The Marquette Center for Supply Chain Management is seeking additional participants to be able to continue its monthly Marquette-ISM Report on Manufacturing.
The monthly survey provides an indication of the health of the southeastern Wisconsin manufacturing sector. It is similar to the widely watched national ISM report, but is not directly comparable.
On Monday, the Marquette Supply Chain Center sent an email to participants explaining that the number of responses has been declining in recent months and needs to increase for the center to continue releasing an accurate and beneficial report.
“In general, the greater the number of people who take the survey, the efficacy and reliability of the survey increases exponentially,” Manoj Babu, director of the Center for Supply Chain Management, said in an email. “Conversely, the lower the number, the greater the chance of introducing bias and reducing the reliability and repeatability of the trends arising.”
This is not the first time the survey has experienced declining participation. In the spring of 2016, the report went on hiatus from April to October for the same reason.
The center is extending the window for November responses from Nov. 23 to Nov. 29.
Babu said respondents ideally come from the operations and supply chain segments of companies. The survey is focused on industry leaders, operations managers, supply chain directors, high-level executives in manufacturing, human resource directors or officers, manufacturing managers and possibly engineering managers responsible for manufacturing or supply chain systems.
The survey is available here. Those with questions on participation should contact Owen Liebelt at Marquette University at owen.liebelt@marquette.edu