The United States retained its lead as the world’s largest producer of industrial machines in 2006, with $122 billion worth of production.  This was one of the findings of new research and statistics-gathering from IMS Research.   This lead is narrowing, however. Germany was second with $119 billion, followed closely by Japan with $110 ...

Capital spending by all U.S. businesses rose 14.3 percent to a record high $1.31 trillion, in 2006 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This represents a $165 billion increase from the $1.14 trillion in capital spending reported in 2005 and surpasses the previous high of $1.16 trillion in 2000.   These data come from the Census Bureau’s ...

A new survey of U.S. senior manufacturing executives shows that about two-thirds would outsource maintenance of factory equipment as a hedge against a downturn in the economy.  A total of 100 executives were polled in the survey, which was conducted by Nielsen Research.  The titles of the executives included CEO, CIO, Vice President and ...