News

ESG: A Second Look

ESG: A Second Look

Manufacturers might be well advised to pay attention to the current movement using ESG standards (whose standards are these?) for funding decisions.  This could affect your retirement system as well as access to funding for any number of things. For a second time we want to take a look at ESG standards for investments.  Proficient Sourcing recommends suppliers for manufacturing OEM outsourcing needs, and most of our recommended companies are domestic shops.  If funding becomes… Read More

Supply Chain Under Strain

Supply Chain Under Strain

Proficient Sourcing LLC provides OEM’s access to a network of outstanding manufacturing suppliers.  As almost all are midwestern, we offer an alternative to companies being subjected to supply chain difficulties with overseas suppliers. The January/February edition of Expansion Solutions magazine has an excellent summary article “A Supply Chain Under Strain”.  The article points out several key supply chain points. Everyone involved with foreign suppliers is aware of the potential for sea, air, rail, and road… Read More

Manufacturing Outlook: Problems Remain

Manufacturing Outlook: Problems Remain

What is the near term outlook for US manufacturing?  Not particularly encouraging. There are nearly an infinite number of internet answers to this, and we found 2 good ones at the National Association of Manufacturers 4Q 22 survey and Deloitte’s 2023 Manufacturing Industry Outlook. Here’s a segment of NAM’s Summary of Findings: “While manufacturing proved to be quite resilient through the challenges of the past few years, the sector ended 2022 with weaker conditions, both… Read More

China: Big Problems Lurk!

China: Big Problems Lurk!

  China has very big demographic problems. Is this situation meaningful for us folks interested in US manufacturing at present or soon? We shall see. All of a sudden, a large number of news sources are reporting a potential demographic crisis beginning in China. We wonder what this means for OEMs with Chinese manufacturing. The government has a very major issue dealing with these things and still maintaining a manufacturing powerhouse. Apparently, for the first… Read More

Manufacturing Outlook for 2023

Manufacturing Outlook for 2023

Making sense of economic forecasts is risky business, but we looked at many claims of such expertise concerning manufacturing.  This is a summary of one such source from Hitachi Solutions.  Their report contained several factors widely reported in other places. As we all know the trifecta of problems, labor issues, supply chain and inflation remain as a combined big deal.  How these will shake out over 2023 remains to be seen.  The Hitachi report lists… Read More

Pandemic Effects on the Economy

Pandemic Effects on the Economy

Recently we found “The Economic Disaster of the Pandemic Response”, a talk by Jeffrey Tucker from October 2022.  Mr. Tucker is a writer of some note, but evidently a strong conservative.  Whether or not his remarks are 100% accurate or not is beyond our ability to determine, but it makes a lot of sense.  We’re no fan of central planning, especially for the national economy, which created a number of problems in this case. The… Read More

The 4 Day Work Week

The 4 Day Work Week

Recently we heard a radio report that the government was considering 4 Day work week legislation.  No further details were reported, so we can only speculate that this is a move that might happen sometime in the future.  To whom, how and when unreported. The US economy consists of a wide variety of types of work, so just how such legislation would work seems very confusing.  Just some examples:  blue collar workers in a company… Read More

Reshoring: 2022 News

Reshoring: 2022 News

Proficient Sourcing can help almost anyone considering reshoring manufacturing in 2022 and beyond.  We can help by offering candidates for all manner of manufacturing with a network of companies, all of whom have a history of happy customers—without cost or obligation.   Here are many of the capabilities we  offer. A particularly good example would be large iron/steel castings, which our source can now provide at nearly equivalent costs compared to Asia, given current shipping costs,… Read More

Energy Policy Affects US Manufacturing Competitiveness

Energy Policy Affects US Manufacturing Competitiveness

Cheap and abundant energy is one factor that has helped the US manufacturing competitive position relative to global alternatives.  Reshoring has been enhanced by that very factor.  Over the past year we have all seen a number of factors influencing that position.  It’s not clear who’s gaining or losing, other than apparently Russia’s oil and gas revenue has not changed much. Or perhaps that’s not true.  It’s difficult to sort out the wheat from the… Read More

Data Presentations: Beware Of What You See

Data Presentations: Beware Of What You See

Many years ago we found a 1954 publication, How to Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff. There were a number of useful thoughts in this book, which was an introductory presentation of how to use, and abuse, statistical data.  This ssubject is important enough to warrant another article.  All of us are subject to statistical presentations that may tell a distorted story.  Beware! If you are at all attentive to graphs, charts, and related presentations you are… Read More