Some sectors of the economy are down, no doubt about it, but don’t make the mistake of watching the news and believing everyone’s down, some companies are humming along quite nicely and some highly skilled folks looking for work are being snapped right up, by American manufacturing companies, no less! Judging from the comments on an earlier post about an article by Erik Buell, you would think American manufacturing was dead and gone, but those commenters take specific examples and make broad generalizations, an easy and common mistake to make, they see what they want to see or expect to see.
An article in the Wall Street Journal shows numerous American manufacturers now staffing some hard to fill slots with highly skilled talent, experienced specialized welders, mechanics, electricians and the like, as a result of the huge slowdown among auto manufacturers and their associated suppliers, and, as a result, they’re doing even better. The dislocation in the auto sector frees up talent badly needed by other manufacturing companies who find it hard to compete with the auto giants when they’re running at full tilt. This is the natural restructuring that takes place when big companies fail, the resources get redeployed, no bailouts or bureaucratic intervention needed.
Redeploying this talent makes it possible to start or expand smaller manufacturing companies (like motorcycle manufacturers, maybe?) right here in the US, creating real hands on work for people who enjoy what they do and take pride in doing it well. Critics who try to turn this into some kind of anti trade slam at other countries REALLY miss the point, some of us are simply unwilling to concede every manufacturing job to someplace far away. High skill takes a long time to acquire and there’s far more to manufacturing than cheap labor, unless you’re making junk.
If a company, seeing a competitor dropping prices by using cheap labor, responds by throwing in the towel and giving up, maybe they deserve to go out of business, maybe they shouldn’t have been in business in the first place, if they can be beat with cheap, who needs them? It’s when a company says we can do it better, we can turn it around, we can compete with anyone, that’s when the fun starts.
If the “we can do it better” thinking takes hold in countries all over the world, every country can do their best to build their best, whether that is Germans building excellent German products, or Italians or Japanese, or Chinese or Americans or anyone else that wants to, there can be a manufacturing base in each country. Let’s compete head to head for the best combination of quality and price. There’s nothing wrong with rooting for the home team, either, in any country. Let’s see a few companies here in the US get a little backbone and say, we can’t be beat with cheap unless you want junk, and we don’t sell junk. I wonder what would happen. I’d like to know and I bet a few of you would like to know, too.
When I see Erik Buell betting on American manufacturing, he’s thinking “we can do it better.” OK, let’s see what Buell can do. Let’s see what everyone can do. Everyone can stop wringing their hands now and just get to work. Whether you’re here in the US or in any other country, stand up, roll up your sleeves and get to work. No bailouts needed, no bumbling bureaucratic task force, just plain old fashioned hard work. Just do it!
Links:
Wall Street Journal
What Recession? Just Do It
Erik Buell Bets on American Manufacturing
Rediscovering the Value and Deep Satisfaction of Highly Skilled Hands on Work
todd says
Maybe we should re-think the scale of our manufacturing. Places like China can make good stuff AND make it inexpensive. The problem they have is their sheer distance away. It takes TIME to ship something on a ship around the world, about a month. Plus, the logistics of tracking a handful of custom configured items boxed together with 10’s of thousands of standard items in the same container keeps them from exploring low volume specials.
This is where we should come in. The value US manufacturing can bring is rapid shipment of custom tailored products – and quality customer experience / service. People will be willing to pay more, not just because it is “Made in the USA” but because it is built to their specifications, it is personalized at the factory.
This approach would tend to limit the amount of automated tooling and employ more skilled labor. Sure, you wouldn’t be able to find this stuff at Walmart, you’d have to find it in specialty stores.
Only problem is, who cares to buy a custom TV or a custom light switch? This approach limits itself to non-commodity type products for sure.
-todd
dan says
Us jobs have to shift from service, finance and investments to manufacturing and design and engineering. That process begins with R and D tax breaks and intellectual sharing. Most critical however is how we begin the process of leading the way in green technology! There is a shift to buy American and buy Green so this administration will provide Americans with Green careers and competitively price American products namely cars and hopefully more and more bikes!
Kenny says
How does this affect the younger generation, those who haven’t gotten sufficient experience to compete with those people who are getting laid off and are getting snapped up by the smaller start ups or whoever is looking for these experienced tradesmen/ academics.
nobody says
I would like to know which course taught the current generation of overpaid, overrated, and overproduced professionals “If you need something made, just go to China”. They obviously know nothing about work, since it is so degrading to people of their stature.
A few years back, when I ran CNC tool grinders, we had a cutting tool that took about 30-40 miniutes to make – and sold for several hundred dollars. The boss wanted to discontinue it, since he wanted to make several hundred dollars on cutting tools that took 10-15 minutes to make. So I asked if I could come in on weekends, rent the machine, and make these tools myself – and he instantly decided that these tools were profitable after all. He also used to charge $120.00 an hour per machine – and I programed/setup/ran 3 machines. He thought paying me $16.00/hour from his $360.00/hour was too much. On the other hand, the number of production people was cut in half and the front office/overhead staff doubled in the 3 years I was there. I don’t work for him any more. I did learn a lot from him and that job.
How many hungry professionals does it take to pull a plow? If all you know how to “work” is a keyboard, a cellphone, and your mouth, then you will find out some day. Soon.
kneeslider says
Kenny,
“How does this affect the younger generation, those who haven’t gotten sufficient experience to compete …”
I would hope it gives them a strong incentive to start learning how to do something useful and to practice until they become very good. You don’t need a set amount of experience to compete, you need skill. The hands on worker either can or he can’t, judgment is clear. Practice early and often until you gain the skills. The young don’t need permission to learn and they don’t need someone to hold their hand, they need motivation. If you can prove you know how to do something by demonstrating your skill, you’re fine. You don’t need a letter of recommendation or a degree, you just need to be able to do it.
B*A*M*F says
The price of commodity materials is about the same everywhere in the world. Identical hunks of steel cost about the same, no matter what continent they came from.
The big difference is in labor. Unskilled labor costs much less in some places, and without the need for pesky safety and environmental regulations, it’s even lower. American (and other developed countries) manufacturing can compete when their manufacturing is highly automated or uses highly skilled labor. CEOs at manufacturing companies need to make investments in flexible, automated manufacturing, and in skilled labor. Designers, engineers, and other product development folks at these companies need to start developing products that can use those capabilities.
nobody says
Some fun reading:
http://www.sherline.com/business.htm
Tin Man 2 says
Well here we go again, China has virtaully No worker protection or Pollution control laws. It is rediculous to compare costs with them. They use people as a commodity, as do the Japanese, Just ask the Brazilion workers put on the street in Toyko right now! Google it up,Ck it out! The over educated do nothings have had their way to long in this country. The workers built this country and will take it back again. When the bosses out number the producers they look for a new supply of workers to exploit. Thus the 3 rd world Imports. Please note, we have no problem with European Imports, as this is a leval playing field, we compete on equal terms, It is the abused workers of the 3rd world and their corrupt leaders who we must bring into the civilized world of worker and pollution Law !!
Greybeard says
I’ve been a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) for over 30 years and believe me when I say it’s NOT “unskilled labor” that is hurting us.
Unskilled labor is just that.
They don’t design, they don’t produce, they don’t contribute in any way to process or product improvement or in new product development.
Where we are deficient actually started in the early ’80’s when manufacturers, pushed by their HR groups, stopped apprentice programs.
Under the guise of saving money because “we’re tired of training workers only to have them go elsewhere when the apprenticeship is finished” ( YOU’RE hiring workers trained by someone else, aren’t you!?) the programs were stopped and the local schools followed suit.
The inevitable result is we provide no incentive to students to pursue education in math and science.
But this country desperately needs machinists (both CNC and manual) welders as shown above, tool makers, product and process design & development people, etc.
If we let it happen the only place to find these skills will be overseas.
Young people need to do everything they can to obtain education in these areas or we’ll be rduced to selling burgers to the world.
Schneegz says
One fact that never seems to come up in these conversations is that the US manufactures more goods today than we ever have. The difference is that manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly automated, so each process requires fewer people. Additionally, American manufacturers – and those in other advanced industrialized countries – constantly invent new manufacturing processes. As they refine and perfect those processes, eventually other less advanced countries pick them up, but US and European manufacturers keep coming up with new ones.
Here’s a Popular Mechanics article on the subject.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4249332.html
Kenny says
Paul,
In a manufacturing environment an inexperienced operator/ tech/ engineer will not be chosen over a trained, experienced and proven counterpart.
Also i think that the opposite would be true. There would be no incentive for my age group to get the training for these jobs. I myself am just a year from my degree but if my intern experience is anything to go by there just aren’t many jobs around Ireland willing to hire a fresh out of college graduate. Which is fine by me because I am more than willing to travel to wherever the jobs are. China sounds good
Mark says
“Let’s see a few companies here in the US get a little backbone and say, we can’t be beat with cheap unless you want junk, and we don’t sell junk.”
This is exactly the stance Apple has adopted in the computer industry, and they’ve remained very profitable while everyone else has been circling the drain.
David says
I’ll preface this by saying I started out as unskilled labor, earned the right to be called skilled labor and am now in management. The company I work for now has three plants in the USA and a partnership with a company in China. In our USA plants we have remedial reading and mathematics classes. Even after vetting by HR our typical high school or college hire cannot do simple math such as fractions or decimals or correctly comprehend work orders. This is drawing on a potential workforce in two states that are ranked in the top five scholastically. Of course they feel over worked and underpaid. My first trip to China was an eye opener. After years of the “cheap unskilled labor” mantra I was unsure what we were getting into and what I would find. What I found was that no plant in Japan or the US had anything on them, it was modern, safe and on fire with enthusiasm. Nearly all workers (99%) were university or trade school trained, spoke and read English and thought it was their duty to improve products and processes. Folks if you think that some President from any party, the right labor contract, going green or whatever miracle fix you want to cling to is going to save us from the tsunami that is China and India you will drown. Only by implementing our unique American sense of ingenuity and what has become “old fashioned” sense of hard work again, will we even be able to compete. Not unlike Europe when it got buried by American Industry all the while poo-pooing uncivilized unskilled labor in the colonies, we to will be buried by people that are willing to earn their piece of the pie and do what it takes to get it.
kneeslider says
Kenny,
“There would be no incentive for my age group to get the training for these jobs.”
Kenny, it’s no one’s responsibility to provide you with an incentive or anything else, you need to provide your own incentive. If you have no desire to learn how to do something, don’t, but, you voluntarily remove yourself from the running for any job or business requiring that skill. If you prefer to sit on the bench instead of playing the game, anyone else who has put in the effort wins by default. I would strongly suggest, however, you find something you want to know how to do regardless of the job prospects, something that inspires you to learn it because you just really, truly want to know how. Motivate yourself, make your own choices, make your own destiny. Be a “doer.”
“I am more than willing to travel to wherever the jobs are. China sounds good”
Perhaps China will offer you the opportunity you think it does, but do you really think Ireland is just closing up shop, glad to see its young people leave? I doubt it. I think skilled and motivated young people in Ireland could do very well at home, or in most any other country. With skill and motivation you can succeed anywhere, … without it, nowhere.
nobody says
“our typical high school or college hire cannot do simple math such as fractions or decimals or correctly comprehend work orders”
The number of engineers I had to explain basic geometry to was way too high. When my TI-35 outsmarts their CAD system, something is wrong. I’m not anti-CAD, but I see it used as a substitute for thinking way too often.
Every time I hear some company whine & moan about not being able to get good help, I hear a company tell the world that they can’t keep good help. I learned a long time ago that a company that is constantly advertising for help is almost always run by idiots.
Tin Man 2 says
David, What about the photos I see showing the Fog of Pollution above the coastal export cities from manufacturing plants. Are there air purifiers in the plants to protect the workers from the smog they produce? letting the horrible pollution only affect the populace? China shut half its production down before the Olimpics to reduce the Toxic pollution levals so as to avoid world outrage! You have got to be kidding, Poison milk, Leaded baby toys, child labor making tennis shoes and ignoreing copy write and patent laws. This is your idea of a production dynamo?
Tin Man 2 says
Nobody, Good Points you make, Ive found that those who complain the most about the workforce pay the least, They hire minimun wage losers in impowerment zones to pick up gov money and then complain about the help. Who wants a factory job for $8 an hour, when you can work in a clean safe Home Depot for the same money. Also if your HR people are vetting the new hires and they still cant read, then your problem is in your colledge educated HR people!!!
OMMAG says
There’s a kernal of truth in mos t of the opinions I read here today.
But none of these issues , whether it is foreign competition or domestic education are the sole root of the issue.of decline.
The premise that by encouraging innovation you can grow your manufacturing base is a reasonable idea to promote.
One place where you can get support in that is through government reform.
To be successful at this you need to agitate government at all levels to get out of the way of businesses. It’s been far too long that these meddlers have been creating impediments to the creation of wealth and the ability of innovators to bring products to market.
The answer is not in demanding that government uses more taxpayer money to feed select industries (which will eventually kill them) it’s that governments need to stop justifying their existence by using your money to impede your progress.
David says
Nobody,
No one at our company is complaining or whining. I too have watched newly minted engineers take a week to do a task that should take a day. We make our success, we train, retrain and do whatever it takes to make our employees successful. We also expect them to meet their obligations for this training. In our companies history we have never had a layoff. Our employees right now are thankful for the cross training that allows them to go to work and collect their pay checks, they are glad we can meet the needs of changing markets. They may not be doing the same job or running the same machines making the same parts as they were a year ago but they are have been trained and educated in what they are doing. They are proud of they’re abilities and their pay.
Tin man 2,
I don’t know how old you are but do you think it was any different in the US as we were finding our way to being the powerhouse of business that we have become? Maybe you don’t remember the Great Lakes being dead. The rivers in Pittsburgh routinely catching fire. DDT, mercury, and on and on. It’s only the prosperity of this country through business and manufacturing that have given us the luxury of righting our mistakes. The Asian countries including China are spending billions of dollars to correct these things now instead of later like we did. You may not understand how new China is to these ideas but in comparison it would be like us correcting these things in the early 1800’s. No person I have ever talked to in China defends these things, They all hold America and Japan as a model of what they want to become commercially. Like us they want to make money, better their future and their families futures. As I said before if you want to deny what is happening there and what is happening here you will lose. They are a dynamo, the scary thing is its not even plugged in yet. I firmly believe we can compete and even profit from these things but it is going to take a paradigm change on a scale we have never seen, something akin to the day before Pearl Harbor and the day after. You can complain about China all you want, complain about how unfair the playing field is but like buggy whip makers that didn’t evolve into car upholsterers you will be extinct. The great thing about America that everyone in the world wants, is here you can succeed spectacularly or fail spectacularly. What some Americans seem to have forgotten is that it is entirely up to them.
nobody says
David,
Thanks for correcting my misperception and for your insight.
Just got my July ’09 copy of Roadracing World yesterday – neat article on Pit Bull, the stand (etc..) company in their monthly “Shops” section. It isn’t a blueprint on how to start & run a business, but it contains two explanations for their existence that reoccurr in every month’s “Shops”: Hard work and change.
I morbidly joke at work that, if someone says “That’s not my job”, they will be right. Strangely, I hear it from the top rather than the bottom any more.
kneeslider says
OMMAG,
“you need to agitate government at all levels to get out of the way”
Absolutely!
David says
“Even after vetting by HR our typical high school or college hire
cannot do simple
math such as fractions or decimals or correctly comprehend work
orders.”
“Also if your HR people are vetting the new hires and they still
cant read, then your problem is in your colledge educated HR
people!!!”
There is a huge difference between reading and comprehension as
you have so eliquently shown. Attitude while at work is hard to determine
in an interview and hard to hide on the clock. I am sure you have good reasons
for your anger towards “colledge educated ” people but I would guess
it’s cost you dearly. No one is demanding you change but dont complain when others do.
Tin Man 2 says
David,You did not refute or disprove one thing I wrote, You did write 6 paragraphs defending Chinas way of doing bussiness. You are definently Management material. BTW, Im 60 Yrs old and live on the shores of the Great Lakes, They were never dead ! The workers in China have a right to make a living, But on a leval playing field!!
todd says
This is good stuff. More please.
-todd
Tin Man 2 says
David, Maybe we are not as far apart as we seem to be. If your company is taking its top workers and teaching them to improve themselfs that sure is a good thing, In my day that was called an aprentiship and worked very well for many years. My complaint is when a firm brings in Grads and puts them in charge before they know anything about the department they manage. This destroys moral and respect for authority, By both the workers and other managers who see the results of this nonsense. Im comfortably retired and have no dog in this fight, But I base my views on observations made during my 33Yrs watching many different companys as a Truck Driver who visited many firms every day.
Kenny says
Paul,
Perhaps you missunderstood me, I am studying a course i love, Mechanical Engineering, and at every opportunity i try to expand my knowledge of everything related to it, one of the reasons The Kneeslider is the 1st port of call when I log onto the net, I am doing courses pertaining to welding and the like to get a more grounded basis and visceral understanding of what makes mechanics tick (in the physics sense of the word not the people) and to hopefully some day design and build my own bike/ car or whatever takes my fancy.
What i was commenting on was the state of the economy around me as I see it. I’m not a economic forecaster by any measure so take whatever i say with a pinch of salt.
A disproportionate amount of the kids I went to school with have either not bothered furthering their education or else dropped out and are currently on unemployment benifit.
I recently read an article where it was stated that there was a 48% increase of under 25’s signing onto the dole last year, nationwide! And i can only expect that number to increase
tonyp says
David 06.07.09 at 1:48 am
Well said.
Tom says
We’ve got a big stack of crates on our factory’s back dock, filled with our manufactured goods. The crates have two labels: “Made in USA” and “Destination: China”.
laurent says
Good stuff,
Manufacturing suffered much more of excessive greed and short sighted strategies than any form of unfair competition.
I’ve never heard someone in the medias pointing out that the Germans are top exporters of manufactured good while having very high social cost, not to mention the many car makers who have their products made in Belgium (sky high labor costs).
If only the banks could wake up and support new initiatives.
Best