The state of US manufacturing
From Jhawker on my board on the FOOL
Here goes:
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When I travel, I don't always have time to keep up on all of the postings on this board. I have come to Chicago for the week to visit some customers and attend the National Manufacturing Week conference. Today I went to the McCormick Place to attend the exhibits. I was shocked, dismayed, and stunned by what I saw, or better, by what I didn't see.
I first attended this annual show about 7 years ago. I had already attended the ChemShow at the Javits in NYC by then, and was impressed that this show was even larger than the ChemShow. At that time, the Manufacturing Week (which includes Design Engineering, Plant /Facilities Management, Automation, basically most of the segments that affect manufacturing) exhibits filled both the South and North halls, and the North hall overflow annex. These are huge exhibit halls. If you haven't been there, you can go to the McCormick Place website ( www.mccormickplace.com ) to see how big it is. Now, I had noticed over the last few years, that the show was getting a little smaller. For the last 4 years, the overflow annex hasn't been used. And over the last couple of years, they have been blocking off some of each hall (maybe 20%) that was not being utilized. But, what I saw this year still stunned me.
The North hall was completely empty. At first I thought that maybe they had moved all of the CAD/CAM participants somewhere else. But no, the show has gotten so small that everything can fit into one hall; actually, less than one hall. They had still blocked off 15-20% of the South hall due to lack of participants. Also, all of the registration, the show bookstore, the display services, all of these other non-display floor space absorbers were included in the South hall, when they used to be spread between the halls and the external mezzanine. If you haven't attended this show before, perhaps this doesn't mean much to you. It is amazing how much this has changed in just the last two years.
I know that the U.S. manufacturing industry is struggling. I've seen numbers and heard stories. I work in the manufacturing industry. Luckily, we are not a commodity producer(i.e. you won't find our products at Wal-Mart), but rather a high-end or niche manufacturer. So, although it has been difficult, we have been able to sustain a small amount of growth over the past few years. But, I was simply stunned by how small the Manufacturing Week show had become. It truly amazed me.
Two more interesting thing that I saw:
1. Right by the registration area, the first booth that you will see is eBay. Why eBay at a manufacturer's conference, you might ask. I visited with their representative for awhile. They were there to show attendees how easy it was to sell excess capital equipment, inventory, or their whole business on eBay. Can't survive, well they will be happy to help you sell off everything. Apparently business is booming at eBay in this market segment, and they have set up dedicated web addresses and pages for this.
2. As I wandered the aisles of the show, I would look at which exhibitors were bored to death (no business), which ones had some visitors, and which ones had the teasers (games, models, presentations, or anything to catch the eye/attention) to try to increase their booth traffic. But, the booth that I saw with the heaviest traffic didn't have teasers. Some guy had rented a booth just to sell digital cameras/camcorders. Nothing to do with manufacturing, strictly retail. And these puppies were selling like hotcakes. There was always a crowd, and the credit card reader stayed warm. I would be surprised if any manufacturing exhibitor comes away from this show happier, or more satisfied, than this guy.
I have never been more dissolusioned about the state of manufacturing in America than I am today. I was simply stunned. You better have something significantly innovative or different, or you better get into the service industry. |
