Week 14 in Manufacturing News

U.S., Europe, China and Japan PMI

• In the U.S., the rate of expansion in manufacturing was the weakest since June 2017.

• Eurozone manufacturing readings were much worse than expected last month, as factory activity contracted at the fastest pace in nearly 6 years.
• China’s manufacturing sector returned to growth in March.
• Japan’s Nikkei-Markit manufacturing PMI for March capped the worst quarterly performance in the sector since the second quarter of 2016.

Source: AXIOS.

U.S. manufacturing rebounds in March, ISM index shows

American manufacturing recovered a bit in March after hitting a two-year low in the prior month. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 55.3% last month from 54.2% in February.

Source: MarketWatch.

UK manufacturing growth vulnerable to post-Brexit tariffs

The recovery of UK manufacturing has relied heavily on growth in just four industries – manufacture of food, motor vehicles and other transport equipment and the repair of machinery. And Brexit trade barriers have the potential to have the highest impact on these industries.

Source: Financial Times.

Oracle ERP lawsuit underscores installation hardships for big systems

The ERP lawsuit by Worth & Co., over its $4.5 million project, underscores a major problem with big systems. These are large and risky projects often leading to cost and schedule overruns. Lawsuits over ERP deployment are far from rare.

According to the survey of 249 enterprises, only 27% reported a positive ROI within two years of implementing an ERP system, 43% reported that they broke even, and 30% reported a negative return on investment.

Source: SearchERP.