The Reading Room – What’s The SCOOP?

Now in a regular Friday spot, this is the Reading Room, a weekly roundup of what we’ve been reading, watching and listening to. You can see these updates even more regularly if you follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

• Unsurprisingly, we’re still talking about trade wars and tariffs, but Global Trade poses the question “Are Quotas Worse Than Tariffs?”. With all the focus on tariffs these days, it is easy to overlook the return of another tool used to limit imports: quotas.
• ‘We Did What We’re Supposed to Do,’ but with Tariffs, They’re Reeling – With tighter profit margins and fewer employees to cut, smaller manufacturing operations tend to feel the vibrations of an unstable market first. If the experience of Wolverine Advanced Materials is any indication, the steel and aluminum tariffs and uncertainty around NAFTA have already put some auto suppliers on shaky ground—and a third blow from proposed Section 232 auto and automotive parts tariffs could be a coffin nail for some smaller operations.
• IPC Research Reveals Impacts of Higher Tariffs in their Tariff War Fallout report.
• Lastly on trade wars, South China Posts sugest, “China economy set to sink further, with US trade war and pork crisis to drive record low growth lower still”
• Meanwhile, almost counter intuitively, Tesla Turns a Profit and Builds a Chinese Factory Very Fast. According to Wired, the Shanghai Gigafactory, which Tesla says can produce 150,000 Model 3 sedans a year, was completed in 168 working days.
• In market news, EPSNews editor, Barb Jorgensen, reports that leading analysts say that expectations for an upturn in electronics component demand have been pushed out to the second half of 2020, and the road to recovery passes directly through global trade policy. Read more in “Q4 Component Demand Dives, Uptick Pushed to 2H 2020”.
• Apparently twins are great! Or at least Digital Twins. Industry Week reports that Digital Twins Are Great for Clearing Up IIoT Confusion. They’re one of the easier Industry 4.0 tools to understand and apply throughout the plant.

FROM SMTAi: We’ve edited and posted a few more videos from SMTAi, take a look on our YouTube channel.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: I am a big TED fan, in fact I just pitched to present at an event, wish me luck! Check out this talk from Oisin Lunny at TEDxRapidCity, entitled “Empathetic Connection in a Digital Age”. Welcome to the age of the Phonosapien! More empathy in all walks of life please, especially in business!

WEBINAR OF THE WEEK: Bright Machines Hosts, ‘EMS 2.0: What’s Next for Electronics Manufacturing’. Join this webinar with factory automation veteran and Bright Machines VP Electronics Segment Bartosz Mazurek and discover how Industry 4.0 technologies can be used to cost effectively bring automation to the back end of the production line which traditionally uses manual labor.

That’s it until next week! For more regular musing connect or follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Read more, watch more, hear more, know more – that’s the SCOOP!