If you are like most navigators of the printed page, the first thing you read in this final 2013 issue of Gear Technology was our State of the Gear Industry Survey. And who would blame you? It’s not Sabermetrics, but once you’ve read it you’ll have a pretty clear snapshot of last year and a peek into the next. But if you also like to get a little closer to the bone about things, what follows are the collected opinions of five well-regarded people in the gear industry speaking to a number of issues with relevance.

Make no mistake -- lean manufacturing is here to stay. And no wonder. As a fiercely competitive global economy continues to alter companies’ “Main Street” thinking, that relatively new dynamic is spurring the need for “I-need-it-yesterday” production output. And for increasingly more industries -- big or small -- that means getting as lean as you can, as fast as you can.

AGMA's Gear Expo '89, "The Cutting Edge," opens at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA, on Nov. 6 and runs through Nov. 8. This year's show is "the largest trade show ever conceived specifically for the gear industry," according to Rick Norment, AGMA's executive director. The show is 60% larger in terms of floor space than the 1987 show, and over 90%of the booths have been sold.