In the first quarter of 2007, my company conducted a complex-manufacturing research survey of 1,473 senior management level executives (CEO, COO, CFO, vice-president of operations). Complex manufacturers were defined as those employing “other than exclusively repetitive manufacturing processes” including engineer-to-order, made-to-order, and assemble-to-order. The data include a wide range of industry cross-sections, geography, public and private companies, numbers of employees, and annual revenues, and revealed a clear change from a similar survey done in 2000. The statistically significant difference from the identical 2000 survey to the current 2007 survey is that the complex manufacturers face increasing business and global requirements. There’s also an increasing international diversity of customers, suppliers, and partners.

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