This release came over the transom this morning. Some thought-provoking ideas on the economy and manufacturing's piece of the recovery. It's commentary from Dr. Chris Kuehl, Economic Analyst, Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International.

His three reasons:  Better Management, Emphasis on Strategy and Marketing, and Adaptation

Agree or disagree?

Apparently things are quite sunny in Munich as well as Milwaukee. (FWIW, it's  46 deg F. and sunny there today.) But even if it had been raining buckets, I think the folks at Siemens would be smiling. This news came over the wires this morning:

It's been a lovely fall here in the Midwest. Lots of sunshine. And today the sun was shining just a bit brighter up the road in Milwaukee. This morning, Rockwell Automation released it's 2010 fourth-quarter earnings report, which gave CEO Keith Nosbusch and the rest of the Rockwell gang a lot of reasons to smile.

The money quotes -- to coin a phrase -- are these:

The economic wallahs tell us that the economy is getting better -- sort of. Unless you're reading them on the days when they're in a bad mood, and they're telling us the opposite--or, of course, unless you're one of those poor souls still trying to find work after a layoff or graduation. Then, the economy really does still pretty much stink. Meanwhile, since psychology plays a big role in this glass-half-empty/half-full scenario (I don't think anybody's saying it's any better than half full--at best), I'm always on the look-out for the good news.

Two articles have caught my eye in recent days that point out the weird disconnect between the crummy employment numbers and the fact that some manufacturers are going begging for employees. Both are from the New York Times. The first puts a "human face," as we used to call it in journalism class, on the vexing problem of trying to hire qualified people for manufacturing jobs.

The prognosticators over at Longbow Research have released a short assessment of the current conditions in the process industries. The news is mostly good. The report says . . .

Spent the morning on a couple of conference calls relating to Rockwell Automation’s release of its financials for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2010. The bottom line: Pretty good, all things considered—and way better than 2009. Fiscal 2010 second quarter revenue was $1,164.5 million, up 10 percent compared to a year ago. Fiscal 2010 second quarter revenue was up 9 percent sequentially compared to the first quarter. Fiscal 2010 second quarter income from continuing operations was $111.9 million ($0.77 per share), compared to $40.6 million ($0.29 per share) a year ago.

Some bad news, some good news, some neutral news, but overall, the economic picture seems to be improving. Here's the release, full-text:

　ABB Q1 results --Short cycle orders improve, infrastructure business more challenging

For years, COTS (commercially available, off the shelf) has been driving the architectures of automation systems and controller design. Here's the latest example of the power of COTS.

From Advantech's press release:

Advantech Launches a x86-based DIN-Rail PC

Longbow Research has published their January Automation Update. They are far more bullish in this report than in previous months' issues.

Here's Longbow Research's positions on the companies they follow in the automation marketplace: