Manufacturing heads back to USA (reshoring) - USATODAY.com

This article in the USAToday on reshoring manufacturing back to the US is interesting and not at all surprising. Regarding this part of the article: "Products that are labor-intensive and churned out in high volumes, such as apparel, textiles and TVs, will likely continue to be made overseas. So will those that are relatively inexpensive to ship but high-priced, such as laptops and cellphones, Ellis says. Goods are increasingly being made near customers, a trend that's driving U.S. makers to build factories in fast-growing China." I did an RMTMA (Rocky Mountion Tooling and Machining Association) dinner presentation several years ago titled "China, India, Tawain ... Oh My!" and my contention then was (and still is) that the more flexible and custom you are as a manufacturer the more likely your work will stay here. The faster you can get highly custom work through your shop -- the more secure your future is. I suggest taking a look at the work you hate to do -- and figure out a way to make it easier, start loving it, and go get more of it because your competition hates it too! The shops participating in our Velocity Scheduling System program are seeing their lead-times cut by more than 50%. If they can have something ready to ship while everyone else is still complaining about it -- they are going to be extremely successful in the long run.

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