Survey Offers Opportunity to Assess Your Operation

Many of you received an email Monday from Industry Insights—a third-party firm conducting a survey on behalf of our Association.

This is the first of what may become an annual survey of manufacturing members. The survey will gather business and financial data and return it to you as a tool to assess your own operations against others. The Association will never see individual company responses, nor will any members.

The “company report card” you receive after you submit the survey will provide comparisons, for example, on compensation for key leaders, net sales, turnover rates, and percentage of costs associated with direct labor and materials and overhead.

The email from Industry Insights will contain explicit directions on how to complete the survey. Here are a few notes:

• You may complete the survey electronically, print it and return it by mail, or complete a portion online and submit financial statements by mail, email or fax.
• If you complete the survey online, you will need to click “register” to set up a user name and password. You will not use your Association user name.
• You do not have to complete the survey in a single sitting. You can start and stop.
• The deadline to submit the survey is April 6.

The Association intends to make the data available only to companies that respond. It’s possible that others will be able to buy a report after it has been available to participants for a year.

Again, your information will be handled by a third party and will be treated with complete confidentiality.

If you have questions, contact Michael Becher, CPA, vice president at Industry Insights. His phone number is (614) 389-2100, ext. 114. Or, send him an email.

Thank you for helping us build this data resource so valuable to members.