What looms over businesses as far flung as car repair, lab equipment and swimming pool gear? In a word, Amazon.

Hyperloop One completed the second phase of testing its ultrafast transportation system - propelling an aerodynamic pod down a low-pressure tube at record speed and distance, the company announced last week.

As a growing number of consulting firms have taken up the gauntlet of U.S. manufacturing's challenges in recent years, manufacturing executives have been inundated with information and explanations on a variety of popular trends, from IoT to 3-D printing to the rise of robotics.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has proposed 10 policy actions to boost U.S. manufacturing that the retailer says could help recapture $300bn of the $650bn worth of consumer goods that are currently imported.