Plastics Business
The Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) and Harbour Results Inc. (HRI) recently completed the third Automotive Tooling Barometer to better understand the impact and cause of automotive program delays.
The Barometer indicates that 66 percent of tool shops had more than half of their projects over the past four months delayed two weeks or more. On an annualized basis, almost 15 percent of business is on hold; based on the size of the tool and die industry, that translates to $1.7 billion, or the equivalent of 80 tool shops, sitting idle at any given time. The Barometer showed a collective Tooling Sentiment Index (TSI) of 56, indicating a positive outlook for the automotive tooling supplier industry. Of the respondents, 35 percent indicated a significantly or somewhat more optimistic view of the 12-month outlook, whereas only 17 percent of respondents indicated some level of pessimism.
For more information, visit www.oesa.org or www.harbourresults.com.