The Global Manufacturing Outlook (GMO) 2015 is based on a survey of 386 senior executives, conducted by Forbes on behalf of KPMG International, and was completed in early 2015. Respondents represented six industries: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Conglomerates, Medical Devices, Engineering and Industrial Products, and Metals.

All respondents included in our survey held Director-level or C-Suite roles within their organization and 63 percent represented organizations with more than USD5 billion in annual revenue. Respondents were distributed fairly evenly between the Americas, Europe and Asia.