Editors Note: Following Apple’s Lead
There’s more to the manufacturing-at-home argument than just rising overseas costs and supply chain risks.
Directory 2013
In their new book — Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance — Harvard Business School Professors Gary Pisano (Business Administration) and Willy Shih (Management Practice) argue that when products and process technologies become interdependent, geographic proximity between R&D and manufacturing can be valuable. By manufacturing innovative products where they are designed, i.e., in the U.S., companies — like Apple — can better coordinate product- and process-innovation work, say the professors.
Why is this important? Doug Woods, President of AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology, recently told Area Development’s editors that proximity to the manufacturing process creates innovation spillovers across firms and industries, leading to ideas and capabilities that support the next generation of products and processes, i.e., innovation is the fuel that grows manufacturing.
What will it take for this U.S. “manufacturing renaissance” to truly take hold? Chris Massot, chief marketing officer for Synapse Product Development, explains there’s been an increasing trend toward producing higher-value consumer products that deliver a better customer experience in the last few years, with Apple being a leader of this movement. Consumers will no longer settle for poorly designed and poorly made products at cheaper prices, he says, and they’ll be willing to pay a premium for their goods. Couple that with rising wages in offshore locations and automation here at home, which has already reduced the labor component of products to a very small part of the TCO, and the reasons to offshore are further diminished.
Bringing manufacturing for the U.S. consumer market back home seems to be making more and more sense.
Project Announcements
PEAK Precision Manufacturing Plans Bowling Green, Kentucky, Operations
07/26/2024
Italy-Based Sipcam Agro USA Upgrades Wayne County, Mississippi, Operations
07/26/2024
Cleveland-Cliffs Plans Weirton, West Virginia, Operations
07/26/2024
IDEXX Laboratories Plans Wilson, North Carolina, Production Operations
07/26/2024
Germany-Based Ritz Instrument Transformers Plans Waynesboro, Georgia, Operations
07/26/2024
AirJoule Plans Newark-Wilmington, Delaware, Operations
07/26/2024
Most Read
-
19th Annual Area Development Gold and Silver Shovel Awards
Q2 2024
-
2023's Leading Metro Locations: Hotspots of Economic Growth
Q4 2023
-
2023 Top States for Doing Business Meet the Needs of Site Selectors
Q3 2023
-
The CHIPS and Science Act will bring jobs back to the United States
Q2 2024
-
2023 Top States Commentary: Top-Ranked States Have What It Takes to Win Mega Projects
Q3 2023
-
The Bring Your Own Energy (BYOE) Party Is Starting
Q2 2024
-
Midwest becomes hotspot for semiconductor manufacturing and supply industries
Q2 2024