Milwaukee ISM Index Jumps to 55.0 in September

The seasonally adjusted Milwaukee Report on Business surged to 55.0 in September from 48.2 in August, the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee reported Monday.

New orders received rose to 58.8 from 53.6, production soared to 59.4 from 45.7, employment increased to 61.8 from 47.9, supplier deliveries gained to 54.2 from 51.8, and backlog of orders increased to 57.1 from 47.9.

Inventory levels slipped to 40.9 from 42.0, customers' inventories dipped to 40.0 from 45.2, prices crept to 56.8 from 56.0, exports grew to 55.3 from 50.0 and imports rose to 55.3 from 52.9.

The blue collar diffusion index increased to 54.7 from 49.9, while the white collar diffusion index gained to 54.7 from 45.9.

Respondents' comments included:

The greatest supply chain issue facing our company is the lack of forecast given to us by the sales department. This will be a short term problem as, moving forward, sales representatives will be required to report quoting activity. This will give us a much better outlook for how sales will be impacting the company in the future and allow our purchasing department to plan accordingly. Additionally, it will enable our production control department to start increasing capacity in advance.

Pricing and commodity markets were stable during the month and there were no noteworthy supply chain issues.

Our lead-times have increased so we need to increase our capacity.

We have a new Rep/Partner and are increasing our foreign sales opportunities.

Customers appear to be drawing down their inventories, relying on shorter lead-times.

(We are seeing a) drop in short Lead Time orders.

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