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Aaron Ahlburn

Managing Director and Senior Director, Research, JLL
Amy Gerber

Executive Managing Director, Business Incentives Practice, Cushman & Wakefield
Bill Luttrell

Senior Locations Strategist, Werner Global Logistics, Werner Enterprises
Bradley Migdal

Senior Managing Director, Business Incentives Practice, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.
Brian Corde

Managing Partner, Atlas Insight
Dan Levine

Practice Leader, Location Strategies and Economic Development, Oxford Economics, Inc.
Dan White

Senior Economist, Moody's Analytics
Dean J. Uminski, CEcD

Partner, Crowe Horwath
Dennis Cuneo

Partner , Fisher & Phillips
Eric Stavriotis

Senior Vice President, Advisory & Transaction Services, CBRE, Inc.
Gregory Burkart

Managing Director and City Leader, Site Selection & Incentives Advisory , Duff & Phelps, LLC
H. Robert Boehringer, III

Managing Director, Global Location & Expansion Services, KPMG
Josh Bays

Principal, Site Selection Group, LLC
Joshua Wright

VP, Economic and Workforce Development, Emsi
Kate Crowley

Principal & Negotiated incentives Practice Leader, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP
Les Cranmer

Senior Managing Director, Savills Studley
Marc Beauchamp

President & CEO, The CAI Global Group
Margy Sweeney

Founder and CEO, Akrete, Inc.
Minah Hall

Managing Director, True Partners Consulting LLC
Paul Naumoff

Principal, National Director of Tax Credits & Incentives Advisory Services, EY Global/Americas
Scott Kupperman

Founder, Kupperman Location Solutions
Stephen Gray

CEO, Gray Construction

Accenture: Manufacturing's Secret Shift

Manufacturers have cut costs across many operational facets, but more needs to be done, Accenture finds.

Accenture

4/13/2011

Accenture surveyed 287 manufacturing executives last year across a range of industry sectors. In a report, it finds that cutting costs and remaining competitive continue to lead operational business concerns. Many companies have taken steps such as offshoring to low-cost locations, implementing automated systems, and establishing lean operations.

The report finds that while these initiatives have helped, they are insufficient. Companies need new strategies to manage operating costs while preserving customer expectations.

Where offshoring is concerned, companies will continue to seek overseas locations, but "in the context of chasing the demand location," the report says. Manufacturers are now trending to move supply closer to the sites of demand. The full report presents additional findings of the survey.