There’s an interesting story on chiefexecutive.net written by Dale Buss that talks about how giants like GE, Ford and Proctor & Gamble are re-thinking their offshore manufacturing moves.
P&G sells its manufacturing techniques to other companies. Their head of external business development, Mark Peterson, says “They see that offshoring didn’t turn out to be the nirvana they thought it would be.”
The thrust of the story – no surprise – is that American manufacturing is in the process of “re-inventing itself” (are you as tired of that cliché’ as I am?). And we have to. The U.S. now ranks behind every industrial nation except France (whew!) in the percentage of overall economic activity devoted to manufacturing. We’ve slipped four percentage points to 13.9%.
Buss’ story uses Corning as an example of a company that has decided that manufacturing innovation is almost as important as the product itself. Other companies mentioned with good case study examples are Pelican, B. Braun Medical, Seneca Foods and JM Eagle.
The move back to “Made in America” is such a powerful and engaging issue, that if your company has as story to tell, you can bet on media coverage. Maybe it's time to freshen up your CEO’s standard speech with examples of what actions your company is taking on domestic manufacturing innovation vs. offshoring and arrange some prime speaking engagements?
Click here to read the complete story on chiefexecutive.net.
