Page 6 - Machines Italia Vol. XIII Next Generation Manufacturing

2020 AWARENESS STUDY
than the study average to purchase Italian equipment because their “products use the latest technology.”
New Machinery Purchase Behavior
When selecting new machinery for purchase, respondents indi- cated that the most important aspects are “the equipment meets my needs/specifications,” “technical support after the sale,” and “price” at 72%, 71%, and 71%, respectively, closely followed by “return on invest- ment (ROI)” at 66%. “Country of origin” is significantly more important than the study average among smaller companies, especially those with 25 or less employees and companies that have revenues of less than $1,000,000. Larger companies, those with more than 1,000 employees and $100,000,000 or more in revenue indicated that “technical support after the sale” and “the use of the latest technology in the equipment” are significantly more important than the study average when purchasing new equipment.
However, when respondents were asked to rate the most impor- tant aspects to their companies when purchasing new machinery, “availability of spare parts,” “return on investment (ROI),” and “technical support after the sale” rated the most important. This holds true across all industries and company sizes.
Almost all respondents rated Reliability, Durability, and Dependability as “extremely/very important”, while Flexibility was rated significantly lower. However, respondents in the Navigation,
However, respondents from the Machinery industry are sig- nificantly more aware of machinery from Italy, Sweden, USA, France, Switzerland and Canada than the study average, while respondents from the Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components industry are significantly more aware of equipment from France and Switzerland than the study average.
Respondents indicated that Italy, Canada and Switzerland rated on par with the study average for all attributes tested, with the excep- tion of Switzerland which scored significantly lower than the study average for “has competitive prices,” while equipment manufacturers from the USA, Japan and Germany rated significantly higher than the study average on most (or all) of the attributes tested in refer- ence to manufacturer reputations from their respective countries. Manufacturers from South Korea, China, Brazil, Sweden, and the UK were consistently rated below the study average on most (or all) of the reputation attributes tested in this study.
Study Methodology
While in some areas of the report the 15 sectors were analyzed or referred to separately, the majority of the report focuses on the trends and issues that arise from the survey in the aggregate manufacturing industry.
This report provides insight into the manufacturing sector in North America (the United States, Canada, and Mexico) and helps to identify differences and opportunities for companies of all sizes.
It should also be noted that the 2020 Machines Italia Awareness Study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected the insights respondents provided on their sectors, trends, and preferences versus previous years.
The sample selection for the 2020 Machines Italia Awareness Study was taken from the Italian Trade Agency database, the SME database, and the Qualtrics Manufacturing online panel. The sur- vey was conducted online and respondents were asked to self-select responses. Data was cleaned to ensure accuracy.
Throughout the report, results of statistical significance are presented to illustrate data that is significant at a 95% confidence level. This con-
Importance of aspects when purchasing new machinery as reported in the survey.
Measuring, Electro-medical & Control Instruments Manufacturing industry were significantly more likely than the study average to indicate that Flexibility was “extremely/very important.”
Country of Origin
As respondents are based in USMCA, it is clear that four-in-five respondents indicated they are familiar with equipment manufac- turers from the USA and traditional suppliers such as Germany and Japan. Italy stands out as a non-USMCA supplier, with nearly one-third (31%) of respondents indicating they are familiar with Italian equipment manufacturers.
fidence level means there is reasonable support that the results are actually different and not due to error or variance in the data. Testing results illustrate data points that are different enough that they fall outside the margin of error. That is, if the study were to be conducted multiple times with the same population, these data points would still be statistically different 95% of the time.
Summary
The results of this survey were clear— USMCA owners reported good results with high quality durable equipment and good service offered by Italian machinery manufacturers.
6 Volume XIII | www.machinesitalia.org