Week 50 in Manufacturing News

U.S. Added 266,000 Jobs in November; How the U.S.-China Trade War Got to This Point; UK Manufacturing Production; How can manufacturers successfully respond to the data-first era?

U.S. Added 266,000 Jobs in November

The Labor Department’s report was much stronger than the one last month, helped by the end of a General Motors strike.

November’s reassuring employment report, released Friday by the Labor Department, featured payroll increases of 266,000.

At 3.5 percent, November was the 21st consecutive month with an unemployment rate of 4 percent or lower. Revisions to earlier estimates brought the average monthly payroll gain for the past three months to 205,000

Source: The New York Times.

How the U.S.-China Trade War Got to This Point

What started in 2018 with U.S. levies on imported washing machines and solar panels to protect domestic producers has escalated into a cycle of tariffs, talks and truces that have rocked financial markets.

Overview of trade war: The Washington Post.

UK Manufacturing Production arrives at 0.2% MoM in Oct vs. 0.0% expected

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the UK industrial and manufacturing production data on Tuesday, with the overall industrial activity witnessing deterioration in October.

Manufacturing output arrived at +0.2% MoM in October versus 0.0% expectations and -0.4% booked in September, while total industrial output came in at +0.1% vs. +0.2% expected and -0.3% last.

Source: FX Street.

How can manufacturers successfully respond to the data-first era?

Data driving change – Manufacturing is quickly grasping the possibilities brought by data, and there is a huge opportunity to optimise operations through the efficient gathering and processing of data from machines within a factory.

Collaboration through digitisation – from the IoT, to 3D printing, to AL and machine learning – will bring huge financial gains.

Taking advantage of the hybrid approach – To achieve this, manufacturers must move away from legacy systems to a hybrid/multicloud deployment.

Source: The Manufacturer.