Despite reports heralding the decline of U.S. manufacturing, industrial companies in North America see their competitive position improving in the next five years, a new survey by Deloitte and the National Association of Manufacturers found.
Optimism among manufacturers was a key finding of the “Made in North America” survey of 321 manufacturing executives in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Looking ahead, 57% of manufacturing executives in the United States predicted that their companies would be better positioned against their primary competitors five years from now. That compared with 41% who thought they were currently ahead of their competition. Only 11% expected that they would be worse off in five years. Among Mexican manufacturers, 49% expected a stronger competitive position in 2012, while 46% of Canadian executives reported similar optimism.
Craig Giffi, chairman of the Global Manufacturing Industry Practice of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, said the backdrop of a declining housing market and rising energy prices made the optimism reflected in the survey surprising. “Even without those elements, it would have surprised us,” he told Managing Automation in an interview.