North American manufacturers see high supply chain risks, and job creation is expected to be obvious

More than a third of North American manufacturers believe they are experiencing significant supply chain disruptions in the past 3 months, according to an October 'MFG Watch' survey by MFG.com, the world's largest online sourcing marketplace for manufacturing , more than 70% of respondents said they plan to maintain or increase the number of employees in existing factories. The survey is mainly aimed at the following two groups in North America: manufacturing companies on the supply side and OEM manufacturers on the purchasing side. Feedback from 408 manufacturing and service providers showed that 197 professional procurement and engineering design personnel from OEM manufacturers participated in the procurement-side survey. The companies surveyed by 'MFG Watch' came from the fields of automotive, aviation, medicine, industrial equipment, consumer products and textiles. 38% of buyers and suppliers respectively agree that their customers have experienced severe supply chain disruptions in the past 3 months, while more than 50% of suppliers and buyers each say that the supply chain has maintained a stable state. Thirty-eight percent of both buyers and suppliers said they put a lot of effort into managing and responding to risk. In terms of supply chain risk, 47% of OEM manufacturers believe that material cost is the most important factor for their company, and 39% believe that supplier stability is the most critical factor. 82% of suppliers believe that the most important factor is customer stability. Survey data show that North American manufacturing faces a stabilizing business environment. Both buyers and suppliers have optimistic expectations for the fourth quarter of 2009, claiming that 72% of suppliers will maintain the existing number of employees or increase recruitment, while 75% of buyers. 'When the North American manufacturing industry is experiencing recession, which reflects the extension of globalization, managing and mitigating supply chain risks has become the first problem to be solved in the business field.' Mitch Free, founder and CEO of MFG.com, told CMJ China Machinery and Metals said, 'Although the extension of supply chains will bring temporary challenges to the manufacturing industry, companies' expectations for hiring more employees still reflect the stability of extended supply chains in manufacturing operations.'