American Manufacturing Plant Managers Bullish About 2012 – Read What They Have to Say

Plant Engineering has just released the results of their 2012 Salary Survey Analysis which very nicely covers much more than just salary data.  The overall impression from this survey is that American manufacturers are really raring to go and are ready to be done with all things recessionary.

In 2010 Plant Engineers/Managers were growing increasingly concerned with maintenance issues – in fact it was their number one plant concern.  That concern grew even louder in 2011 with survey responders frequently pointing out that their plant was lacking skilled workers, capital, direction from upper management, and funding for maintenance including for maintenance personnel.

Here are some of the highlights of the 2011 survey:

Plant Engineers’ 2011/2012 Top Plant Facility Concerns:

  • 37.3% Maintenance
  • 25% HR/Personnel Training Issues
  • 25% Automation

What Should Get the Most Attention?

  • 44.4% Maintenance
  • 28.8% HR/Personnel Training
  • 20.8% Automation Systems

Although energy concerns were fairly low on both of the above lists, 82% of respondents said that sustainability does play a role in decision-making at their organization.

Plant Engineers’ 2011/2012 Top Issues:

  • 30% Skills gap
  • 23%  Ineffective management
  • 20.5% Government interference
  • 13.7% Company downsizing

Respondents reported that the Skills Gap had two components – an age issue (many of America’s skilled workers are now in their 50s and will age out) and a training issue.

Looking to the Future:

  • 28% see no end to their recession in sight
  • 52.2% say the recession has ended
  • 18.4% see the recession ending soon for them
  • 44% expect to add lines or shifts in 2012 (the
    same as in 2011)

The Plant Manager/Engineer in a Nutshell:

  • Average Age: 58 (17% are over 60, 2.3% are under 30)
  • 71.1% have a college degree
  • 94% Use social media (up from 43% in 2010) primarily LinkedIn (59%) which they use mostly for business networking purposes but not so much for problem solving (15%) or product reviews (10%).

For more details, graphs and charts, click on this link PlantEngineering.

Plant managers are, of course, some of ACS Industrial Services’ very favorite people.  We work hard to make your life a little bit easier by providing timely and reliable industrial electronic equipment repairs from circuit boards, to CNC equipment to servo motors and everything in-between.