I’m attending the Aberdeen Manufacturing Executive Summit today and tomorrow. The speakers have been great, but I’m intrigued by the live surveys that they’re running between speakers. This morning they asked two questions back-to-back and the results shocked me.

The first question was “How is the macro-economic picture affecting your budget?” I wasn’t surprised to see that only 9% of the people at the conference were forecasting increased budgets. The rest expected no change (31%), Frozen (14%), or Decrease (34%). (I’m afraid I’m not sure about the difference between No Change and Frozen.)

The second question was the one that jarred me: “How is the macro-economic climate affecting your growth strategy?” The results were a complete flip-flop. (Well the survey is being held on election day.)

Sixty-eight percent planned expansion, while only 6% planned contraction. The balance (26%) are staying the course.

Grow your business with fewer resources.

Do more with less!

What is clear from our experience, and is now supported by research from the Aberdeen Group, is that one of the best ways to do more with less is to empower your people with ready access to accurate, actionable, real-time data.

You can download a free copy of the Aberdeen Report on Event Driven Manufacturing Intelligence, along with our companion white paper on the Role of Real-time Data in Improving Profitability and Customer Satisfaction from the Portfolio section our website.

Real-time data helps you respond to problems faster and reduce material costs and scrap and rework costs, and it frees staff for more productive work.

That’s doing more with less.