At a time when technological innovations offer new growth opportunities for the manufacturing sector, a lack of talent from "rising generations" threatens its future vitality, according to ThomasNet.com's Industry Market Barometer research.
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing as it's often called, is not about to replace mass manufacturing. Even though the technology is improving, the finish and durability of some printed items can still fall short of what producers require.
When 3D printing allows anyone to scan an object and create it, the concept of intellectual property and trademarks will increasingly become irrelevant.
Household appliance production in the United States is projected to increase 7 percent in 2013, 4 percent in 2014, and 4 percent in 2015, according to the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. Overall, U.S. production was at a strong pace in the first quarter of 2013, decreased slightly in the second quarter, but is expected to accelerate in the coming months.
Surveys are snapshots. They don't tell you what respondents were thinking a year earlier, or a day later. They offer up opinions that are frozen in time.