Manufacturers Welcome Suspension of Proposed Tariffs on Mexico Imports Indefinitely. Late last Friday, President Donald Trump announced that proposed tariffs on Mexico were "indefinitely suspended," and NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons immediately responded saying that "manufacturers welcome the news that millions of jobs won't be jeopardized." Markets responded positively to the news, as did [...]

Industry Week An overwhelming majority (98.6%) of American manufacturing companies are small businesses, and 75.3% of those businesses have fewer than 20 employees, according to new data released on May 23 by SCORE, mentors to America's small businesses. Last year,  small manufacturing businesses generated 11.6% of the U.S. economic output and employed 8.5% of the [...]

In fact, despite a multitude of challenges--slowing global growth, the partial government shutdown, trade policy uncertainties, a strong U.S. dollar--the U.S. economy grew a solid 3.1 percent at the annual rate in the first quarter. This was off slightly from the previous estimate of 3.2 percent growth, and it remained the strongest first quarter of [...]

Below is a summary of the items in the $9.96 billion FY 2020 Budget, as passed by the House Finance Committee. Under the rules, the House of Representatives must wait seven days before they can hold a floor vote on the FY 2020 Budget. Article 2  State Funds 911 fees will now be placed in [...]

(Reposted with permission from Rebecca Morgan, President & CEO of Fulcrum ConsultingWorks, Inc.) The phrase "Lean Six Sigma" is nonsensical to me. It's like "lean 5S" or "lean SMED." Why would we select our favorite tool and slap it after lean? Similarly, lean blockchain makes no sense. The good news is that I don't think anyone is using that phrase!