Industry Voices: Chuck Edwards
Chuck Edwards, president of Lenze Americas, discussed some of the issues facing U.S. manufacturing with Plant Engineering.
Q: With the federal tax picture a little clearer as the new year begins, how is your business poised to grow in 2013?
Our plans are to continue to aggressively invest in the Americas market. Recent actions within the government are beginning to establish greater stability and predictability in the economy. This provides our customers a more attractive environment to invest in new machine designs or increased capacity.
Q: What challenges still are in front of you?
Our greatest challenge continues to be finding enough qualified people for the range of skilled positions in our company. This ranges from assembly workers through field engineers. With this being the case we continue to increase our funding for internal training and development.
Q: From a manufacturing standpoint, what are your goals for the year? Where does your production operation need improvement?
Customer focused efforts to drive continued improvements in efficiency and costs
- Accelerated implementation of Lean processes
- Streamlined supply chain for reduced material and logistics costs
- Flexible processes for more customer specific solutions
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2012 Salary Survey
In a year when manufacturing continued to lead the economic rebound, it makes sense that plant manager bonuses rebounded. Plant Engineering’s annual Salary Survey shows both wages and bonuses rose in 2012 after a retreat the year before.
Average salary across all job titles for plant floor management rose 3.5% to $95,446, and bonus compensation jumped to $15,162, a 4.2% increase from the 2010 level and double the 2011 total, which showed a sharp drop in bonus.