As you may know, Gear Technology magazine publishes an annual survey into the ‘State of the Gear Industry’. So we thought we would provide a potted version that would take you through the key findings ‘at a glance’ with a link to the main survey.
No figures are provided for a breakdown of the respondents geographically, although the majority would be from the US. However, the global nature of our industry means that we face common challenges and so the survey would be largely reflective for everyone in the industry.
What we do know about the respondents are that 59 % are AGMA members and the largest category (37%) had between 100 – 499 employees.
85.8% felt optimistic about the next 5 years (the highest level in recent years).
Challenges
Difficulty finding skilled labour still topped the pile with 87% reporting that machine operators topped job categories for shortages.
The top 3 challenges behind labour were:
- Rising costs of materials
- General economic climate
- Political uncertainty
Employment
By far the largest number of respondents (35%) said they had increased staffing levels over the past 12 months and a further 46% predicted further increases over the NEXT 12 months.
Production
The largest number (66%) said that had increased production over the year with 17% of them recording production increases of 21% or more!
Sales
Not surprisingly, similar figures are reported for sales with 65% of respondents also expecting further increases over the next 12 months
Capital spending
83% of respondents spent more than 100,000 USD on capital equipment in 2018 with 84% expecting to do the same this year.
Types of training
The highest number (77%) thought machining best practices are the types of training most needed.
As we said, this is a real cut-down version of the full and complete findings which can be found in the link here.