The New Generation Leaving Ireland

Add comment February 23rd, 2010

Remember when Ireland was the hot manufacturing growth area?   Ireland

ROBOTS are leaving the Stateline!

Add comment February 23rd, 2010

Our local teams in Boone County, Oregon, Rockford and Winnebago have spent the last few days putting finishing touches on their robot and practicing using it for this years’ First Robotics Game. Friday night at TechWorks found excited students, mentors, parents, and fans all checking out what this years game is going to entail. This program is one way our region continues to educate young men and women about the possibilities for their future. Careers are available in Manufacturing, Engineering, Advertising, Programming, Fundraising, Web-site development. This program is a realistic mingling of real world applications–that is why it is so successful and exciting. Good Luck to all four of our teams! But don’t forget each team members is already a winner by just participating! 
Here is an example of one of their sites http://rockfordrobotics.com
 

How not to Create Jobs

Add comment February 22nd, 2010

I thought Social Security was going broke?  Jobs

Americans still hesitant to buy small cars

Add comment February 19th, 2010

Let’s see, classic marketing 101 says…give the market what they want (big and roomy for all our kids).  Now the producers, under pressure for clean and energy, are saying…”this is what you’re going to get (small cars)”  Is there a push back coming?  Small

US Factories Gear Up to Hire

Add comment February 18th, 2010

Makers of Shoes, Electronics to Add Staff; Industrial Output Up for 7th Month

Manufacturers are seeing more signs that the U.S. economic recovery
is on a solid footing, opening the way for new hiring as well as
call-backs for factory workers laid off during the depths of the
recession.

Caterpillar Inc., the Peoria, Ill.-based heavy-equipment maker, has
brought back 600 workers in the past 60 days, including 100 recalled to
an engine plant in Indiana last week. Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp. has been
relying on overtime to meet growing demand, but is now preparing to
start adding new workers at its U.S. plants in coming weeks.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that industrial production, which
includes utility and mining output, as well as manufacturing, rose 0.9%
in January, the seventh straight monthly increase. Factory output rose
a solid 1%, with improvement across a wide range of industries,
including apparel and appliances. Output of motor vehicles and parts
was particularly strong, rising 4.9%, which economists attributed to
pent up demand and government incentives that fueled traffic to dealers.

Factories have been a relative bright spot so far in this recovery,
last month adding 11,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis. That’s
the first increase since before the downturn began more than two years
ago.

But manufacturers remain cautious, and some still fear a secondary
slump, especially if a broader recovery—which will rely on
still-elusive job creation in the wider economy and a stronger revival
of consumer spending—is delayed.

Federal Reserve officials’ latest forecast, released Wednesday with
the minutes of the Fed’s January policy meeting, found that most of
them expect very little downward movement in the unemployment rate, now
at 9.7%, for the rest of this year. They anticipate a painfully slow
decline in unemployment to between 8.2% and 8.5% at the end of 2011,
and between 6.6% and 7.5% at the end of 2012, significantly above the
5% level that they consider full employment.

Fed officials, while beginning to plot their exit from unusually low
interest rates and other unusual monetary stimulus, continue “to expect
the pace of the economic recovery will be restrained by housing and
business uncertainty” as well as “only gradual improvement in labor
market conditions” and “slow easing” of the credit crunch, the minutes
said. A “sizeable minority” of Fed officials say it could take “more
than five or six years” for the economy to fully recover from the deep
recession.

The home-building industry, while still depressed, is improving—but
only gradually. The Commerce Department said builders began work on
1.5% more new homes in January than in December, on a seasonally
adjusted basis. But the number of new building permits rose a very
slight 0.4%, after much stronger increases in November and December

Manufacturers, which currently employ about 9% of all American
workers outside of farming, are chipper. “We are seeing demand starting
to come back,” says Scott Wine, chief executive officer of Medina,
Minn.-based Polaris Industries Inc., which produces snowmobiles and
other off-road vehicles. But, he added, “we’re trying to look at ways
to make sure we don’t go out and get ahead of ourselves in terms of
hiring and expenditures.”

Mr. Wine says he worries that the sales revival he’s seeing could
stall out and, even in the best case, he is expecting a “muted
recovery.” Polaris is evaluating whether to add workers. Currently, it
has employees working overtime to keep up with the increase in demand.
Factories in January were operating at 69.2% of capacity, the Fed said,
up 0.8 percentage points from December, but well below the 79.2%
average of the past four decades.

Among manufacturers, the picture is uneven. Deere & Co., which
reported strong fiscal first-quarter earnings on Wednesday and
increased its earnings forecast for the year, said that even with an
improving economic outlook, it is not moving to hire. “We are not doing
any significant rehiring,” says Ken Golden, a company spokesman, adding
the company has recalled some workers in some U.S. plants. “Twenty or
thirty people here or there,” he says.

Others have been more willing to add workers. At Allen Edmonds,
which specializes in traditional men’s shoes, business started perking
up in October. At first, Chief Executive Paul Granguard says he thought
it might be a fluke. But business kept picking up in November, and by
December, the company’s two U.S. factories were working overtime to
meet demand.

“We depleted our inventories much faster than we expected and ended
up working overtime in December just to catch up, and have been working
overtime ever since,” he says.

The company, whose shoes retail for an average of $250, retrenched
significantly after the financial crisis and currently has about 400
workers. Sales are up 14% so far this year, says Mr. Granguard, and the
company is going to start by hiring about 10 people. “We’re going to do
this step-by-step,” he says. The company aims to reduce but not
eliminate the need for overtime at his plants.

Russian steelmaker Severstal is reopening its U.S.-based plants,
including operations in Warren, Ohio, and is ramping up its coke-making
facilities.

“We feel comfortable saying that we will be operating at 80%
capacity in 2010,” says Sergei Kuznetsov, chief executive officer of
its North American operations. On average, domestic steelmakers
operated at about 50% to 70% of capacity in 2009.

The manufacturing sector’s recent growth is being amplified by the
move to refill inventories, a trend that likely will wane as pipelines
are replenished.

Craig LaBarge, chief executive of LaBarge Inc., which produces
electronics used in everything from medical devices to military
equipment, is feeling more upbeat than he has in a while. “Order inflow
has really improved compared to a year ago,” he says. “The thing that’s
hard for us to determine in some of the markets is how much of this is
just inventory replenishment and how much is real and market demand.”

LaBarge, based in St. Louis, is slowly hiring workers and hopes to
add another 80 to 85 to its 1,500 work force over the next six to 12
months. “Every day that goes by we get a bit more comfortable,” Mr.
LaBarge says.

Write to Sara Murray at sara.murray@wsj.com and Robert Guy Matthews at robertguy.matthews@wsj.com

Stimulus: White House changes job-count rule

2 comments February 17th, 2010

The White House has abandoned its controversial method of counting jobs under President Obama’s economic stimulus, making it impossible to track the number of jobs saved or created with the $787 billion in recovery money.  Count
Kinda like funny money, huh?

CAT Hits 100 Year Milestone

Add comment February 17th, 2010

Here’s a good story about one of our local manufacturer’s customers…   CAT

Winnovation Open House Sunday Feb. 21st

Add comment February 16th, 2010

We would like to invite you to our Open House on Sunday, February 21st.  The event will be from 2-4 pm, at our Bot Shop, located at 110 N. Pecatonica St, Winnebago.  Our 2010 Robot will be ready to demonstrate this year’s game, “Breakaway”.

The team will be competing at the FIRST Midwest Regional Competition on March 19-20 at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavillion, located at 525 S. Racine Ave, Chicago.  We invite you to come support our team as we face off against other FIRST Robotics teams for a chance to compete at Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia.  Admission to the event is free, but please plan to pay for parking.  The regional competition runs from 10 am - 4:30 pm.

You can view an animation of this years game at FIRST’s website, http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=16209

Visit Winnovation’s website, www.team1625.com, for build season updates, pictures, and upcoming events.  Once again, we truly appreciate your support of our team, and hope to see you at our Open House and the Midwest Regional!

Thank you,

Amanda Early, Assistant Advisor

Winnovation Team 1625

8th Grade Science and PLTW

Winnebago Middle School

earlya@winnebagoschools.org

Rolls-Royce chief: industry needs more UK science and engineering graduates

4 comments February 15th, 2010

Not enough British students are studying engineering and science in the UK, hampering efforts to revive industry, according to Rolls-Royce chief executive, Sir John Rose.Engineers

Sound familiar?

Manufacturers Working To Save American Jobs

Add comment February 15th, 2010

In an economy where manufacturers are struggling to stay afloat, some are also fighting to find ways to keep their workers employed. Save An American Job (SAAJ) is a branding and networking initiative designed to do just that.  See the rest here…   Save