Tag: pandemic

November 2, 2023

The guidance, first issued in May 2020, was supposed to expire at the end of the public health emergency. The policy allowed for any required production process changes, like social distancing, or manufacturing changes due to supply chain shortages, which […]

August 9, 2023

Many supply chain leaders were unprepared when the pandemic hit, and businesses struggled to maintain material supply continuity. Fast forward a few years, and procurement continues to be more challenging than ever. Companies still struggle as geopolitical volatility, natural disasters […]

June 13, 2022

Events as universally disruptive as the COVID-19 pandemic are rare. While the world seems to be recovering from the virus itself, the manufacturing industry won’t go back to how it was before, nor should it. The pandemic and ensuing disruption […]

April 19, 2022

Johnson & Johnson JNJ +3.04% suspended full-year guidance for sales of its Covid-19 vaccine, citing a global surplus of doses and uncertainty over how the course of the pandemic will affect demand. The healthcare-products company said Tuesday that Covid-19 shots […]

March 30, 2022

Navigating FDA’s strict and ever-changing regulatory requirements is far from a new balancing act that medical device manufacturers face daily. But the many pressures born from the pandemic, such as supply chain disruption coupled with the stringent regulatory environment, have […]

November 3, 2021

Truck driver Chris Wagner pulled his big rig into a grain processing plant in Sidney, Ohio, on a recent afternoon to pick up a load bound for the Chicago suburbs. He’d lost his scheduled place in line because of delays […]

October 29, 2021

The World Robotics 2021 Industrial Robots Report shows a record of 3 million industrial robots operating in factories around the world – an increase of 10%. Sales of new robots grew slightly at 0.5% despite the global pandemic, with 384,000 […]

September 15, 2021

According to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report published by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, July 2021 new manufacturing technology orders totaled $472.6 million, a slight decrease of 5.6% from June but a 41.5% increase compared […]

August 3, 2021

Automation has changed considerably in recent years, from sensors and networking that enhance existing equipment to robotics and motion control products that deliver a predictable return on investment. The pandemic gave automation a significant boost. Companies sought automation technology to […]

May 7, 2021

FDA postponed all routine inspections in March 2020. The agency continued doing mission critical inspections, carrying out eight device-related assessments and more than 800 in total from March 2020 to March 2021. In July, FDA resumed prioritized domestic inspections and […]

March 19, 2021

Most major Asian electronic producers reported double-digit increases in early 2021. The chart below shows three-month-average change versus a year ago for electronics production. The data is from each country’s official statistics and is in local currency. China, by far […]

February 1, 2021

U.S. manufacturing continued to recover in January, a bright spot for the U.S. economy as services companies continue to struggle with the coronavirus pandemic. Two purchasing managers surveys on manufacturing activity released Monday pointed to continued growth, adding to evidence […]

January 22, 2021

New research from Orange Business Services found that the supply chains in 40% of multinational corporations were unable to cope with the crisis created by the pandemic. The survey of 320 enterprises, focusing on the manufacturing, transport and logistics sectors, […]

December 2, 2020

Tight inventory levels of Ford Motor’s F-150 pickup due to pandemic-related plant shutdowns earlier this year and production starting for a redesigned model led to a 20.9% decrease in the automaker’s sales in November, the company said Wednesday. The Detroit […]

October 1, 2020

The global oil-and-gas industry remains under extreme financial pressure as demand for fossil fuels rebounds slowly after being crushed by the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the largest western oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC signaled […]

July 30, 2020

Royal Dutch Shell PLC swung to its first quarterly loss since its formation over a decade ago and warned that the outlook for oil-and-gas demand continued to be uncertain, illustrating the scale of damage Covid-19 is wreaking on the industry. […]

July 27, 2020

During the economic recovery that followed the financial crisis of 2008, sales of recreational vehicles like motor homes boomed for several years. The coronavirus pandemic appears to be sparking another boom in the industry as travelers concerned about the risks […]

May 8, 2020

Vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1 and 2 component manufacturers should avoid severing relationships with businesses further down their supply chains and look for ways to support them on the way to recovery. Doing so could give them a competitive advantage […]

May 1, 2020

In the midst of national shortages of testing swabs and protective gear, some medical suppliers and health policy experts are looking ahead to another extraordinary demand on manufacturing: Delivering a vaccine that could potentially end the pandemic. Making a vaccine […]

April 14, 2020

Hundreds of companies across the United States are reinventing themselves to make equipment that is desperately needed to treat the coronavirus. That so many American manufacturers are rising to meet this pandemic with little coordination from the federal government reveals […]