On the downhill? - Industrial Market Trends

I picked up this link courtesy of Michael’s blog over at Stamping out a Living.

Nick Sevastian, a mechanical engineer, has written an article on the decline of manufacturing in North America, and their lack of success, particularly in comparison to Japan.

Whilst the article is written from the perspective of a US based engineer, I could not help but recognise similarities with the situation in the UK. We too have a recent history of appointing accountants and business school graduates to senior positions within businesses, and fail to recognise as a society the value of engineers and scientists. More worryingly, this lack of recognition has lead to a dramatic decline in the number of students taking engineering/scientific based degrees, which is not encouraging for the future.

The reasons for the decline are far more varied than Nick addresses, but nevertheless his article and the responses it has generated are well worth reading.