 percent.  In addition, there has been an increase in the utilization of longer-term vehicle loans and an increase in leasing, when compared with the same period a year ago.
The customer-facing transaction prices for new vehicles are averaging $28,824, and incentive spending per vehicle is averaging $2,847 in the first half of 2013. The average used-vehicle price is $18,751 in 2013.
"Elevated new vehicle transaction prices are being enabled by the availability of longer-term loans, affordable leases and strong used vehicle values, compounded by the availability of low interest rates," said John Humphrey, senior vice president of the global automotive practice at J.D. Power.
Loans of 72 months or longer are accounting for 30 percent of new-vehicle retail transactions in the first half of 2013, up from 29 percent in the first half of 2012. Additionally, leasing has increased to 24 percent in the first half of 2013, compared with 21 percent in the same period of 2012.
"The rise in new-vehicle leasing, where the typical lease term is just three years, is providing a counterbalance to the rise in extended-term financing, where a vehicle may be financed for 5 or 6 years," said Humphrey.
Total Light-Vehicle Sales
Total light-vehicle sales in July 2013 are expected to grow to 1,336,700, an 11 percent increase from July 2012. Fleet sales, which typically average between 15 and 16 percent of total sales in July, are expected to fall within the lower end of the average, with volume projected at 209,600 units.
J.D. Power and LMC Automotive U.S. Sales and SAAR Comparisons

	July 20131	June 2013	July 2012
New-Vehicle Retail Sales	1,127,100 units (12% higher than July 2012)2	1,128,935 units	969,983 units
Total Vehicle Sales	1,336,700 units (11% higher than July 2012)	1,402,408 units	1,152,351 units
Retail SAAR	13.2 million units	13.3 million units	11.5 million units
Total SAAR	15.9 million units	15.9 million units	14.1 million units

¹Figures cited for July 2013 are forecasted based on the first 10 selling days of the month.
²The percentage change is adjusted based on the number of selling days in the month (25 days in July 2013 vs. 24 days in July 2012).
Sales Outlook
LMC Automotive is raising its forecast for both retail and total light-vehicle sales in 2013. The outlook for total light-vehicles is now at 15.6 million units—previously 15.4 million units—while the retail light-vehicle sales forecast increases to 12.8 million units from 12.6 million units.
"The overall trend in vehicle demand has outshined economic growth, and looking forward, the improving economic fundamentals should hold demand at the current level, if not accelerate it over the next several months," said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at LMC Automotive. "With a strong tailwind, it is not unreasonable to think about a 16-million-unit level of demand in 2013."
North American Production
North American light-vehicle production in 2013 is up 4 percent through June, compared with the same period in 2012. For the high-volume producers, Ford retains the strongest year-over-year increase at 14 percent, with robust demand continuing for the Fusion. Fiat-Chrysler holds steady in positive territory with a 1 percent increase. General Motors volume is off by 4 percent, compared with a year ago due to weaker large SUV volume ahead of the upcoming redesign and competitive pressure in the midsize car segment.
The European brands are tracking consistent with the industry growth, averaging a 4 percent growth rate from 2012. Despite a slowdown in demand for Hyundai, production growth remains robust at 15 percent year-to-date, while Toyota is on a 3 percent growth rate from a year ago.
Vehicle inventory in early July is at a 61-day supply, up slightly from 57 days in June. The inventory level has increased to 3.3 million units in July from the 3.2 million units in June.
LMC Automotive's forecast for 2013 North American production remains at 16.0 million units, a 4 percent increase from 2012. Excess capacity is very lean across the region, with some manufacturers and vehicle segments in short supply. Capacity utilization is expected to remain above 90 percent for 2013 and into 2014.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance tells the story of the revival of manufacturing in Michigan from autos to beer to farm to fork. This five-part ebook essay series is available for immediate download. It begins with The Great Collapse. For a preview, just click here.

Right To Work: Outrage In Michigan, Chapter Three By Rod Kackley

Right To Work: Outrage in Michigan

By Rod Kackley

Chapter Three: Battle Lines Drawn

(Author’s note: This is an excerpt from Right To Work: Outrage in Michigan, one of the ebook essays in the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series.)

Michigan AFL-CIO President Karla Swift bet her ranch that Governor Rick Snyder would be the final blockade against the GOP-Chamber of Commerce tsunami that Right to Work had become. She and other labor leaders believed that Snyder, the Republican that Big Labor worked so hard—and failed—to defeat in November 2010, would be the union’s best hope of turning the heat down under the Right to Work stew.


 “You know, (Rick) Snyder has said it is not on his agenda and he wants to move forward with what he calls his ‘relentless positive action items,’” Michigan AFL-CIO President Karla Swift explained without a hint of irony in her voice. “We agree with him and we have made that clear multiple times over the last year and a half.”
Color her mistaken.
Snyder was pushed to the right on this issue by conservative Republicans — bankrolled by conservative billionaires like Dick DeVos — who vowed to mount a 2014 reelection campaign against him if the “Tough Nerd” in the Governor’s office disappointed them.
Conservative Republicans promised to hold it against the second-term Governor if he vetoed or ignored the legislation. They had the money.They had the votes. They had the energy. Most importantly, they had the anger to make good on that threat.
The Michigan business community had been standing with its fists clenched, shoulders tensed, leaning forward, ready for a fight over right-to-work for years. They were pushed to the brink by the November 2012 elections. Their emotions were running white hot because of the ballot proposals that were pushed by Big Labor. The state’s business leaders were outraged.
Several business organization leaders, along with top-level Republicans, told me that they had promised to block the right-to-work movement as long as the state’s union bosses agreed to not ask voters to constitutionally protect the right to bargain and organize.
If that was the deal, Labor broke it. Big Business had been blind-sided by Big Labor and Big Labor lost.
Their pro-union proposals that would have guaranteed the right of collective bargaining in Michigan were crushed by voters.
Now it was time for retribution. Or as Michigan Chamber of Commerce President Rich Studley said, “Actions have consequences.”
State Sen. Patrick Colbeck and Rep. Mike Shirkey had been waiting not very patiently in their corners, gloves laced up, legislation ready, just waiting for the bell to begin that fight. They both want to make Right to Work happen.
It was time for the bell to sound. Round Two was beginning.

Restore The Roar: Outrage in Michigan tells the story of how Right To Work became the law in Michigan. It is available for immediate download by clicking here.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids have changed the way the world sees their community and the way they see the world is available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press.

Autographed editions are available by clicking here and on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Grand Rapids.

Where Are The Workers? Finding the lost generation

Where Are The Workers?

Finding the Lost Generation

By Rod Kackley

Author’s note: This is an excerpt from Where Are The Workers? It is the second essay in the ebook series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance.

The survivors are picking up the pieces, bandaging their wounds, helping each other as warriors do for other warriors. While they move forward, the combatants who are as weary as any of the fighters who came before them are sneaking peeks over their shoulders, hoping they will see platoons of reinforcements who are ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in battles that never end.
But they aren’t there. The reinforcements have yet to arrive, at least not in the numbers needed.
Manufacturing is on its way back led by the automotive industry. However, the case is also being made that manufacturing isn’t ready for the revival, especially the suppliers who are chained up to the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).
Here’s the story of a real warrior, a man who saw actual combat. Now he is facing a new and in some ways more difficult challenge.
Bryan Heath survived Marine Corps boot camp and three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, but never realized how tough it would be to find a job in the civilian world.
After knocking his head against the employment wall with job after job that went nowhere, Heath was doing his internship on the shop floor at Commercial Tool & Die Inc. (CTD) when I met him near Grand Rapids, Mich. He was continuing to take classes across the street at Expert Tech LLC, a sister company of CTD, part of the Commercial Tool Group family of companies. Expert Tech was set up to find that missing generation who for one reason or another has decided that factory life is not for them.
 “Learning this trade is something I will be able to use for the rest of my life,” Heath said. “This was the perfect opportunity to step in and say, ‘this is who I am.’”
Kind of like what he did in boot camp? Bryan looked me in the eye and said, “Yes sir.”
Commercial Tool & Die opened Expert Tech, to help itself and its competitors, as well as people like Bryan Heath. It’s an effort to deal with an industrial crisis born of the rebirth of manufacturing in West Michigan. Business is booming. The demand is there after a decade that was lost to the industrial sector. Now the problem is finding people trained in the skill sets that are needed.
“The community colleges have pulled back, the voc-tech schools are not as prevalent as they used to be. There just isn’t the infrastructure there used to be support skill and knowledge development in our trade,” Commercial Tool and Die President Todd Finley said.
Quite simply, the talent pool is nearly drained and could become a barely damp puddle.
 “We have really gutted our educational pipeline for skilled manufacturing,” Expert Tech President Ryan Pohl explained. “There is no feeder pipeline for people coming in with basic skills.”
Filling that pool company by company could be an insurmountable challenge because although it is something every shop should be doing, let’s be honest; some are so small that they are running as fast as they can just to stay in place. There’s no money and no time to put together anything close to an in-house training program.
That is why CDT formed Expert Tech. “Give me someone who will show up every day and work hard,” said Pohl, “and we will train them for a company or I will train someone for free, betting I can find work for them.”
Finding these hardworking, show-up-everyday-people is not a problem. There are plenty of college graduates, with four-year degrees, $35-thousand a year jobs and five-or-six figure student loans to pay back.
“The college bubble is real,” said Pohl. “People are realizing they can’t pay off their student loans and they are waking up to the reality that there is potential in this industry.”

For the rest of this story, including how Bryan Heath is doing today, please click here for an immediate download of Where Are The Workers?

The entire Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series is available through Amazon,Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Vook.com.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan have changed the way the world sees their community and the way their community sees the world.

Personally autographed hardcover and softcover editions can be ordered by clicking the Buy Now button the Welcome Page. on www.rodkackley.com.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available wherever books are sold including Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Grand Rapids.

Hardcover, softcover and ebook editions are available wherever books are purchased online including Abbott Press.

The Great Collapse, The Years When Everything Went Wrong

The Great Collapse

Chapter One

By Rod Kackley

Author’s note: This is an excerpt from the Great Collapse, the first in  the ebook essay series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance.
(Photo: Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Plant, from Andrew Moore's Detroit Disassembled exhibition)


Life was good. We were living the American Dream. Manufacturing is what made it all happen. Manufacturing is what made it all possible. Manufacturing was the industry that drove possibilities. It meant we Boomers could go to college. It meant our parents could look forward to a retirement with grandchildren, Social Security, a pension and health care.

Even if you never set foot in a factory, you reaped the benefits. Companies that didn’t have unions still had to compete with union pay and benefits or they would never get anyone decent. Manufacturing made all of that happen for all of us.

Don’t think for a minute that it was the corporations alone that made it happen.  It was the people on the lines, assembly and picket lines. It was the people who had made it to the Middle Class in their blue collars who reached down and pulled more people up to stand with them. They were the people who pumped money back into the economy. They were the people who were the job creators. They just didn’t know it at the time.

The auto industry brought my family to Michigan from Missouri. It is the typical story of a family facing hard times in the Depression, moving with what little they could carry in their trucks, a Grapes of Wrath movement north. My father and his brother would be sent back to the farms for the summer so that their mother could get more hours in at the GM plant in Flint.  Back home, they used BB guns to shoot cockroaches off the walls of the apartment they would have to leave as soon as the rent came due.

It was the auto industry that put bread on my father’s table in those days and it was that GM plant in Flint that helped my grandmother move them into the Middle Class. It was the auto industry that employed my father’s mother, a single parent widowed at an early age. It was the auto industry where anyone in Flint with the last name of “Kackley” could find a job in the plants because of my grandmother’s tenure with General Motors.

And it was the auto industry that my father ran from, joking that he escaped from the auto factory assembly line, entering World War Two, so he could finally get some “peace and quiet.”

It was the unions that won, for single parents like my grandmother from the South a chance at a new life, a more than livable wage, a fairly decent work environment, and most importantly a sense of justice.

It was the unions that battled for the workers. Union leaders stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their “rank-and-file” walking picket lines in the snow and bitterly cold winds of Michigan, fighting toe-to-toe in mortal hand-to-hand combat with the thugs hired by the Big Three to keep union organizers out of Detroit and Flint.

It was the unions and the Big Three, finally reaching a mutually profitable, spit-in-your-face, don’t tread on me, partnership after years of bloody struggle that promised my father’s generation a middle class lifestyle that included health care, retirement, and a better life for their children.

It all changed. Not quickly. Not fast. We were more like those frogs in boiling water who don’t know they are cooked until they are cooked.

It only got worse after my friends and I in the Class of ‘73 started our adult lives. Manufacturing started seizing up like our parents’ lungs after too many years of Pall Mall, Lucky Strike and other fine tobacco. And just like our parents whose lungs and hearts could take no more, manufacturing collapsed. It died. The auto industry went down and dragged everything else with it.

The Great Collapse, the first ebook essay in the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series is available wherever ebooks are sold. For immediate download, and previews of the other essays in the series, please click here.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, the story of how the people of one community have changed the way the world sees their hometown, and the way it sees the world,  is available wherever books are sold including Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center in Grand Rapids.

Last Chance Mile: the Reinvention of an American Community is also available wherever books are sold online, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Abbott Press.
For a personally autographed hardcover or softcover edition, please click the Add To Cart Button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com.

Auto Manufacturing Growth Continues, Ford Won't Be Slowing Down This Summer

* Ford will add an additional 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year after increasing annual straight-time capacity by 400,000 units in the region last year.
* Ford will shorten its summer shutdown from the traditional two weeks to one week for a majority of North American assembly plants, increasing production by an extra 40,000 units
* This year Ford plans to add close to 3,500 hourly jobs to meet customer demand for the company's best-selling vehicles.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) will add an additional 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year. In addition, Ford will produce an extra 40,000 units by idling select plants for only one week during what has been the traditional two-week summer shutdown.

"To meet surging customer demand for our top-selling cars, utilities and trucks, we are continuing to run our North American facilities at full manned capacity, and we will add 200,000 units of annual straight-time capacity this year," said Jim Tetreault, vice president of North America Manufacturing. "Approximately 75 percent of our plants are running at a three-crew, three-shift or four-crew pattern in order to ensure we're getting more of our products into dealerships."

This is the second year in a row Ford has taken the action in order to meet strong demand for its products.

To meet demand for Ford vehicles, the company will add nearly 3,500 hourly jobs in 2013. With its latest announcement of more than 2,000 new jobs at Kansas City Assembly Plant, as well as more than 1,400 new jobs at Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Ford is three-quarters of the way to its plan to create 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States by 2015. 

The company hired more than 8,000 salaried and hourly employees in the U.S. last year.

Did any of us doubt Detroit could come back like this? Be honest. We stood on the edge of the abyss and looked straight down. Yet somehow we have pulled back. 

That story is told in Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, a series of ebook essays beginning with The Great Collapse.

Restore the Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is available through Amazon and Vook.com or wherever ebooks are sold.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan change the way the world sees their community and the way the community sees itself. 

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Amazon, Abbott Press and Barnes & Noble.

Autographed editions are available at West Coast Coffee in downtown Grand Rapids and Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street in Grand Rapids.

Brake Lights Come On Even When You Don't Touch The Pedal, New Idea Out Of San Diego

We have all been taken by surprise by a car in front of us that slows down suddenly. The driver might take his foot off the gas or might downshift, but he does not touch the brakes. 

Of course that means the brake lights don’t come on and accidents happen.

Now some innovative people in San Diego think they have the answer:

Vectolabs, LLC.  is raising funds to launch their patent pending brake light system they believe will change the brake light forever.  

Dubbed the Adaptive Perceptible Deceleration Indicator (APDI) by engineers at this innovative company, the product is designed to reduce the risk of rear end collisions by enhancing visibility.  An onboard accelerometer and microprocessor coupled with automotive grade LEDs alleviates 3 major deficiencies of current brake light systems

• Today's brake lights only appear when depressing the brakes.  Down shifting and engine braking slow your vehicle considerably although brake lights never illuminate
• Brake lights only indicate a driver is applying brakes without any indication of the level of urgency
• Driving distractions are on the rise and inattentive drivers might lose precious time by failing to notice brake lights in front of them

Vectolabs' proprietary algorithm alerts drivers behind the slowing car; whether the car is slowing by engine braking, downshifting or conventional braking.  In addition, two levels of flashing distinguish between normal deceleration and emergency braking. 

Vololights™ will be the branded product utilizing this technology in a motorcycle license plate frame.  "Vololights revolutionizes motorcycle safety.  With the ability to signal any method of deceleration in addition to alerting drivers how fast the rider is braking, Vololights could potentially reduce rear end collisions," said Ken Whalster.  Ken knows a thing or two about motorcycles; he is a rider and President of BikeBandit.com, the largest online powersports distributors cataloging 8 million parts.

This breakthrough technology is being well received by some in the media.  Vololights was featured in the popular Cycle World magazine as well as Gizmag.com.  Autoevolution.com even declared, "Vololights is just amazing!" 

Here’s something else that is worth noting. Check out how they are putting the money together for this:

The San Diego based start-up launched on the popular Kickstarter crowdfunding platform during May for Motorcycle Awareness Month.  The funding will be used for production molds to target the motorcycle and scooter markets. 

 Phase two will include multiple plate designs and eventually the company looks to adapt the technology to fleets and automobiles. 

"Following the company's mission to improve the lives of customers through unique and innovative products, we think motorcycle safety is a great place to start," said Faizal Ali, the company's co-founder and also an avid motorcyclist.

~LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, an ebook essay series that tells the stories of the innovative entrepreneurs who are reviving Michigan manufacturing is now available through Amazon and Vook.com.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan have changed the way the world sees their community and the way the community sees itself.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Abbott Press.

Autographed editions of Last Chance Mile are available at West Coast Coffee in downtown Grand Rapids and at Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street in Grand Rapids or they can be ordered at www.rodkackley.com.

Chrysler's Investing: This Time In Ohio

Chrysler Group Plans to Invest Nearly $20 Million in Toledo Machining Plant

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- 

• Investment to increase capacity for production of torque converters for new generation, fuel-efficient nine-speed transmission
• Company's total investment in U.S. facilities over $5.2 billion since June 2009  

Chrysler Group LLC announced today that it will invest $19.6 million in its Toledo Machining Plant inPerrysburg, Ohio, to increase capacity of the torque converter it's machining for the nine-speed transmission. With this announcement, the Company's total investments in its U.S. operations since June 2009 increase to over $5.2 billion.

The new torque converters will be paired with the next generation, fuel efficient nine-speed front-wheel drive transmission being assembled at Chrysler Group's Indiana (Kokomo, Ind.) Transmission Plant I. The new transmission will debut in the 2014 Jeep® Cherokee.

"The new nine-speed transmission is a critical part of our strategy to meet fuel economy requirements over the next several years and Toledo Machining will play an integral role in bringing this transmission to market," saidScott Garberding, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing, Chrysler Group LLC. "Securing this additional investment is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the plant's workforce and helps secure its future long-term."

The investment will fund the installation of new equipment and tooling for additional machining and assembly capacity. Installation is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2014 and will be completed by the end of 2014.

In August 2011, a $72 million investment in Toledo Machining was announced to modernize the plant to produce the eight- and nine-speed torque converters on two new production lines and a new steering column for the Dodge Dart and Jeep Cherokee. These installations will be complete in the third quarter this year.

In February, the Company announced that it was investing $374 million in several of its Kokomo, Ind., facilities, including establishing a new manufacturing site in Tipton, Ind., to increase production capacity of the nine-speed transmission.

Toledo Machining currently produces torque converters for Kokomo Transmission (Ind.), Indiana Transmission I and II (Kokomo, Ind.), Sterling Heights Assembly (Mich.), and Toluca (Mex.).

The plant also produces steering columns for the following assembly plants: Warren Truck (Mich.), Belvidere (Ill.), Sterling Heights (Mich.), Toledo Assembly Complex (Ohio); Windsor (Ont.), Toluca (Mex.), Saltillo (Mex.), Arab American Vehicles (Egypt) and Carabobo (Venezuela).

~ LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, a five-part ebook essay series beginning with The Great Collapse, is now available through Amazon and Vook.com.

Other essays in the series include: Quenching The Thirst, the story of the rise of the craft brewing industry in Michigan; Farm To Fork, the story of food processing in Michigan; Outrage in Michigan, the story of the Right To Work legislative battle; and Where Are The Workers, the story of the struggle to convince young workers to make a career out of manufacturing.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story

of Grand Rapids, Michigan and how a $1 billion donation from Jay Van Andel started the reinvention of this American community.

Order your autographed hardcover or softcover edition of Last Chance Mile by clicking here.

Ebook editions are available through Abbott Press and Amazon.

Manufacturing Jobs Growing in Michigan: Factory Help Wanted

Manufacturing employment increased in Michigan by 14,648 jobs in 2012 according to Manufacturers News Incorporated, a rise of 2.3 percent despite the loss of 54 manufacturing companies.


This momentum is expected to continue in the months ahead. Chrysler plans a $240 million expansion of its Detroit plants; Ford will invest $773 million to expand hiring at six factories across the state; and GM plans to expand its Lansing facility. 

That is pushing employment at several auto suppliers, including Detroit Manufacturing Systems, which opened an auto parts plant in Detroit and will supply Ford with instrument panels. Brose North America opened a new facility in New Boston; auto parts maker Faurecia opened a new plant in Fraser; and Magna E-Car Systems established a new assembly plant in Grand Blanc Township. 


“Michigan’s industrial climate continues to improve,” said Tom Dubin, president of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “ The state’s efforts to reduce business costs have resulted in many companies reinvesting in its manufacturing sector.”


Grand Rapids is the number-one city for manufacturing employment in Michigan.
Manufacturers News Incorporated reported April 22, 2013, that 41,715 people were working in manufacturing jobs in Grand Rapids in 2012, an increase of 5.8 percent over 2011.
Detroit was in second place with 31,772 manufacturing jobs, no significant change from the previous year.

While Grand Rapids has the most manufacturing employment by city in the MNI survey, Southeast Michigan still leads the state on a regional basis, with 378,278 people bringing home paychecks from manufacturing businesses.

Southwest Michigan, a region that includes Grand Rapids, had manufacturing employment of 204,651 in 2012.

This is good news of course. But it also presented a challenge in 2012 for many manufacturers, who struggled to fill open positions in their factories and engineering labs.

Here’s an excerpt from Where Are The Workers? the second installment in a five-part ebook essay series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance.


Manufacturing is on its way back led by the automotive industry. However, the case is also being made that manufacturing isn’t ready for the revival, especially the suppliers who are chained up to the OEMs.
Are enough new warriors being recruited to this fight? Here’s the story of a real warrior, a man who saw actual combat. Now he is facing a new and in some ways more difficult challenge.
Bryan Heath survived Marine Corps boot camp and three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, but never realized how tough it would be to find a job in the civilian world.
After knocking his head against the employment wall with job after job that went nowhere, Heath was doing his internship on the shop floor at Commercial Tool & Die Inc. (CTD) when I met him near Grand Rapids, Mich., while he continued taking classes across the street at Expert Tech LLC, a sister company of CTD, part of the Commercial Tool Group family of companies. Expert Tech was set up to find that missing generation who for one reason or another has decided that factory life is not for them.
 “Learning this trade is something I will be able to use for the rest of my life,” Heath said. “This was the perfect opportunity to step in and say ‘this is who I am.’”
Kind of like what he did in boot camp? Bryan looked me in the eye and said, “Yes sir.”
Commercial Tool & Die opened Expert Tech, to help itself and its competitors, as well as people like Bryan Heath. It’s an effort to deal with an industrial crisis born of the rebirth of manufacturing in West Michigan. Business is booming. The demand is there after a decade that was lost to the industrial sector. Now the problem is finding people trained in the skill sets that are needed.
“The community colleges have pulled back, the voc-tech schools are not as prevalent as they used to be. There just isn’t the infrastructure there used to be support skill and knowledge development in our trade,” Commercial Tool and Die President Todd Finley said.
Quite simply, the talent pool is nearly drained and could become a barely damp puddle.
 “We have really gutted our educational pipeline for skilled manufacturing,” Expert Tech President Ryan Pohl explained. “There is no feeder pipeline for people coming in with basic skills.”
Filling that pool company by company could be an insurmountable challenge because although it is something every shop should be doing, let’s be honest; some are so small that they are running as fast as they can just to stay in place. There’s no money and no time to put together anything close to an in-house training program
That is why CDT formed Expert Tech. “Give me someone who will show up every day and work hard,” said Pohl, “and we will train them for a company or I will train someone for free, betting I can find work for them.”

~ LCP ~

Where Are The Workers?  is one essay in a five-part ebook series, Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance, now available through Amazon and Vook.com.

See the World Today in your Chevrolet

Chevrolet Posts 10th Straight Quarter of Record Global Sales

2013-04-16

• GM first quarter sales up 3.6 percent on strength of new product launches
• Cruze sales top 2 million around the world since launch in 2009

DETROIT – Chevrolet sold more than 1.18 million vehicles around the world in the first quarter of 2013 achieving its 10th consecutive quarter of record global sales on the strength of products like the Cruze compact car which recently surpassed the 2 million mark in total global sales since its launch in 2009.

General Motors Co. posted sales of more than 2.36 million in the first quarter of 2013, an increase of 3.6 percent, outpacing the industry which was up 1.5 percent, compared with the same period in 2012.

“ Chevrolet is growing around the world by leveraging GM’s global engineering and design expertise to deliver the right products in the right markets,” said Mark Reuss, GM president of North America. “And because a product like the Cruze has been developed for different markets with a wide variety of consumer needs, we have the flexibility to offer more performance and capability options – like the Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel model that will be launching in the U.S. later this year.”

Guided by a new global vision, ‘Find New Roads,’ rooted in the brand’s legacy of ingenuity, Chevrolet is in the midst of its most aggressive new product rollout with 25 new or significantly redesigned products being launched globally including the all-new Corvette Stingray , Silverado and Impala in the United States and the Spin , Trax , Orlando and Colorado in several major markets around the world.

In the first quarter, Chevrolet U.S. sales totaled more than 469,000, up nearly 5 percent. Sales of the updated Traverse were up 22 percent for the quarter, and helped to boost GM’s total share of the U.S. crossover market 2.5 points.

Other markets posting sales increases include Brazil with sales of 141,000 up more than 3 percent primarily on the strength of the Onix, which accounted for nearly 24 percent of first quarter sales; China with sales of 165,000, up 2.5 percent; and Thailand with sales of 17,000, up 14 percent.

~ LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance “Where Are The Workers”

The collapse of manufacturing in the last decade of the twentieth century and the slow crawl back up in the twenty-first century have soured many of the Baby Boomers’ children on a life in manufacturing. 

Now that factories are coming back to life, manufacturers are racing to find CNC machinists, assembly line workers, and engineers. In “Where Are The Workers” we will go to West Michigan to find out what manufacturers are doing to bring skilled workers into their factories.

For your copy of Where Are the Workers, the second book in the Restore The Roar ebook essay series, click here.

U.S. Manufacturers Optimistic, 80 Percent Predict Growth

U.S. industrial manufacturers remain positive regarding the outlook for the U.S. economy in the year ahead, while sentiment pertaining to the world economy remains guarded, according to the Q1 2013 Manufacturing Barometer, released April 16, 2013 by PwC US.  According to PwC's survey, 55 percent of respondents expressed optimism about the 12-month outlook for the U.S. economy during the first quarter of 2013, up seven points from the fourth quarter, and only five percent were pessimistic.

"Overall sentiment regarding the direction of the domestic economy remained upbeat among U.S. industrial manufacturers in the first quarter," said Bobby Bono, U.S. industrial manufacturing leader for PwC.  "However, management teams are taking a more conservative approach to forecasting top line performance for the year ahead, given the moderate recovery underway and uncertainty pertaining to fiscal policy."

Reflecting the sustained level of optimism, 78 percent of respondents forecast revenue growth at their own companies for the next 12 months, while only five percent expect negative results.  

The projected average revenue growth rate in the year ahead also dropped to 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, from 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.  

Still, attitudes pertaining to the outlook for the U.S. continue to contrast with sentiment regarding the international markets, where optimism toward the 12-month outlook was relatively low at 36 percent, with 45 percent expressing uncertainty.

In addition, the projected contribution of international sales to total revenue over the next 12 months declined to 32 percent, as compared to 38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Forty-three percent of U.S. industrial manufacturers said they were planning major new investments of capital over the next 12 months, off four points from the fourth quarter of 2012 and below a year ago (53 percent).  

Plans for operational spending also slowed in the first quarter survey, with 71 percent of respondents planning increases over the next 12 months, a nine point reduction from the fourth quarter of 2012.  

Areas where operational spending is expected to increase included research and development, up 14 points to a high of 52 percent, followed by new product or service introductions (38 percent), and information technology (28 percent).  Conversely, investment plans for geographic expansion hit a low of 10 percent, off 18 points from the fourth quarter of 2012.

Plans for M&A activity over the next 12 months dropped to 19 percent in the first quarter survey, off 16 points from the fourth quarter of 2012.  In addition, plans for expansion to new markets abroad decreased 14 points to nine percent, indicating a significant slowdown in investments in international markets.  "Overseas expansion plans have fallen off notably during the past four quarters, with the first quarter survey showing a 26-point reduction from last year," said Bono. "It is clear that companies are keeping their cash closer to home and are waiting for clarity on the world stage before making decisions on investing internationally."

New hiring plans over the next 12 months were reported by 45 percent of industrial manufacturers, off 13 points from 58 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. Still, overall composite workforce projections rose from 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter 

to 1.0 percent in the first quarter, as a few industrial manufacturers are planning to add large numbers of new employees over the next 12 months.  

~ LCP ~

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance a five-part ebook essay series is now available at Vook.com and Amazon.

Part One: The Great Collapse

Manufacturing is Michigan. Michigan is manufacturing. The collapse of its manufacturing sector crippled Michigan for two decades. However, there is opportunity in the carnage. Michigan is coming back.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance: For immediate download, click here.

~ LCP ~

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community shows how the people of Grand Rapids are changing the way the world sees their community and how the community sees itself.

To receive your signed hardcover or softcover edition of Last Chance Mile click on the Add to Cart button, or Buy Now button, if you are on a mobile device, at www.rodkackley.com.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available at West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center and Schuler Books & Music on 28th Street in Grand Rapids and can be ordered from your favorite bookseller.