Comments on: Andy Grove is Right about Manufacturing

By: Harry Moser

Harry Moser — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:40:48 +0000

I agree entirely with Andy and Rick and have a direct and reasonably fast solution: the Re-Shoring Initiative. The most efficient and immediate way to bring manufacturing back is by re-shoring: making in the U.S. more of what we now import. The NTMA (National Tooling and Machining Association), PMA (Precision Metalforming Association) and AMT (Association for Manufacturing Technology), just held a re-shoring Purchasing Fair in Irvine, CA. The next Fair will be in Mashantucket, CT on Oct 29. See http://www.purchasing fair.com. Large companies bring out work that is now off-shored. Hundreds of attending U.S. shops then bid on the work. Sixty four percent of the large companies at the Irvine Fair brought work that was currently offshored. AME, SME and other organizations have provided support.
A major reason for offshoring is faulty accounting of the comparative costs. To help the companies make better sourcing decisions we also made available the first draft of a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) Estimator that helps the large companies perform the complex calculation of the real offshoring impact on their P&L.
It is much faster and efficient to re-shore than to increase exports. All of the costs that the importers face here, our companies face offshore.
If your company now off-shores machining or tooling production, suggest to your Supply Chain Manager or Purchasing Dept. that they attend the Fair and request the TCO Estimator.
You can reach me at harry.moser@comcast.net
Harry Moser, Chairman Emeritus, Agie Charmilles LLC

By: Jerome A. Aiello

Jerome A. Aiello — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:06:57 +0000

Andy is correct. My feeling is that If We, as a nation, do not support innovation with our dollars, innovation will become undesirable because it is not profitable, and we (The USA) will revert from an industrialized society to an agrarian society.

The decay has already begun with the outsourcing of many jobs, just to make the corporations more money. When less people have jobs, less things get purchased.

Outsourcing is SO obviously the cause of the current economic downturn. I am simply amazed that we are refusing to acknowledge the "Elephant in the Room" !!!

Worker "A"’s job gets outsourced. He cannot buy goods. He cannot make his House Payment.

Bank forecloses on House.

Multiply this by thousands, then millions.

Banks in danger of going belly-up. They get bailed out by Government DESPITE MANY calls to congressmen to NOT bail them out.

Banks give million-dollar bonuses to the very people that gave mortgages to the workers whose jobs got outsourced. And on it goes.

The house of cards is crumbling, because big business is always chasing SHORT-TERM profit and ignoring LONG-TERM consequences.

By: Marie Elwood

Marie Elwood — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:17:03 +0000

Idea-generation/start-ups/ingenuity and production/manufacturing/taking action are both critical to our ongoing success here in the US. This shouldn’t be an "either/or" dialogue.