Page 42 - MetalForming September 2013

Adopt
Leading
Technology
Strategies
to Become an Industry Leader
Metalforming-company leaders cannot stand still. To leapfrog competitors requires an understanding of the market and leveraging of new technology. Start by incorporating analytical data in new ways, and becoming more intimate with customers.
BY PETER PEARCE
Metalformers have experienced return to a period of normalcy. Others
a multi-decade period of
change—consolidation and closings, movement of operations to lower-cost alternatives, and ruthless cost cutting. The collapse of 2008 only furthered the discomfort. As of summer 2013, many remain in recovery mode.
These influencing factors have forced metalformers to adopt various strategies. Some have taken a hunker- down approach, halting investments, exercising extreme cost control and discontinuing underperforming oper- ations, all in hopes that the market will
Peter Pearce is a principal with Baker Tilly, a full-service accounting and advi- sory firm with expertise and global reach in audit, tax and management consulting; www.bakertilly.com. He will deliver a keynote presentation at this year’s Manufacturing ERP Experience, slated for October 8-9, 2013, in Cincin- nati, OH. Learn more and register to attend at www.metalforming- magazine.com/ERP.
decided to mimic other companies in their space—no explicit strategy here. And others have taken a third approach, one based on the realiza- tion that markets have permanently and structurally changed, and will con- tinue to change.
We believe the metalforming indus- try has been materially and perma- nently changed. Therefore, hunkering down or mimicking others are not viable strategic choices. While domes- tic demand is rebounding according to industry and government sources, the rising tide will not lift all boats. Competition for domestic orders is more intense than ever with resulting profit margins being quite thin for all but the best-managed and focused firms.
Evolving industries, especially cap- ital-intensive industries such as met- alforming, are especially tough on established companies. Companies with large investments in plant and equipment cannot easily take on new
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MetalForming/September 2013
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