ABSTRACT
To test the hypothetical model, a survey was administered or e-mailed to 255 engineering and business professionals during the months of March and April, 2004. A total of 141 surveys were received, representing at least 62 companies and 3 government and municipal agencies, and resulting in a return rate of 55 percent. Table 6.1 shows the profile of the survey responses by their organizations’ revenue, number of employees, and the tally of respondents that reported whether their organization is an OEM, contract manufacturer, or contracted service provider. The largest number of respondents reported revenues of $100 to $500 million and $1 to $5 billion, employee workforces of 50 to 200, 1,000 to 5,000, and greater than 10,000, and claimed to be OEMs. Industries surveyed included the following: automotive (component manufacturing), medical device (cardiac rhythm management, neurological devices, stents, hearing aids), aerospace (aircraft sensors, military fighter aircraft), industrial (generators,
filters, paints, adhesive products, fluid power distribution, pumps, spraying equipment), home construction and furnishings (windows, porch doors, fireplaces), military (armored vehicles, fighter aircraft, naval guns, submarine repair), heavy machinery (irrigation, harvesting equipment, lawn maintenance equipment), and electronics (hard disk drives, microelectronics fabrication, flexible circuitry, business equipment, electrical enclosures). Table 6.2 tallies the survey respondents by industry and their organizations by industry. The largest numbers of respondents come from the industrial, medical device, and electronics industries, with 28, 24, and 17 surveys, respectively, representing 23 industrial manufacturers, 12 medical device manufacturers, and 11 electronics manufacturers.
