Uncertainties continue to increase, however order intake in the German machine tool industry rose by 24%.

In the second quarter of 2022, order intake in the German machine tool industry rose by 24% compared to the same period last year. In this context, orders from Germany increased by 27% and those from abroad by 23%. In the first half of 2022, orders increased by 34% overall. Domestic orders contributed to this with a 35% increase and foreign orders with a 33% increase.

"Despite the current difficult conditions, machine tool orders continued to develop well in the second quarter. In relation to the first half of the year, volumes are even almost at record levels from 2018. Foreign business is primarily supported by demand outside the EU. In particular, our two lead markets China and the USA remain strong. The severe lockdown in Shanghai and other Chinese cities did not leave any deeper traces in the second quarter," comments Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders‘ Association), Frankfurt am Main. "In terms of technologies, cutting machining is currently pulling up the overall result Demand in the first half of the year was twice as strong as that for forming technology. This is an indication that major projects in the automotive industry are currently on hold, especially in Germany," Schäfer adds.

Forming technology accounts for around 30% of total machine tool sales. Press technology in particular is used in major projects.

Sales continue to be a cause for concern. In the first half of the year, it was 7% higher than in the same period of the previous year. In real terms, the result means stagnation.

"Accordingly, as feared, the supply chain problems are far from over," Schäfer says.

After all, capacity utilization rose slightly from 85.9% in April to 87.4% in July.

70% of German machine tool production goes into exports, which picked up again in the second quarter. The statistics thus show an increase of 5% in the first six months. Exports to Asia grew the most strongly in a regional comparison at 11%. However, China, the largest market, made only a disproportionately small contribution, with a 5% increase. By contrast, Japan, India and some smaller markets in Southeast Asia took up German machine tools with double-digit growth rates.

Business with American customers also continues to be good, with a plus of 9%. Europe stagnated at the previous year's level, with exports to Eastern Europe in particular slumping sharply due to the breakaway from Russia. Exports to Western Europe, on the other hand, have picked up significantly.

Imports rose by a total of 16%. Asian suppliers in particular are leading the way.

"They are obviously able to circumnavigate the supply chain problem better,” Schäfer suspects. "The uncertainties for economic development have increased further. Regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, he says, there’s no end in sight. The energy supply in the coming fall/winter remains uncertain with corresponding consequences for prices. In China, the largest market, there are signs of weak overall economic growth. Added to this are geopolitical dangers in dealings with Taiwan. Accordingly, the business climate in the machine tool industry has clouded over."

"At least on the plus side, there is still a high need for investment in climate change. The recently adopted investment program in the USA will also provide impetus for the industry," Schäfer concludes.

In the Reshoring Initiative 1H 2022 Data Report, the current 2022 projection of jobs announced is around 350,000 – another record and up from 260,000 in 2021.

In 2021, the private and federal push for domestic supply of essential goods propelled reshoring and foreign direct investment (FDI) job announcements to a record high. Projections from Reshoring Initiative 1H 2022 data show reshoring and FDI continuing these gains. The current 2022 projection of jobs announced is around 350,000 – another record and up from 260,000 in 2021. If the projection is achieved, 2022 will bring the total jobs announced since 2010 to more than 1.6 million.

Supply chain gaps and the need for greater self-sufficiency continue as major factors driving reshoring. The possibility of a Taiwan-China conflict and the threat of China decoupling are focusing those concerns. Destabilizing geo-political and climate forces have brought to light our vulnerabilities and the need to address them. Subsequently, great opportunities have arisen for a meaningful rebound of U.S. manufacturing. If the current trajectory continues, it will reduce the trade and budget deficits, add jobs, and make the U.S. safer, more self-reliant, and resilient.

More takeaways from the report

See the full report Reshoring Initiative 1H 2022 Data Report: Multiple Supply Chain Risks Accelerate Reshoring for detailed analysis.

About the report The Reshoring Initiative’s 1H 2022 Data Report contains data on U.S. reshoring and FDI by companies that have shifted production or sourcing from offshore to the United States. The report includes projections and analysis for 2022 full year in categories ranging from the number of manufacturing jobs gained, to a breakdown of data by industry, country, and state.

“We publish this data semiannually to show companies that their peers are successfully reshoring and that they should reevaluate their sourcing and siting decisions,” says Harry Moser, founder and president of the Reshoring Initiative. “With 5 million manufacturing jobs still offshore, as measured by our $1.1 trillion/year goods trade deficit, there is potential for much more growth. We also call on the administration and Congress to enact policy changes to make the United States competitive again.”

Cold Jet plans to consolidate the two Cincinnati facilities into the newly renovated facility in Loveland by the end of August 2023.

Cold Jet announced a $4.9 million capital investment in a new facility due to exponential growth. This facility will house the headquarters, manufacturing, and production all under one roof.

“Cold Jet has grown its workforce over 30% in the last 10 years in the Greater Cincinnati area.  We have an exceptionally low attrition rate due to a unique culture at the Company where people are empowered to do their best work in an entrepreneurial environment.  We have now physically outgrown our spaces and look forward to moving into one facility that embodies Cold Jet’s culture.  Our new facility will be functional, environmentally friendly, customer focused, and overall the best place to work,” says Michelle Simpson, Chief People’s Officer at Cold Jet.

Cold Jet plans to consolidate the two Cincinnati facilities into the newly renovated facility in Loveland by the end of August 2023. The new Cold Jet building will be down the street at 6283 Tri-Ridge Boulevard, Loveland, OH  45140.  Creating a world-class facility will help to attract employees and customers, allow for product demonstrations at the company headquarters location and enable growth of production capacity and staff. Governor DeWine announced on Monday, August 29, 2022, in his press release the approval of assistance for 10 Ohio projects which are expected to create more than $318.4 million in investments. Cold Jet’s expansion is one of those 10 Ohio projects. Cold Jet is creating 67 of the 767 new jobs in Ohio, generating $5 million in new annual payroll, and retaining 120 of 2,032 jobs in Ohio.

“While Cold Jet has grown to 300 employees with 13 centers of excellence in 10 countries, our roots are in Cincinnati, OH,” says Christian Rogiers, senior vice president, Global Marketing, Cold Jet. “Our new Global Headquarters will serve as a true reflection of Cold Jet’s innovative, green technologies as well as our people’s values.”

Cold Jet has experienced 18% year over year growth the last two years despite the challenges and operational issues in this dynamic market. This growth is due to company culture, healthy and involved suppliers, and relationships at the local, regional, national, and multi-national levels.

Gene Cooke III, president & CEO, at Cold Jet states “At Cold Jet, we are more collegial and collaborative, and less formal than some other companies might be, and we translate that into our supplier relationships. We’re not looking for last dollar negotiations, we’re looking to build business partnerships that enable us to be responsive to our customer base, but also respectful of the business objectives of those suppliers. That means availability of the right material, at the right time, takes precedence over cost per unit and payment terms.”

The 3D lab and head and neck surgeons of the Netherlands Cancer Institute have worked for years on this groundbreaking innovation together with the Dutch company Mobius 3D Technologies (M3DT).

After four years of intensive research by the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Dutch Mobius 3D Technology (M3DT), a titanium lower jaw was implanted for the first time in a head and neck cancer patient. The jaw was completely reconstructed based on the patient's 3D MRI & CT scans. The operation was successful.

Tumors in and around the lower jaw are often treated by removing part of the jaw bone (mandible). The mandible is reconstructed, if possible, with bone from elsewhere in the body (usually from the fibula, a small bone from the lower leg). The disadvantage of these reconstruction methods is that they are complex and require vascular anastomosis and also cause morbidity at the donor site.  When using only metal plates, these can break or extrude through mucosa or skin in about 40% of the cases and the screws with which the plate is attached can come loose. This has dramatic consequences for the patient involved. Our new 3D printed mandible exactly fits the defect, has the shape and weight of the original mandible and is much stronger than the currently used plates.

Functions such as talking, drinking, and eating are preserved The implant is much stronger, partly because the forces are optimally distributed with an improved fastening technique. The implant also has a so-called 'mesh structure' on the inside. In this way, the implant retains its strength, while the prosthesis still feels light for the patient (comparable weight of bone is approximated). The implant can no longer break and the innovative orientation of the fixation screws ensures that the implant stays in place. Because the implant is custom-made, the jaw retains its fit and pressure on the overlying mucosa or skin is distributed more evenly. We hope this will diminish complications and improve functional and esthetic outcome. Even the tools the surgeon uses in the operation are patient-specific. The operation is also simpler and shorter.

Unique collaboration The 3D lab and head and neck surgeons of the Netherlands Cancer Institute have worked for years on this groundbreaking innovation together with the Dutch company Mobius 3D Technologies (M3DT). This application is expected to be more widely applicable in 2023/2024. In the meantime, research is underway to further expand these techniques for implants elsewhere in the face and skull. Health Holland has made this development possible by granting an innovation grant.

Combining cauterization, suction, the bioengineering alum designed the medical device he’s hoping to get into every surgeon’s hands.

Where there’s surgery, there’s blood. Every day, surgeons use electrocautery pencils in countless surgeries to open incisions and dissect tissue. But cutting into an organ inevitably causes blood to pool in the wound, blocking the surgeon’s view and causing a delay in the operation while the blood is suctioned away.

Alex Yang, S.B. ‘17, is trying to streamline that process with a new device that’s both an electrocautery pencil and suction tube. He founded ClearCut Surgical earlier this year to produce the device, and his company has secured pre-seed funding from multiple investors.

“Our ultimate goal is to try to get this device into the hands of every surgeon around the world, because this device would be used in every surgery,” says Yang, who is about to begin his last year in the MD/MBA program run jointly by Harvard Business School (HBS) and Harvard Medical School (HMS).

Yang first devised the ClearCut device as an undergraduate studying bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He spent the summer after his junior year working in the Innovation Digital Health Accelerator at Boston Children’s Hospital, which is how he met Heung Bae Kim, Professor of Surgery at HMS and Weitzman Family Chair in Surgical Innovation at Boston Children’s. Kim and Yang got to chatting, and the challenges of blood accumulation during surgery eventually came up.

“This isn’t a new problem,” Yang says. “Many surgeons have been dealing with this problem for decades. Over the years, Kim had tried to jury-rig a solution, but our serendipitous meeting was finally the catalyst for us sitting down to think about creating a new device.”

From these conversations, ClearCut was born. The handheld device uses buttons to switch between electrocautery pencil and suction tube. The injection-molded plastic device doesn’t require additional electric power, switching functions with a pneumatic piston that connects to the vacuum suction in the wall of the operating room. These innovations keep the cost low, which could help make the device accessible to hospitals in lower-resource areas of the world.

“This device has probably gone through over a hundred iterations and 3D printed designs,” Yang says. “Surgeons are understandably picky, and you really only have one shot to get it right. If the button position is slightly off, or fails one out of a hundred times, or the device feels too clunky, you lose the surgeon right there. For a while, it was 80% to 90% there, but we wanted to make it sure it was 100%.”

Yang has spent the last six years slowly developing the device while pursuing his MD/MBA, soliciting feedback from multiple surgeons within Boston Children’s Hospital. He founded his company in March, and soon after won $30,000 as both Runner-Up and Crowd Favorite at the HBS New Venture Challenge. More recently, ClearCut Surgical was selected as one of 50 start-ups for the MedTech Innovator and Accelerator Challenge, which will announce its prizes in October.

“They’re the biggest medtech accelerator in the world,” Yang notes. “It’s very hard to find a cohort that’s that concentrated and has that many resources. It’s great access to capital, manufacturing partners and industry partners all in one place.”

Designing a device is nothing new for Yang. His senior capstone project, a pediatric lower-limb prosthetic device, won a 2017 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Engineering Project.

“My dad is an architectural model maker and has spent his life building miniature buildings,” Yang says. “From when I was 5 or 6 years old. I was playing around in his workshop with tools, and he’s definitely been an inspiration.”

ClearCut still has to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a process Yang said will likely take at least one more year. He’s eyeing early 2025 for the company’s first commercial roll-out.

Once ClearCut does become available, Yang believes its low cost and ability to solve such a common surgical challenge will make it a hit for surgeons around the world.

“One of the options would’ve been to take the idea, file a patent, and license or sell it to a large medical device company,” Yang says. “But given my experience at SEAS and my engineering know-how, I thought it would be a better use of my time and our money to do it myself and take it as far as I could.”