As the North American economy continues to mount a recovery and sales begin to show steady growth, manufacturers are investing once again in new plants and equipment. Although millions of manufacturing jobs were lost over the past dozen years, we see companies starting to hire again to meet renewed demand.

In this new post-recession era, the bywords of manufacturing success are innovation, cost reduction, greater throughput, and improved quality. North American manufacturers are looking to Italian machinery firms to help them hone their competitive edge. Due to pricing pressures, the trend for at least a decade has been to outsource manufacturing and build plants overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor.

Today, we are seeing a reverse shift, as North American manufacturers in industries such as the automotive sector establish new plants closer to home and invest in retraining and retooling on the home front. In fact, state-of-the-art Italian machinery is being utilized to train thousands of U.S. workers from various companies.

In this edition of Machines Italia Vol VIII, we examine these issues with the aim of learning how companies are responding to competitive challenges. We take a close look at some of the innovative solutions that Italian machinery manufacturers are providing to their North American manufacturing customers. These articles are proof positive of the win-win partnership that has been forged between Italian machinery firms and North American manufacturers.

This volume of the magazine was published in collaboration with Penton Media, Inc. and its publication IndustryWeek Magazine. For more information on Penton Media, Inc. click here.