Comments on: Why (some) manufacturing is returning to the USA

By: marvin nubwaxer

marvin nubwaxer — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:24:00 +0000

maybe electric rates come down when natural gas produces the electricity.

By: jhoosier

jhoosier — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:06:00 +0000

I couldn’t figure out “IKEA Syndrome”. Googling it just got me the urban dictionary, which isn’t applicable, or some talk about how labor costs in Sweden.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:31:00 +0000

You can find this chart and more here:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts

(the sources for the charts are all at the bottom of the article)

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:43:00 +0000

Touché. ^_^

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:03:00 +0000

I think the key point is this one:
“…the efficiencies that arise from locating workers next to managers and designers”

In other words, “Things run better when the white-collar people are in the same facility as the factory workers. Unfortunately, none of our white collar people were willing to relocate to China, and it just wouldn’t be right to replace *them* with Chinese designers and managers. If we did, would replacing our *executives* with Chinese counterparts be far behind? We can’t have that!”

By: Robert Drop

Robert Drop — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:35:00 +0000

The same argument has been made in the US, and I assume it’s equally, and demonstrably, untrue on the global level as well.

By: Robert Drop

Robert Drop — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:30:00 +0000

When a fifth of your domestically produced office furniture and more than a third of US made electrical appliances are made by prison labor, it’s hard to make a fuss about China…

By: Frank Diekman

Frank Diekman — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:49:00 +0000

Yay! The global economy works!

By: Roy Trumbull

Roy Trumbull — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:36:00 +0000

A long time ago when Japan was just ramping up they had a terrible inferiority complex to deal with. If you went into an executive’s home you’d find he’d bought a lot of American appliances and electronics because to be good it had to be American. Not only that, to be really good it had to come from Hollywood.
A friend made standard tapes for all forms of magnetic recording. If the order was going to Japan he’d ship it to L.A. where an agent would send it out with a Hollywood address as the return address. I’m not making this up. He made good money because of it. One wonders what goes on in the minds of the Chinese these days?

By: Nicky G

Nicky G — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 01:06:00 +0000

OK, I’ll bite — wtf is a GeoSpring?

By: FoolishOwl

FoolishOwl — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:42:00 +0000

What’s the source for that chart? It’s brilliant.

I first saw it pointed out several years ago that wages have been static since about 1973, while productivity has more than doubled, but I’ve not been able to find an authoritative source when in the heat of a discussion of economics. There’s scarcely a discussion of economics where this isn’t relevant. Including the rise in wealth of the 1% really completes the story.

By: lecti

lecti — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:24:00 +0000

A little off main topic, but I don’t know anyone who found Ikea furnitures difficult to assemble (although they tend to fall apart after a few moves). Is it that confusing??

By: KWillets

KWillets — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:23:00 +0000

I think we somewhat agree, but for bleeding edge products, it can be easier to have R&D and production at the same site. Heat pump water heaters are not a perfected product — lots of pitfalls have come up, and even the customers aren’t sure what they need.

By: Tetsubo Kanamono

Tetsubo Kanamono — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:15:00 +0000

I work in US manufacturing. I make auto parts. I have survived four lay-offs within the past 4-5 years. We are doing OK at the moment. Not great but OK. I am part of an international, family-owned corporation. I think that might be a positive. At least we aren’t headed by short-sighted US management teams.

By: dioptase

dioptase — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 22:55:00 +0000

I work for a Chinese company. Part of my job involves moving some of our production from China to the USA. Not for sale in the USA, but for export to China. Why? Because the Chinese don’t trust Chinese products and will pay more for made in the USA. And the cost isn’t that much more. With the improved component and assembly quality, we actually expect to reduce our costs.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 22:12:00 +0000

Ah, so THAT’S why we in the U.S. don’t hear much about “Chinese prison labor” anymore.

By: Alex Schneider

Alex Schneider — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 22:11:00 +0000

Along the lines of “me, myself, and I”

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:59:00 +0000

Agreed, and the entire sick cycle keeps being perpetuated by keeping people in the dark via the same “news” media the corporatists own. That’s basically one of the goals of OWS is to penetrate this vast media firewall. It’s been successful to a huge extent so far, but there’s still a long, long way to go unfortunately.

By: jbond

jbond — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:46:00 +0000

Sorry, I’m just reading that story as a criticism of the engineers doing the original design and the managers who were supposed to be running the outsourcing. This doesn’t feel like a a story about how manufacturing in the USA works better than in China but rather about how GE is useless.

By: KWillets

KWillets — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:11:00 +0000

The point is that 10 iterations in the US are cheaper and faster than 10 iterations from the US to China.

By: KWillets

KWillets — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:09:00 +0000

Ironically the article mentions the decreasing cost of natural gas in the US, which makes manufacturing cheaper. Unfortunately it also makes electric water heaters like this one less attractive.

By: paul beard

paul beard — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:03:00 +0000

It’s not whether management figures it but if consumers realize that Lower Prices Always is not sustainable, that the wages you cut by shopping at places that don’t value labor might be your own. Management, MBA-style, is all about cutting costs and competing on price, making the quarterly targets and collecting a bonus.

By: paul beard

paul beard — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Politics aside, this seems like a vindication of the notion that design is not the outer trim details but how the object works, how the components are fitted and assembled. Poorly made products are not always the fault of the assembler. The decisions that inform quality, durability, and reliability are often made many pay grades above the people who handle the product. Took awhile for US automakers to figure that out.

By: Jardine

Jardine — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Especially when you factor in how much municipalities are willing to give huge tax breaks and subsidies so they can actually have some jobs in the area.

By: Spencer Cross

Spencer Cross — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Coincides with the news that Apple is apparently doing some iMac assembly in the US: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57556666-37/some-imacs-labeled-assembled-in-usa-teardown-shows/

By: autark

autark — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:41:00 +0000

The tide is *REALLY* rising for villagers in Kiribati!

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:34:00 +0000

I think some US management is starting to realize that for some things a bargain is not actually a bargain.

Also, the successful class war on average American workers has done wonders…

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Agreed, it’s sick.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:29:00 +0000

rising Chinese wages, falling US wages,

You mean American corporatists win again while American worker’s standards of living continue to decline.

By: Harvey

Harvey — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:19:00 +0000

Nice anecdote, but bad example. They took a poorly designed and expensive (as a result) product, redesigned it to be better and cheaper and now it’s better and cheaper. How much would the Chinese charge to make the new and improved version?