August 2020 Volume 2

ASSOCIATION NEWS

NewMonthly Market Intelligence Reports By Ian Stringer

It is well understood that our current society is completely immersed in data and information. It is seemingly everywhere, yet many businesses still struggle to find, access, and understand relevant data and information they can use to help run their businesses. Earlier this year, the Forging Industry Association (FIA) re-launched their Orders & Shipments (O& S) Survey to create updated market data that members are currently using to improve decision-making. FIA partnered with AMT (The Association for Manufacturing Technology) to leverage their business intelligence resources and technology platform to complete the project. Let me walk you through some of the key elements of development, and why they are meaningful to participants of the O& S Survey. Driven by FIAMembers There isn’t any amount of technology in the world that canmagically create a new product or services without people who define what the technology is supposed to do. That is why the development teams relied heavily on the O & S subcommittee for guidance in a couple key areas. First, the committee highly prioritized questions and requirements regarding the confidentiality and security of the data. These requirements were met through the application of AMT’s over 100-year history of survey development and data security practices. The second key area of involvement for the committee had to do with defining survey scope. Guidance relating to what markets should be measured, how it should be classified, how the information should be displayed, and validating the results were all aspects of survey scope that were addressed by the O & S The value of a product or service can be viewed as a function of what you put in versus what you get out. The new O & S survey set out to both improve survey reporting features as well as reducing the administrative burden to participate. To accomplish this, the program’s data entry and report delivery mechanisms were streamlined to an all-online business intelligence platform called MTInsight. Online data entry simplifies the data submission process for participants while also incorporating error detection to improve overall report accuracy. Online report generation and delivery improves the flexibility by which users can consume the market information by incorporating graphics and pre-calculated changes in market conditions, in addition to the ability to export subcommittee of FIA members. Improving ProgramValue

conditioned data streams. Last but not least, streamlined online data entry and reporting cleared the way for the delivery of monthly reports. Comparable Market Estimates and Trends There are two main types of data sets published in the O& S survey: market dollar estimates and index values. Market dollar estimates are created for the high-level Impression Die, Open Die, and Rolled Ring classifications. Index values are created at more detailed levels of aggregation throughout the report, including those for tracking market changes in metal types and end user markets. Adjustments for survey participation are made for both data sets tied to the 2016 base year. The difference is that market dollar estimates expand the sample participant data collected relative to the known government census data published in 2016, whereas the index values represent changes in the volume of activity relative to the base year and are useful in calculating changes in market activity at the most detailed classification levels. Leveraging Data for Competitive Advantage FIA has re-vamped the O & S Survey, making it easier than ever to participate and digest relevant market information to help you and your business stay competitive. I encourage the FIA membership to take advantage of the new tools and opportunities available. You can register to MTInsight by following this link, https:// www.amtonline.org/registermti.cfm. Feel free to contact me with questions at istringer@amtonline.org, LinkedIn. ■

FIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2020 49