Alignex Mechanical Division Sales & Marketing Blog

Re-Invest now to be ready for the economic rebound that’s to come

Major media spouts doom and gloom every night on the evening news. Large manufacturers with billions in overhead and owed pensions are struggling to develop a successful business model for the 21st Century. Meanwhile, with much less publicity, small and medium sized businesses are weathering the current economic storm quite well. In fact some are even thriving in this economy. In the December 28th Star Tribune article entitled Growing UP in a down economy, several manufacturing companies in the upper Midwest were highlighted as being at capacity and growing. What sets these companies apart? According to the article, there are three key factors:

1. Companies thriving in the midst of a global recession tend to be innovative and offer customized, high-tech and engineering services in niche industries.
2. "Nimble small companies can take advantage of [this economy] if they have invested previously in their own plants and equipment," said Bob Kill, CEO of Enterprise Minnesota, the quasi-government business assistance group that helps small manufacturers pare waste and raise productivity.
3. Cliff Waldman, an economist with the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, noted that today's trendsetters often are firms that previously updated their plant equipment, streamlined production processes or worked to enhance efficiencies, delivery time and ultimately, profits.
   

At Alignex, we offer a number of technologies that can improve the way manufacturers go to market and manage their engineering process. First and foremost, SolidWorks 3D Design Software is recognized as an industry lead for its ease of use and productivity tools which helps engineers design better products, faster. Virtual Design Analysis like SolidWorks Simulation can reduce prototyping costs as well as materials costs by testing new designs as they are being created. Data Management Solutions like SolidWorks Enterprise PDM can provide the access and workflow for concurrent engineering, making your engineering team more efficient and allowing your organization to better re-use previous engineering in future designs. Documentation tools like 3DVIA Composer can help bring new products to market faster by utilizing 3D design data for product documentation as well as marketing materials. Design Automation tools like DriveWorks and TactonWorks helps environments where custom manufacturing yields many "same as, but different" products by allowing for variable engineering specifications to custom configure the design without having to re-engineer it each time. Finally, CAM tools like SolidCAM allow for machining instructions to be developed in the same window as the design, including the ability to update the machine code immediately after design changes are made.
The bottom line is, if you don't plan to survive this economic downturn, stay with the status quo. On the other hand, if you plan to weather this storm and want to come out stronger on the other end, now is the time to invest in your future. By investing now, you can be in a better position to accelerate your production when the economy gets back on track.