Management

Clare Goldsberry wrote a beautiful article "Not paying suppliers is NOT a winning business strategy." Yes, when working for a Goliath Corporation (P&G, The 'BIG 3 etc.), what never fails to amaze me is the arrogance these companies have, simply issuing a press release on how they will boost their profits with no care for their supply base.

One of my favorite places to try to find out what's going on in American medical care is a blog operated by the Columbia Journalism Review called "The Second Opinion: Examining Media Coverage of Heatlhcare". It's a blunt look at why we get so confused about medical costs, Obamacare, hospital ratings, and other subjects in the news. It's written by Trudy Lieberman, a former economics writer for Consumer Reports, and Sibyl Shalo Wilmont, a nurse and writer.

Here are some examples of their posts:

While automotive suppliers are more optimistic about increased business from the OEMs in 2013, OEMs continue to be concerned about tightening capacity and suppliers’ ability to meet launch schedules. Those are the latest findings from the Automotive Supplier Barometer released this week by the Original Equipment Suppliers Association in partnership with Deloitte LLP.
   

According to a company with a vested interest in the situation, the newly imposed federal excise tax on medical devices is having an unfortunate consequence—relocation of manufacturing from the United States to Mexico. It's not a tax dodge—the tax still has to be paid. Moving to Mexico is a way to cut costs, according to an outfit called Co-Production International, a California company that is glad to help companies make the move.

When Adam Reiser and a partner founded a magazine nine years ago titled “Made In USA,” they wrote articles about companies making products in the USA. However, Reiser, who today is CEO and co-founder of Made In USA Certified (www.usa-c.com), found out that “people speak with forked tongue.” While they were telling Reiser that their products were being made in this country, in actuality they were shipping products in from China and relabeling them “Made in USA.”

Long-delayed equipment investments, a resurgent automotive market, and one of the world's largest plastics shows came together last spring to help push a number of equipment suppliers in North America to record performances in 2012, including automation and injection molding machine supplier Engel.

"[NPE2012] certainly didn't hurt; we really couldn't have timed it any better," Engel North America President Mark Sankovitch told PlasticsToday. "The show was just one part of multiple pieces-everything aligned."

Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, ON) has named Gerardo Chiaia to the new role of president, hot runners, establishing the hot runners unit as its own stand-alone business, and promoting Keith Carlton to VP Global Sales beverage packaging, filling the role formerly held by Chiaia. The supplier of molds, hot runners, and injection molding machines is also creating a new business development team dedicated to launching new products.

In another sign that America is becoming increasingly competitive in manufacturing, the United States is now equal to Mexico in "attractiveness" as a location for manufacturing operations and is on track to achieve cost parity with manufactured imports from China by 2015.

The plastics industry is doing relatively well in spite of economic concerns and weakness in some sectors supplied by plastics processors. That's the analysis given by Michael Taylor, Senior Director of Internal Affairs & Trade for the Society of the Plastics Industry, speaking at the 'Business of Plastics @ ANTEC' conference.

Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) officers began their one-year terms in conjunction with the opening of SPE's ANTEC conference, with Jon Ratzlaff acting as the new president, succeeding James S. Griffing. Ratzlaff is technical services manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP.