"Competitiveness" is the newest corporate buzzword. It is being offered as the solution to all our economic problems. Newspapers, magazines and legislation are pushing us to be more "competitive."
As the time came to write this editorial, the replies to our survey from the last issue were just starting to pour in. We were gratified by the number of responses we received and by the amount of time many of you spent
answering in great detail the text
questions on the survey. Because of
this unusually large response, it will
take us some months to log, digest
and respond to all the data. Thank
you for this nice "problem."
As Gear Technology moves toward its third anniversary, we feel that we have reached a point in our development where it is time to pause, reflect on our accomplishments and plan for the future.
A change has taken place within the industry that is going to have an enormous effect on the marketing, sales, and purchasing of gear manufacturing and related equipment. This change was the American Gear Manufacturers' Association, first biennial combination technical conference and machine tool minishow.
Now that the new tax bill has been passed, the time has come to begin evaluating how it will affect investment strategies in the machine tool business. Your first reaction may be to think that any motivation to invest in capital improvements in your company is gone, because both the investment tax credit and the accelerated depreciation on capital investment have been removed from the tax law. After all, if Uncle Sam is not going to help us out through some short term tax gains, why should we bother? Can we afford to bother?
"It's show time!" Ready or not, on Sept 3, the biennial International Machine Tool Show opens at McCormick Place, Chicago. Planning a show that encompasses displays from over 1000 companies from 29 nations and an associated technical conference presenting more than 200 papers on 50 topics has not been without its problems.
The last two months have been both a time of difficulty and of growth for Gear Technology. Unexpectedly, I found myself in the hospital having surgery, and consequently out of commission for several weeks. At the same time, two individuals on our staff lost family members, and most of this period saw us getting ready for this preshow IMTS issue while being seriously short-staffed.
This issue of Gear Technology, The Journal of Gear Manufacturing, marks the end of our second year of publication. As we approach our third year, it is time to review our statement of purpose. Gear Technology's primary goal was and is to be a reference source and a forum for the American Gear industry, and to advance gear technology throughout the world.
Sitting down to write my comments for this issue, one event filled my thoughts-the transformation and uninhibited euphoria that overcame Chicago, and the whole Midwest, by the Bears reaching and winning the Superbowl.
As I thought about what we might expect for 1986, the most important news affecting our industry is the tax revision bill just finished by the House Ways and Means Committee.