Selected Sources for Manufacturing
Jinfo Blog

By Adrian Janes

Abstract

DocuTicker editors contribute brief articles to FUMSI on conducting research with grey literature - reports from government agencies, think tanks, research institutes and public interest organisations.

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In my work as a contributing editor for DocuTicker, I research publicly available reports on a number of global topics. Here are some of my favourite resources for Eastern Europe, Russia and the Former Soviet Union:

The industrial model of production, in the West, is to a large extent considered past its peak. However this is partly because that model has for the past few decades increasingly been exported to those areas termed emerging economies (notably Asia and Latin America); it is also partly a misperception, as industrial production remains significant in Europe and the USA, with all the associated lobbying and concentrations of employment that implies. In seeking information on manufacturing industry, there are therefore a number of angles from which this task can be approached.

Industry Week is a valuable source with an international perspective. This is especially shown by its Research and Rankings section, notably the IW 1000, with brief statistical profiles of the world's major manufacturing companies and links to related articles about them.

Manufacturing.net is another good place to start. Although US-focused, its lively news coverage does provide some international stories, e.g. this one on Toyota. Its fully web-linked list of manufacturing associations is also US-based, but a number of them are of such a size that they have members elsewhere. Thus it can be worth following the links in order to find information on an industry internationally. Examples here are the Fieldbus Foundation and the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering. Conversely, further drilling down will often produce the websites of constituent companies, as in this list from the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative.

In a similar way, there are federations and associations throughout the world of companies with common technical and political interests. A European example is Eurofer, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries. The special focus of such organisations can make them valuable information sources for news; what they produce and how; and for overviews of the state of their industry. An example of the latter is the Eurofer report, Economic and Steel Market Market Outlook 2010-2011. The site also has the interesting feature of a Steel Dictionary, allowing instant translation of industry terms between English and four other European languages, an example of the kind of specialist knowledge these organisations possess.

Another example of this kind of industry-focused website is that of Elcina (Electronic Industries Association of India).

But it must also be noted that manufacturing industry information, as other business information, can be hard to come by. This is particularly so in connection with the most recent statistical data. This is either because much of it is restricted to members of an association, or because it is only available in the form of expensive reports. Even many of the publications from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) are only available commercially. One exception is its Statistical Country Briefs, although these vary in currency and comprehensiveness. Data can also be downloaded in Excel or XML, and further information on a country can be requested from UNIDO's Statistics Unit.

It is also possible to prise some information from sites that are generally restrictive in nature. That of the UK's Engineering Employers Federation, for instance, has weekly Intelligence Briefings on current issues. And whereas its recent reports appear to be for members only, some older reports are freely obtainable,

e.g. 'High value - how UK manufacturing has changed' from November 2007. As with UNIDO, more information appears to be available on request and also via the site's blog. This principle may well prove successful with other sites, applying for it via the Web even if the required information isn't directly obtainable from it.

Independent analysts Markit's PMIs and Economic Data presents a regular stream of concise, lucid economic commentaries, which often feature manufacturing or at least consider it in the broader economic context. A recent example is this one about Greece, 'Manufacturing PMI 'double-dip' signals deepening economic woes' (PDF).

By seeing if there are any relevant associations for an industry, and adding to this insights from companies' own sites, specialist news sites such as those cited above, and those of governmental statistical offices (this list is of those based in EU and EFTA countries, plus the USA, Japan and Australia) it is possible to obtain both industry overviews and a grounding in particular companies.

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