Steve Kline Jr., Gardner Publications Inc.
We love a good chart here at Changing Gears, and this is one that definitely caught our attention. The chart shows the rate of change for machine tool sales in the United States.
In a general sense, machine tools represent the base of the manufacturing chain. They’re usually not on the assembly line. They’re in the local mom-and-pop tool and die shops that dot the Midwestern landscape. Machine tools make the things that hold everything else together.
In 2010, investments in these tools exploded. As you can see in the chart, sales increased at a faster rate than at any time in the last four decades, at least.
We already knew that manufacturing is on the rebound in this country. But what can we learn from this explosive growth in machine tool sales?