Manufacturing

While nothing can replace an in-person connection, online conventions have their pluses — from reduced costs to easier access to guest speakers. While there are upsides to all-digital events, they can’t replace the income for local businesses in cities who have lost a convention. Kirby Lee / AP file June 17, 2020, 10:26 AM CDT By Ben Popken Small signs of optimism are returning to the $100 billion convention industry. After two months of declines, more convention and meeting planners now say they’re starting to source and book future events, according to a survey by Northstar Meeting Group. As of mid-May, just one-third...

How is Covid-19 impacting supply chains in Mexico? While the Covid-19 pandemic has broken 720,000 cases and led to almost 34,000 deaths globally as of 29th March, Mexico – which has the world’s 10th-largest population, at 127m – has reported 993 cases and 20 deaths.   To date the country’s response has been one of tempered caution. Domestic and international flights continue to operate, albeit less regularly, and inbound travellers from countries with high levels of infection, such as the US, China and Italy, are still permitted to enter.   Social and economic restrictions vary by state, but on March 23 the...

Coronavirus Pandemic Threatens Semiconductor Industry Recovery Just as the semiconductor industry was poised to spring back from a cyclical downturn, the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is threatening its recovery. Some segments of the semiconductor industry remain healthy, such as those exposed to cloud-computing data centers, analysts say. Other segments, such as consumer electronics and automotive, are at greater risk from negative impacts from the pandemic and any resulting recession, they say. This week, Wall Street analysts have been picking which chip stocks are best and worst positioned in the current environment. "We are concerned that global chip shipments might be impacted...

Special A3 Report: Signs of Hope for Manufacturing Amid the Coronavirus Crisis by John Gallagher, Special to A3 The Association for Advancing Automation asked former Detroit Free Press Business Columnist John Gallagher to examine the state of manufacturing during the coronavirus crisis. Here’s his special report for A3: The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a gut punch to American manufacturing. But the picture, while grim, is by no means the catastrophe of our worst fears. Factories have idled or slowed production to allow deep cleaning and to protect workers. Supply chains have been disrupted. Shortages of products from medical supplies to,...

Tesla's Biggest Advantage in the Auto Industry Building a new car company is hard, but it has a lot of advantages that Tesla is leaning into. One of the advantages of being a new, disruptive company is that you can change the business model that legacy companies are stuck in. Marketing, distribution, and even production can be rethought in a way that makes sense in 2020, instead of being built for 1950.  Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) biggest advantage over competing automakers today is how it has updated the auto business model. Bloated dealerships are out of the picture, marketing budgets can be slashed, and...