Getting the word out about manufacturing

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Reposted from the New Hampshire Business Review

Forum focuses the economic, educational need to focus on advanced manufacturing.

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‘It takes a partnership approach between state, education and industry to build the workforce and create well-paying jobs,’ says Ross Gittell, chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire.

 
If a workforce of highly skilled, well-paid advanced manufacturing employees and a robust state economy are the goals, partnerships involving education, industry and government are the ways to achieve them.

That was the consensus at a recent NH Works workforce development forum at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. Staff from the Office of Workforce Opportunity and the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security joined representatives from vocational rehabilitation, adult education, veterans support and other state agencies for the daylong event.

During a forum led by Ross Gittell, chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire and an economist, advanced manufacturing was the topic of choice.
According to economist Dennis Delay of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, the economic impact of smart manufacturing and high technology is five times that of one of tourism in New Hampshire. New Hampshire manufacturing took a debilitating hit decades ago, he said, but the sector has since undergone a major transformation. Delay said a 2011 study shows the industry has turned to higher-paying and higher tech markets like computers, electronics, defense and medical.

And now, said Gittell, “Employment is stabilizing and growth opportunities for manufacturers are adding up. This presents an exciting opportunity.”

Poised for growth, manufacturers need more technically skilled workers, and under a Department of Labor grant, CCSNH has partnered with businesses and state agencies to form the Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships in Education initiative.

“It takes a partnership approach between state, education and industry to build the workforce and create well-paying jobs,” Gittell said. Under the grant, “we met with manufacturers and asked them what they needed. We’ve been hard at work at all our colleges to build an advanced manufacturing curriculum with a focus on specialized industry sector training.” With e-learning, hybrid and common core courses, CCSNH is building stronger and higher capacity training programs, he said.

Curricula were designed with the guidance of more than 100 business and industry partners, and the consortium aims to touch thousands of students and add as many jobs in the state, he said.

All told, numbers from a 2011 Smart Manufacturing High Technology study by the Center for Public Policy Studies show that, if the initiative reaches its full potential, it could have a positive economic impact measured in the billions of dollars in New Hampshire alone.

“We are well-positioned for success,” Gittell said

‘Vision and direction’

Key to that success is the partnership the colleges and business leaders share with agencies like DRED, OWO, NHES and NH Works, which support both businesses and job-seekers by helping to them with training opportunities, he said.

While large “anchor” industry partners are essential to the advanced manufacturing initiative, Gittell said, 96 percent of businesses in New Hampshire are small businesses. That means options like the Job Training Fund can give high-tech companies a boost as they work with current and prospective employees to update skills.

Aid is also available through the Workforce Investment Act, an employment and training program funded by the U.S. Labor Department to help dislocated workers and other eligible adults and to help companies find skilled workers.

“To sustain ourselves, we need vision and direction, partnerships and skill-set development,” said Department or Resources and Economic Development Commissioner Jeff Rose. “Aligning education and training programs to industry needs is very important. We do have the vision of how we want the workforce to look, based on industry need, and state agencies are looking forward to working with you.”

State Sen. Molly Kelly, D-Keene, called growing the economy through advanced manufacturing “one of her favorite subjects.”

“What I see is not the kind of memory I had of manufacturing,” she said. “These places are incredible. The precision is fascinating; the things we’re making are works of art. Our workers are very good – and they are making very good livings. But I don’t think that is the common perception.”

For example, she said, many people aren’t aware of the need for science, technology, engineering and math-skilled employees, and they are shocked to see the clean, high-tech environments in which those employees work. She herself was surprised when, in 2008 as the nation’s economy reeled, New Hampshire manufacturers were telling her, “We have jobs. We don’t have skilled workers.”

That’s the focus of the state Advanced Manufacturing Education Advisory Council, she said. “We step outside of our silos. Educators know education and manufacturers know what they need to grow.”

This article appears in the July 12 2013 issue of New Hampshire Business Review

Reshoring: When Jobs Come Back Home

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Reposted from THonline.com:

Sometime during the past decade, when most everyone was focused on inflating the housing bubble, I was called into a senior manager’s office.  My employer was planning to move an assembly line to Mexico and thought I would be a great manager for the project. As the executive discussed the importance of the move, my thoughts wandered to Thanksgiving.


Although a city boy, I grew up with tractors. I played with scale models as a child, spent weekends on my grandfather’s farm and drove tractors long before I could legally drive a car.

My grandfather, dad and uncles farmed, built or repaired tractors. I loved to listen at family gatherings as they debated their politics — not of red and blue states but red and green tractors.

So when I graduated from engineering school, it was only natural for me to choose a supplier to the tractor industry. How I enjoyed contributing to those conversations.

“What are you working on now Rick?”

I would explain the latest technical advances, being careful not to violate customer confidentiality agreements. This would spark spirited conversation on the usefulness (or lack thereof) of the new features to farmers and the challenges to servicing the new features to mechanics.

Now, as the boss rambled, I could only envision the ensuing conversation:

“What are you working on now Rick?”

“Well, I’m managing the move of a major product line to Mexico.”

(Silence, followed by more silence)

“I believe the turkey is a little dry this year.”

I quickly told the boss that I wasn’t interested in spearheading the move.

So I’ve been more than a little pleased and interested as I follow the trend of manufacturing work moving back to the U.S. Known as reshoring, the development is so new that my word processing software doesn’t recognize the term.

While my motivation was primarily patriotic, that’s not industry’s driver. It’s simply making good business sense. Some of the primary reasons include:

* Shorter and predictable supply chains — the price on the invoice doesn’t matter when the product has to be air freighted due to changing customer demands or is stuck in a port due to a dock workers’ strike.

* Lessons learned regarding the criticalness for manufacturing and engineering to communicate when the product is more complex than a coat hanger.

* More lessons learned regarding the complexity of communicating, instilling quality systems and even ensuring protection of intellectual property when multiple tiers of suppliers are involved, with each subsequent layer becoming less sophisticated.

* Multiple years of double-digit wage increases in China, supported by government’s hopes of growing the middle class, narrowed the cost gap.

As a Lean advocate and former engineering manager, I foresaw the first three reasons. The fourth caught me completely off-guard. I reasoned that the sheer population of China would absorb wealth for generations before it materially impacted competitiveness. But the majority of the country lacks the basic infrastructure to take advantage of that population.

There’s one more important driver for reshoring. U.S. productivity continues to grow. We’re 20 percent more productive than we were 10 years ago, despite the fact the time span has been largely defined by tepid demand growth. Productivity always looks best in periods of high demand.

Therein lies the caveat with reshoring efforts. The work that is returning is not especially labor intensive, or at least not low-skills labor. The returning work values the top three reasons stated above — speed and agility, technical communication, and quality and protection of intellectual property.

The good news is that the jobs created by reshoring efforts, although not equal in number to those that originally left with it, are decent jobs. They rely on folks using their noggins more than their backs.

Oh, the rest of story regarding my personal outsourcing “opportunity?” The housing bubble burst, the Great Recession ensued and today that assembly line productively resides in central Iowa. And I can still attend and enjoy family reunions.

SOURCE:  THonline.com

Benefits of Reshoring-Bringing Manufacturing Back to the USA

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When manufacturing jobs move overseas we wondered if total landed costs are considered and if there is now an argument for bringing manufacturing back to the USA. This logistics practice is known commonly as “reshoring.” Our theme for the month of July is the United States or for all of you Bruce Springsteen fans – “Born in the USA.”  Although Mindspot Research is a Global research company, we are based in the United States in Orlando, Florida.

We conduct research for clients across multiple verticals (consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, fashion, restaurants, healthcare, etc…) and as a result of that broad base of clients we are able to gain perspectives on the economy, industries, and social and market trends.

One topic that is in the news often is outsourcing labor-intensive jobs and manufacturing particularly to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. With the recent news of buildings collapsing and workers tragically losing their lives or being injured or trapped due to lack of building safety standards, or any loss of life is a call for consideration. As a result Wal-Mart and some other large companies have implemented their own safety standards and continued outsourcing.

Recently a businessman from Florida was held captive for 6 days because Chinese employees feared losing their jobs and did not feel they were adequately compensated. These workers did something extreme to have their voice heard. The question to ask not only on a cost basis but on an ethical basis: Is it worth it? Perhaps, there is an ethical argument for bringing jobs back to the United States in addition to the cost argument about to be presented.

The risk analysis for manufacturing in the United States is far more straight forward than using an offshore source. At one extreme, having your company name associated with tragedy may lead to catastrophe & national infamy, but at a minimum uncertain raw materials, process stability, and quality standards will exact unknown (and unexpected) costs, not to mention sleepless nights. The expanse of US regulations from watchdog organizations, industry designed and self-promoted, and government based, provide for many layers of product protection stripped away from manufacturing that is taken offshore.

Mindspot Research has a long-term manufacturing client who has been in business for 25 years.  ASH Industries, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, offers a range of engineering services and manufacturing processes. ASH addresses client needs from rapid prototyping to final assembly & custom packaging. Among ASH’s customers that cover the gamut of US Industry, from defense to medical and electronics to industrial, there is considerable pressure to outsource manufacturing work to places like Mexico and China.

Over recent years, Hartie Spence CEO of ASH Industries tells us that “While competing with China on a piece part basis is not possible, more and more observant customers do appreciate the impact that a knowledgeable US based manufacturer can have on reducing total product cost, increasing reliability, and shortening the timeline between concept to completion.”

Mr. Spence acknowledges that the argument for getting products from China because “it is so much cheaper” may, in fact, be limited to a range of products for which unit cost consideration far exceeds quality, manufacturing consistency, and communication needs. However, if the total landed cost is calculated along with manufacturing difficulties and inconsistencies, then the argument for “offshore” does start to disintegrate.

Additionally, consider that the number of defects per million parts will vary by the type of manufacturing. For example, if soldering parts is involved that is typically what causes the majority of the defects. If no soldering is involved it will be something else (i.e. pick and pack). Using a Six Sigma process improvement methodology the acceptable defects per million (DPMO) is 3.4. It is widely commented on that other countries have a higher defect per million number than the United States. Recent examples include solar panels manufactured in China with defect rates ranging from 5%-22% according to the New York Times. Perhaps that doesn’t seem like a lot. However, if we apply this to something that we are all used to like medical prescriptions; consider that 99% quality (3.8 sigma) and 99.9997% quality (6 sigma) is the difference between 200,000 wrong drug prescriptions a year and 68 wrong drug prescriptions a year.

Here are 15 potential hard cost benefits associated with “reshoring,” which is bringing manufacturing back to the USA from another country:

• Shorter delivery times/Faster
• Lower transportation costs
• Fewer defects
• Shipments not held at customs
• Reduces exchange rate risks
• Political stability
• Economic stability
• Established worker safety compliance (building, working conditions, # of hours worked)
• Established materials safety compliance (contamination)
• Stamp it “Made in the USA”
• Supports the U.S. economy by employing U.S. workers
• Reduces risk of being associated with negative events/PR
• U.S. plants are more established/higher number of years in business
• More world-class manufacturers in the United States
• Customer Service

At the end of the day, whether it’s the 4th of July or another day, it’s the total landed cost that matters to the bottom line.

Manufacturing is Sexy Again

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Reposted from Crains Cleveland Business

Irene Petrick thinks the next wave of manufacturers will come from unexpected sources — namely, from individuals and small businesses taking advantage of advances in technology.

Ms. Petrick, a Penn State University professor and managing director of Trendscape Innovation Group, was one of three participants in a panel discussion on manufacturing at The City Club of Cleveland on Friday. The forum featured some of the authors of Alliance for American Manufacturing’s “ReMaking America” book, and was moderated by the alliance’s president, Scott Paul. The event was hosted in partnership with WIRE-Net, a local manufacturing advocacy group celebrating its 25th anniversary.

While much of the conversation focused on hopes for the U.S. government’s future manufacturing policy and possible business incentives, Ms. Petrick focused on trends shaping manufacturing. 

She predicted that there are three major trends that would inspire innovation on a more individualized level in the future: the availability of cloud-based services, which would allow people to download just the programs they need, the spread of high-performance computing, which would make simulations more available to small businesses, and 3-D printing, which would allow individuals to make their own products. 

Sridhar Kota, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, echoed Ms. Petrick’s statements and said reducing costs and barriers to these types of tools would increase competitiveness in manufacturing. 

Carl Pope, former executive director of the Sierra Club, said he thought the federal government needed to do more to encourage manufacturers to make their products in the United States. He called for policy certainty for the industry.

But the panelists thought there was cause for optimism in the U.S. manufacturing sector. Mr. Paul said there is a lot of support and interest in the sector from politicians, management consultants and academics. It’s time now to take the “emergency care” manufacturing policy to a more sustainable one, he said.

Ms. Petrick noted that she sees lots of interest in entrepreneurship now, and that people are tinkering in her classes.

“Manufacturing is sexy again,” she said.

Farming, Food Safety Groups Ask U.S. to Stop Smithfield Foods Sale

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Reposted from Journal Star – 

Two Nebraska groups — The Center for Rural Affairs and the Nebraska Farmers Union — are among food safety and farm groups calling on federal regulators to halt the proposed sale of pork giant Smithfield Foods to a Chinese processor — a deal that would represent China’s largest purchase of a U.S. company.

In a letter sent Tuesday (07/10/13), the groups asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to oppose the sale of Smithfield to Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.  The interagency committee of cabinet secretaries is responsible for reviewing sales of American companies to foreign concerns.

“The White House should reject the sale of America’s food supply,” Tim Gibbons of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, one of the groups involved, said in a statement released Tuesday. “The Smithfield purchase turns over American farms to a consolidated, globalized meatpacking industry that leaves rural communities to clean up the waste while China gets the meat.”

Smithfield is the nation’s biggest pork packer and also raises more hogs than any other company. 

China is the U.S.’s third-largest pork export customer, buying more than 500,000 metric tons of pork a year. In 2012 the U.S. exported nearly a quarter of its pork, about 12 percent of it to China, where a growing middle class has increased demand for proteins of all kinds.

Shuanghui and Smithfield announced in late May that Shuanghui would purchase Virginia-based Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer, for $4.7 billion. But since the announcement, some lawmakers and producers have cast a critical eye on the deal, and regulatory hurdles remain.

Smithfield’s chief executive, C. Larry Pope, is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Agriculture Committee. The chairwoman of that committee, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has been critical of the deal and has called for more government oversight from additional agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Tuesday’s letter echoes some lawmakers’ objections, saying that the deal could pose threats to U.S. security interests, undermine food security here and threaten the safety of the U.S. food supply.

China’s consumers have faced a number of food-related scares in recent years, including reports of adulterated and mislabeled meats. A Shuanghui subsidiary was recently accused of treating hogs with an illegal veterinary drug that’s hazardous for humans.

“The deal has been promoted as a way to facilitate U.S. pork exports to China, but ultimately Shuanghui could export pork back to the United States,” the letter says. “The adoption of Smithfield hog genetics and processing technologies could allow Shuanghui to reverse the global flow of pork.”

Processed pork products, including ham, bacon and sausage, are exempt from mandatory country-of-origin labeling requirements, which could mean that American consumers might see familiar brands but remain unaware that they were imported from China, the letter said.

In Nebraska, Smithfield owns the Cook’s Ham plant in Lincoln, which employs almost 500 people; the Farmland Foods pork plant at Crete, which employs almost 2,000; and an Armour-Eckridge sausage plant in Omaha that employs almost 200.

The letter was signed by Campaign for Contract Agriculture Reform, Coalition for a Prosperous America, Center for Rural Affairs, Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, Food & Water Watch, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Land Stewardship Project, Missouri’s Best Beef Co-Operative, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, National Family Farm Coalition, National Farmers Union, Nebraska Farmers Union, Organization for Competitive Markets, Rural Advancement Foundation International—USA, R-CALF USA and Western Organization of Resource Councils.

SOURCE:  JournalStar.com

Wal-Mart to Pull Out of D.C. After Minimum-Wage Vote

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Reposted from New York Magazine

For decades, Walmart has been known in the retail industry for its hard-line negotiating tactics. As the world’s largest retailer, it’s massive enough that it can offer to pay a ridiculously low price, threaten to walk unless its price is met, and watch suppliers trip over themselves to shrink their margins. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Walmart conducts its governmental relations the same way.

Earlier, Walmart threatened to pull three planned stores from Washington, D.C., killing thousands of potential jobs in the district, unless Washington’s city council abandoned a bill called the Large Retailer Accountability Act, which required companies that made more than $1 billion in annual revenue and have at least 75,000 square feet (read: Walmart) to pay employees a raised minimum wage, $12.50 an hour instead of the regular $8.25. Yesterday, D.C.’s city council passed the bill anyway.

Lydia DiPillis at Wonkblog thinks there will be “negative consequences” from the D.C. city council’s decision to go ahead with the bill, whether it’s in the form of lower property taxes, missing multiplier effects, and abandoned sites where the Walmarts would have stood. She points out that D.C. residents may go to Walmarts in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs now, instead of in D.C. proper, and that the stores that have been scuttled were likely to have the lowest profit margins for Walmart anyway.

That may be true. But D.C.’s decision to ward off Walmart is still a victory. In an era when suppliers, governments, and municipalities have all been scared into acquiescing to Walmart because of its size and job-creating potential, it also took tremendous courage. D.C.’s council members knew how many jobs a Walmart could bring to town and how good creating those jobs would look on their political record. But they also knew that despite Walmart’s white-washing PR campaign, those jobs were likely to be barely subsistence-wage, terribly depressing, and offset with jobs lost at local businesses. D.C. didn’t prohibit Walmart from setting up stores in the district (and there will still be three, even after the abandoned ones), but it did put in place what amounted to a fairly expensive penalty for doing so.

Not all jobs are created equal. But in politics, they often get equal weight. It would have been easy for D.C.’s city council to bow to Walmart’s threat, repeal or soften the minimum-wage hike, and brag to constituents about their job-creating success. Instead, they made a brave, values-driven decision about what kinds of jobs they wanted in D.C. and set policy accordingly. That’s the right of every municipality, and it’s an impulse that should be exercised much more often.

Smithfield CEO: China Deal Won't Hurt Food Safety

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Reposted from USA Today – 
WASHINGTON — Congressional lawmakers grilled the top executive at pork giant Smithfield Foods Wednesday about how the proposed $4.7 billion purchase of the company by China’s largest meat producer might affect the U.S. food supply and agricultural producers.
CEO Larry Pope told a packed Senate hearing his company remains committed to producing safe and plentiful food if the deal is approved. He underscored the benefits he said would come from the takeover by Shuanghui International Holdings, including jobs and higher pork exports.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the U.S. to do what it does best: produce agriculture products and ship them around the world,” Pope told the Senate Agriculture Committee. “This is an opportunity for U.S. pork producers to grow.”

Pope said the merger would have “no noticeable impact on how we do business in America and around the world, except that we will do more of it.”

But committee members from both parties appeared unconvinced.

Lawmakers expressed concern the takeover would squeeze the U.S. pork supply by shipping more of the meat to China and leave the U.S. susceptible to food safety concerns that have plagued Chinese companies, including Shuanghui.

They also raised a host of other concerns, including what would happen to Smithfield’s intellectual property and the impact of the deal on U.S. agriculture producers.

“In the short term, I know this deal looks good for our producers. This also needs to be a good deal in the long-term,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee. “One pork company alone might not be enough to affect our national security, but it’s our job to be thinking about the big picture and the long-term for American food security and economic security.”

Smithfield, founded in 1936 and based in Virginia, sells packaged products under its own name and other popular brands, including Farmland, Armour and Cook’s. The company, the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, employs more than 46,000 people in 25 states and four countries.

Pope said the transaction would not lead to food imports from China. Instead, he said, it would open up the market for U.S. pork farmers by giving them more access to Shuanghui’s large distribution system and millions of meat-hungry consumers in China, South Korea, Japan and other Asian countries.

Smithfield has stressed repeatedly that the merged company would keep its current management and facilities in place and maintain existing relationships with U.S. pork producers. Pope made those points again Wednesday.

The deal, which would be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm, is expected to close later this year. Shareholders and regulators, including the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), which reviews such transactions for their impact on national security, must approve the merger.

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and other lawmakers have called for the CFIUS review of the Smithfield deal to include the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration. Lawmakers met privately with CFIUS officials after Wednesday’s hearing to ask questions about the Smithfield merger and the notoriously secretive review process.

The proposed takeover of Smithfield has stoked growing concern about an influx of foreign investment in the United States. Many expect cash-rich China to be an active player in the future, much to the dismay of Washington lawmakers reluctant to cede control of U.S.-owned businesses to the communist country.

“I think it is reasonable for you to expect a wave of Chinese investments into our food and agriculture industry, and this potential purchase is not a one-off,” said Daniel Slane, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a government agency that monitors trade and economic relationships between the two countries. “Today, it’s Smithfield, but tomorrow, it could be Consolidated Grain, ConAgra or Tyson Foods.”

Slane said Shuanghui likely views the deal as a way to help minimize the risk of volatile commodity prices and to obtain Smithfield’s valuable intellectual knowledge of meat processing and animal genetics.

“This is really all about control,” he said. “The Chinese could easily go out and buy pork.”

SOURCE:  USA Today

On Manufacturing and Innovation

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Manufacturing: The Key to American Innovation

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Ralph Gomory
Reposted from the Huffington Post – 
Manufacturing was once widely recognized as the outstanding strength of America and the basis of its prosperity, but manufacturing also has a more recent history of being almost a pariah. This newer view equated computer chips with potato chips, asserted that manufacturing is better left to others, and suggested that the nation is actually fortunate to be losing manufacturing and aiming to replace it with design, research, and services.
But many Americans, seeing around them the loss of jobs and the devastation of what had been major industrial centers, have not been converted to this new perspective. Polls have clearly shown that most Americans still think that manufacturing matters, and these polls had an election-time impact last year. Politicians of every stripe suddenly rediscovered manufacturing, and high-ranking government officials were able, quite quickly, to come up with respectable economic studies that cast a more favorable light on manufacturing. 

With the 2012 elections over, discussion about manufacturing subsided and changed course, but did not go away. Today the doubts of the American people about the loss of manufacturing are being addressed in a different way. Since Americans can’t be persuaded that manufacturing doesn’t matter, they hear instead: “don’t worry, manufacturing is coming back.” Now we have a stream of news articles and studies, all announcing, on the flimsiest evidence, that manufacturing is returning to America. But this is closer to fiction than it is to fact.

Innovation, in contrast with manufacturing, seems immune to ups and downs. Day in and day out, innovation is everybody’s favorite. We hear over and over that America must innovate to survive, America must innovate to compete in the global economy, and that Americans can do it because Americans are inherently innovative.

This discussion of innovation has things fundamentally backwards. It does not make sense to talk about innovation as if innovation was an end in itself. We could innovate until the cows come home and if we can’t translate that innovation into something substantial that adds to the economic output of the United States, it does little for America. If our strategy is to generate new ideas that other countries acquire, either as the foundation of a new industry or to gain an advantage in an old one, we will have the expense and glory of being innovators, and they will have the resulting industries and the economic benefits.

But in this era of globalization, and of worldwide profit seeking, our global corporations are strongly motivated to move their manufacturing abroad, not only in response to the availability of cheap labor, but also in areas of high technology where cheap labor is not the attraction but foreign subsidies are. And manufacturing innovation goes abroad with manufacturing.

Innovation in manufacturing matters; innovation in manufacturing is what turns ideas into things that change the world. It took the steam engine 150 years of steady improvement to evolve from being something that barely worked into a machine powerful enough to create the industrial revolution. Sixty years of continuing transistor miniaturization has produced a cellphone you can carry in your shirt pocket with computing power that once required several large rooms to hold. And this cheap computing power is transforming the world.

In a less spectacular way the manufacturing of steel, of paper, or glass, or automobile tires, follow the same path. There are ideas, and then innovation in the manufacturing process steadily improves on them. Much of the progress, and the competition, in manufacturing, is based on incremental innovations whose cumulative effect is enormous. But manufacturing’s steady improvement also means that once you are out of an industry it’s hard to get back in. Your workers’ skills are out of date; the underlying networks of suppliers have gone out of business.

This picture of innovation — tied to manufacturing and incremental in nature — is very different from the popular picture of a few dedicated young programmers putting together a startup that sweeps the world. But it is this popular and easy and attractive picture of innovation that dominates many discussions about how to increase innovation in America.

Why can’t we just stick to this attractive startup picture? Do we really need the hard work of manufacturing and manufacturing innovation in America? We know we do need manufactured goods, they are a part of daily life, but isn’t there some other way to get the manufactured goods we need?

Here are the three ways we can get them: (1) produce them in America (2) trade something else we produce for them, or (3) buy them with dollars that don’t get spent on American goods, but simply remain in foreign hands as future claims on our economy. Today the third option is increasingly what we do.

The Chinese government, alone, now has more than two trillion dollars generated by these trade deficits, and this amount grows daily. This is an enormous resource, available whenever needed, to buy promising, or even full-grown, technology and companies. And who believes that in today’s world a buyer with two trillion to spend cannot wield major economic and even political power?

Despite this, many still proclaim that free trade benefits everyone and point as proof to lower prices for the imported Asian products. But lower prices are not low if you lose your job to get them, and the mutual gains predicted by free trade theory do not in fact materialize in a world where the well thought-out subsidies and controls of foreign governments create persistent trade deficits for our country.

We are allowing much of manufacturing, the great innovation engine that turns ideas into reality, to vanish quietly from our shores. Our global corporations may be benefitting from this; most Americans are not.

It is time for the steady wasting away of manufacturing, and the consequences of that wasting away, to become a matter for national debate, and to remain a matter for national debate, until the problem is resolved. Action is needed, and strong actions should be considered with a full understanding of the enormous importance of what is really happening.

SOURCE:  The Huffington Post

About the author:
Ralph Gomory – 
Research Prof. NYU, Pres. Emeritus, Alfred P Sloan Foundation, Former IBM SVP Science-Tech

If This Is a Good Jobs Report, Just Shoot Me

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The June jobs report shows we lost 6,000 jobs in manufacturing, but added 9,000 in garden supply stores and 19,000 at amusement parks and casinos.

Is this the picture of a healthy economic superpower?

While corporate media will focus on the big number — we added 195,000 jobs! — figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the economy continues to produce low-skill, low-pay jobs while employment in the goods-producing sector lags.

The report shows summer is here: time to plant a garden, fix up the house and work on the car!

Retail trade employment increased by 37,000 in June. Within retail trade, employment increased by 9,000 in building material and garden supply stores and by 8,000 in motor vehicle and parts dealers.

But wait — there’s more. It’s time to hit the road and take the kids to the Fun Park!

Leisure and hospitality added 75,000 jobs in June. Monthly job growth in this industry has averaged 55,000 thus far in 2013, almost twice the average gain of 30,000 per month in 2012. Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places continued to expand, increasing by 52,000 in June. Employment in the amusements, gambling, and recreation industry also continued to trend up in June (+19,000).

Retail, bar and restaurant jobs may provide gainful employment for college students and struggling actors, but they do not sustain a strong middle class.

Debt collectors hired 6,000 and temp services added 10,000.

And the number of workers who want full-time jobs but are stuck in part-time jobs increased by 322,000.

The bright spots in the report are dim: 13,000 jobs added in construction (divide that by fifty and you see about 250 per state) and 5,000 in automotive manufacturing.

CNN says ‘June jobs report: Hiring beats expectations.’

It’s the bigotry of low expectations.

Read the BLS report here:

Fatal Fashion: Movement Seeks Way To Change Global Clothing Production

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Fatal fashion. That’s the derogatory new label dangling over the U.S. clothing industry following a deadly fire and a building collapse that killed more than 1,200 garment factory workers in Bangladesh in recent months.
The tragedies in November and April ripped open the unseemly side of the global clothing supply chain, where hundreds of American brands and companies, from H&M to Tommy Hilfiger, from Disney to Wal-Mart, use overseas factories in countries with woeful working conditions.

But now, in the wake of the tragedies, a new movement is being stitched together to change the way our T-shirts, tops and trousers are made and labeled.

Global sellers such as Wal-Mart are signing on with groups like LaborVoices that promise to get more candid assessments of factory conditions. Bangladesh’s government is being prodded by the United States and others to beef up worker safety. U.S. clothing companies are working on a new labeling system that will track a garment’s manufacturing history.

And many consumers are starting to take a closer look at where their clothing comes from.


Read more at The Kansas City Star: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/08/4334567/fatal-fashion-movement-seeks-way.html


The Decline Of America's Job-Creating Small Businesses

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On Friday, we learned that U.S. companies added 195,000 jobs in June, which was much higher than the 165,000 expected by economists.
Still, the unemployment rate remains painfully high at 7.6%, even as GDP, corporate profits, and stocks sit near all-time highs.

One of the reasons for this is the decline of America’s small businesses, which struggle to compete against the scale of the world’s multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporations.

Here’s Nathan Sheets, Citi’s Global Head of International Economics:

The travails of the U.S. small-firm sector. Our past work has emphasized the important role of small firms as engines of growth for the economy and, particularly, as job creators. The upper-left panel of Figure 8 documents this relationship. From the late 1970s to the time of the financial crisis, the share of net job creation accounted for by small firms declined some, but remained above 60 percent.

During the financial crisis, small firms bore the brunt of the job loss, as they were hit hard by the decline in construction and real estate (where small firms predominate) and by a sharp pull-back in bank lending (the red line in the right panel). Since early 2010, small firm employment has rebounded but has not yet come close to reversing the job losses sustained during the financial crisis. This is an issue that we are watching as a key indicator of the cyclical performance of the U.S. economy. Another concerning development is the steady decline since the early 1980s in the rate at which small businesses are being established. Research indicates that young firms—new start-ups—are especially powerful engines for job creation and real GDP growth. Another way of framing this observation is that it appears that the United States in the 1980s had some “secret sauce” that was effectively incentivizing the start-up of small firms. Better understanding what economic policies facilitated this outcome strikes us as a useful endeavor for future research.

Here are Sheets’ charts:

Steinway's Sale Is a Sour Note for Made in America

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A Model D piano being made at the Steinway factory in Astoria, Queens.

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Brian Ross
“Made in America” took another major hit very quietly yesterday. An American musical institution, the 160-year-old American piano maker Steinway and Sons, was sold to a private equity firm, Kohlberg & Co. What does a leveraged buyout firm (LBO) want with one of America’s last iconic musical instrument makers still based in the United States? Ask brand-hungry piano makers in China.
Kohlberg picked up Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. for a reported $438 million. While that was great news for shareholders of the publicly traded Steinway, it is likely to spell the end of the iconic American instrument maker based in Waltham, Mass.

Kohlberg & Co. is a leveraged buyout firm (LBO). LBOs do not generally invest in companies to turn around management and run them more profitably. They look for high returns on the acquisition by finding buyers who will pay significantly more for the profitable parts of the company than its present sum. They also, by taking a public company private prior to its sale to foreign entities, remove much of the public scrutiny of the sale by shareholders, the Securities and Exchange Commission or other governmental entities, and the media that the transaction might generate.

With its rising affluence from its enormous economic prosperity, piano sales in China have been booming. In 2010, 43,778 pianos were made in the United States. China, by contrast made well over 60,000.

The last half decade has been hard on the musical instrument industry. The Great Recession in the United States made luxury items like pianos and the high-end brass and woodwind instruments of Steinway’s other brands, Selmer and Conn, less appealing.

As the economy in the United States comes back, Steinway sales have improved. With prices ranging from the low $60,000’s to as high as $282,000, though, the brand revered by the world’s greatest musicians, music schools, and those who love to play the instrument is finding it harder to sell status-symbol pianos to a new generation of Americans for whom playing music usually means pushing a button on their iPhone or Android, and whose musical tastes increasingly shift from classical and acoustic popular music to largely electronic instruments and sounds.

The musical arts in the United States are under pressure. Cuts to funding of musical programs in schools, and federal funds for the arts are constantly the target of thrifty Tea Party congressmen. Young people seeking big money in the entertainment industry generally don’t see being the next “piano man” as their ticket to stardom.

By contrast, many Chinese families, inspired by home-grown piano phenoms like Lang Lang, who has rock-star status there and a growing international fame, see their children’s mastery of the piano as a ticket to global greatness and financial prosperity.

So it is no wonder that Kohlberg potentially sees an opportunity to vend the venerable Steinway name to Chinese piano manufacturers eager to bring the manufacture of the iconic piano in world music to their shores.

Steinway is also the owner and steward of the great French Selmer brand of woodwinds and Conn’s brass instruments. Those companies would likely find eager buyers in Asia as well.

Steinway, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, celebrated its 160th year as an American piano maker in March of 2013. The company sold its flagship 57th Street store in Manhattan this year to a partnership fronted by JDS Development Group for $46.3 million in cash.

The arts, and the equipment that supply them, are perhaps America’s greatest export. With Hollywood companies altering films for the Chinese market to chase billions in box office there, and the Chinese possibly buying up our cultural icons like Steinway, it is only a matter of time before we lose our second biggest export after foodstuffs.

There is a period where Steinway can seek another buyer over the next forty-five days during a “go shop” period. If no American buyer steps up, our most iconic American musical brand will cease being “made in America,” and our leadership in yet another area of craftsmenship, economics and nearly two centuries of American musical excellence will possibly be dealt to China for the short-term gain of a few million dollars.

Steinway is worth more than that to America. The deal should be stopped.

My shiny two.

Gillibrand: Sell Only 'Made in USA' Wares at National Park Sites

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Only “Made in the U.S.A.” merchandise would be on sale at national park and monument gift shops under legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Ms. Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and bill co-sponsor Rep. Steve Israel (D-L.I.) say many of the patriotic items currently being sold — from American flag mugs to Theodore Roosevelt teddy bears — have a “Made in China” sticker or are produced elsewhere outside the U.S.

They note the National Park Service reports one-quarter — $250 million — of its $1 billion annual gross receipts is from merchandise.

Read the rest of the article at SILive.com: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/07/gillibrand_sell_only_made_in_t.html

MADE IN AMERICA: 10 DESIGNERS AND BRANDS THAT MANUFACTURE LOCALLY

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Modern Vice Booties

As the fashion industry has grown and boomed globally, it’s become a increasingly difficult to find goods crafted right here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. So we can’t think of a better way to commemorate our nation’s independence than calling out designers and brands that still produce their lines within America’s borders.
Most designers are based in New York City, where a recent push to Save The Garment Center has seen designers like Nanette Lepore and Anna Sui take up the cause of bringing apparel and accessory manufacturing back into the city by cutting down on outsourcing labor, though other labels craft all over the country.

Visit Stylecaster and check out the photos curated and posted by Meghan Blalock listing the 10 designers and labels that still produce in the U.S.A.! http://stylecaster.com/fashion-brands-made-in-america/

94 Percent Of American Flags Imported Into The U.S. Last Year Came From China

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Millions of Americans showed their patriotism on the 4th of July by waving a product that may have come from China.
Ninety-four percent or $3.6 million worth of the flags imported into the U.S. last year came from China, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. American manufacturers still make up the bulk of the business — they produced more than $300 million worth of American flags, banners and similar items in 2007, the latest year for which data is available. Still, foreign-made flags present “a serious threat,” to the industry Chris Binner, the vice president of marketing and sales for flagmaker Valley Forge, told The Huffington Post.

“Honestly I think it’s growing every year. We see the trend primarily happening with online businesses,” Binner, whose company is a founding member of the Flag Manufacturers Association of America, said. “It’s understandable. A flag and stick flags in particular are very easy to ship.”

Is your flag Made in USA?  Read the rest of this article at Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/american-flags-china_n_3540287.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

Apparel Manufacturing Reshoring to USA

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Workers cut and sew garments at Karen Kane’s manufacturing facility in Los Angeles. (Photo: Greg Cox, YouLookFab)

A small but growing number of clothing designers and retailers are bringing some production back to the U.S. The firms cite rising labor costs, poor quality and long lead times in China.
Apparel manufacturing, which left the U.S. in massive waves for more than two decades, is trickling back.

In the past few years, major designers and retailers such as Brooks Bros. and Saks, as well as dozens of smaller companies, have moved some production from foreign countries to the U.S., creating perhaps 1,000 jobs.

That’s minuscule compared with the 800,000 jobs lost to foreign clothing factories since 1990. Yet it’s raising hopes that the trend will grow, even though garment production remains highly labor-intensive and U.S. manufacturers still face stiff competition from low-wage countries in Asia and elsewhere.

Asian factory wages, however, are rising rapidly and U.S. consumers have shown a willingness to pay more for Made-in-America products.

Read the rest of the USA Today article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/07/04/some-apparel-manufacturing-returns-to-us/2454075/

The Made in America Movement All American-Made July 4th Giveaway – Day 3

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Enter via directions and Rafflecopter below.  For more information on each individual product and the company contributing the product, please click on the individual graphics below.  They will take you directly to their website.
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This giveaway consists of a whopping 17 fantastic American made products! 

All products have been generously donated by our Made in America Movement Members and Sponsors.  (MAM Members)

Rules for entry:

(1) Enter via Rafflecopter widget below.  (There are three entries for each gift. It may seem overwhelming, but it’s really quite easy. )

(2) Comment at the bottom of this BLOG

(3) Please SHARE blog link EVERWHERE and use hashtag #MAM1776 

Giveaway begins Wednesday, 07/03 at 6PM EST.  It will run for 24hrs ending Thursday, 07/04 at 6pm EST.  One winner will be chosen at random.  Winner’s name will be posted at 7pm EST. Email will be sent.  Winner will have 24hrs to get in touch with us, otherwise prize will go to runner up.

How to Enter via Rafflecopterwidget below: 

We want to keep our giveaways flexible and allow our readers to enter in whatever ways they are most comfortable. There are a lot of entry options below, but don’t be overwhelmed. The FACEBOOK likes are required and so are the Newsletter subscriptions.  The Twitter follows are not… however, the more entry options you complete, the better the chances you’ll be a winner!!! 

This giveaway will close at 6pm EST on Thursday 07/04. The winner will be randomly selected, verified for correct entry participation, and notified by email.  Winner will have 24hrs to respond.  If winner does not respond, a runner up will be chosen at random.

ENTER TO WIN

THE MADE IN AMERICA MOVEMENT
SPECTACULAR
4TH OF JULY GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buy America Laws Raise Hurdles in European Talks

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Ron Young, a veteran Maryland legislator, says it was a “YouTube thing” that inspired him to push for the “buy America bill” enacted this year by his state.
The ABC news clip uploaded on to the video platform featured a Montana homebuilder whose secretary spent a year calling all over the country to find US-manufactured supplies. The effort was successful – including a last-minute scramble to find American-made “j bolts” – and the house only cost 1 per cent more than usual, Mr Young recounts.

“My thought was: what faster way to create jobs here, and bring jobs back, than if we made products in America again,” says Mr Young, 72, speaking from his district office in downtown Frederick, an hour’s drive northwest of Washington.

General government procurement accounts for more than 10 per cent of economic output in the US, according to the OECD, the Paris based group of countries that tries to promote growth. So a proliferation of Buy America bills – similar to the one supported by Mr Young, which requires Maryland to choose domestically produced products over foreign ones where possible – are barriers that European officials would like to see removed in trade talks, due to begin next month.

“What we are trying to establish in these negotiations is free trade – we’re not going to be able to do that everywhere but that is the general objective – and that means not discriminating between European goods or services and their American counterparts,” says an EU official in Washington. “This is an issue for us because in Europe we have used procurement as an instrument to open up trade between member states, and in doing that we haven’t discriminated against foreigners.”

According to the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), a US business lobby that tracks state-level Buy America legislation, there has been a fourfold increase in such measures this year, from five bills introduced in 2012 to more than 20 in 2013. New Buy America measures were passed in Ohio last year. And this year, aside from Maryland, similar bills have come close to being approved in other states and may move forward next year. The state Senate in Maine passed its own version of Buy America this month, while Texas last month approved a bill applicable to water projects.

The flurry of Buy America bills presents a dilemma for the Obama administration in the trade talks. On one hand, US trade negotiations could use them to seek a carve-out for US procurement in retaliation for exemptions sought by the EU, such as France’s demand to protect its film industry. On the other hand, it could put the US on the defensive, making it harder for Washington to argue for more liberalisation in Europe, not just on procurement but other areas such as data privacy and agriculture.

Typically, it is the US trade representative’s job to ratchet up support among state governments to agree to trade deals but it is unclear whether that will be successful. Many trade unions, which are a critical component of the political base for Barack Obama’s Democratic party, support Buy America legislation at both the federal and the state level. They are already sceptical of trade deals and their opposition might flare up if there were an aggressive attempt to open up procurement, posing a problem for any deal to be approved on Capitol Hill.

You have to be very careful to balance those good intentions [to promote domestic suppliers] with what might be the negative impact on your trade with other countries.  

– Bob Walker, Maryland’s deputy secretary of business and economic development
US trade negotiators have little power, other than persuasion, to try to force change at the state level, given states’ constitutional rights to manage their own purse strings. And the Obama administration will have to make its own decision on whether to relax federal procurement restrictions in areas such as transport infrastructure.

US business groups are mounting their own powerful campaign against Buy America, arguing that state level efforts could limit the scope of trade talks and stop American companies competing for government contracts in Europe. “If ‘Buy America’ bills continue to proliferate, the Europeans will say – ‘now wait a minute, we’re not going to give you Bavaria unless you give us Ohio’,” says Dan O’Flaherty, vice-president at the NFTC.
Many state economic development officials fear that Buy America bills might hurt their exporters as they clamour for procurement business abroad. That includes Maryland, whose Democratic governor Martin O’Malley, who signed the bill into law, was at this month’s Paris Air Show promoting Maryland-based businesses, particularly in the defence sector.

Bob Walker, Maryland’s deputy secretary of business and economic development, says: “My personal view is you have to be very careful to balance those good intentions [to promote domestic suppliers] with what might be the negative impact on your trade with other countries.”

Back in Frederick, Mr Young’s biggest worry is not that the Maryland legislation could harm US-EU trade talks but that it needs to be tougher, citing caveats added to the final version of the bill. For instance, foreign products can be bought by the state if they are less expensive, of better quality, or more widely available than US equivalents.

Mr Young is defiant about ensuring that the bill survives as Brussels and Washington begin their negotiations. “A huge amount of countries around the world have protectionist stuff to stop us from competing,” Mr Young says. “Our biggest threat is not Europe but I do think we need balance.”

SOURCE:  Financial Times

Does China own Independence Day?

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Americans are happy to spend as we mark the patriotic day, but it’s not necessarily U.S. companies that should be celebrating.

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.
— Erma Bombeck

As humorist Erma Bombeck mused in that quote, the way we’ve expressed national pride on the Fourth of July has morphed over the years from ceremonious shows of military might on Pennsylvania Avenue to casual barbeques in the backyard. But whether we chose to honor this 237th birthday in a martial or merry way  — with the exception of the potato salad and the flies — little is left of the holiday that’s authentically American.

Much like the other 364 days of the year, July 4 finds the American dollar going to products and goods made in China. But what adds a special sting to this particular day is its ironic dependence on a foreign country to commemorate our autonomy.

Starting with the very hallmark of the holiday — the emblem of our freedom, the subject of our national anthem, that gallantly streaming symbol to which we pledge our allegiance, an object so sacred that its public desecration is a misdemeanor offense — the American flag, well…isn’t.

Of the $3.6 million worth of stars and stripes imported every year to the US, $3.3 million worth comes from China. They flutter, not just over our front porches, but over our government buildings — even the federal ones. The farming out of our flags has become so pervasive that the House of Representatives is trying to pass a law requiring the feds to keep purchases strictly domestic.

Going down the holiday shopping list, those disposable dishes, utensils, cups, napkins, and tablecloths are largely outsourced to China — squaring with the U.S. trade deficit totaling $62 billion in paper, plastic, and wood products to the country. And if Congress allows the world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, Inc., to be purchased by Shuanghui International, the Chinese will be processing our hot dogs for next year’s Independence Day cookout — right atop our Chinese-made outdoor grills.

For some Fourth of July fun, American families will no doubt participate in one of our favorite national pastimes, but playing catch with a Rawlings minor league or consumer baseball is another home run for Chinese manufacturing. Tossing the Frisbee? That American cultural touchstone — along with the Hula-Hoop, Silly String, and the Slip ‘N Slide — hasn’t belonged to Wham-O since the iconic toy company was bought out by Hong Kong group Cornerstone Overseas Investments Ltd. in 2006.

When the sun goes down, our “great anniversary Festival,” as John Adams called it, is capped off with “Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” Macy’s annual televised extravaganza is still homegrown by California-based Pyro Spectaculars by Souza, but fireworks from China — despite their failure to pass U.S. safety controls — are making record profits for the country’s manufacturers. In 2011, Chinese pyrotechnics were the overwhelming majority of all American-imported fireworks at $223.6 million out of a total of $232.5 million.

Perhaps we should return to celebrating the Declaration of Independence with the pomp of military parades. Well, not only are Chinese factories churning out our service members’ uniforms, but defense contractors like Raytheon, L-3 Communications, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin are making our weapons with Chinese parts — and counterfeit ones at that.

And when the U.S. markets open the morning after, it might be events in China that will determine how well our S&P 500 performs — as recent history has taught us.

If we don’t like it, we can always go cry to our George Washington bobble-heads — courtesy of you-know-who.

SOURCE:  MSN Money

The Made in America Movement All American-Made July 4th Giveaway Day 2

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This giveaway consists of 5 pretty cool American made products! Today’s gift pack is worth over $200.  

All products have been generously donated by our Made in America Movement Members and Sponsors.  (MAM Members)

Rules for entry:

(1) Enter via Rafflecopter widget below.  
It may seem overwhelming, but it’s really quite easy. 

(2) Comment at the bottom of this BLOG

(3) Please SHARE blog link EVERWHERE and use hashtag #MAM1776 

Giveaway begins Tuesday, 07/02 at 6PM EST.  It will run for 24hrs ending Wednesday, 07/03 at 6pm EST.  One winner will be chosen at random.  Winner’s name will be posted at 7pm EST. Email will be sent.  Winner will have 24hrs to get in touch with us, otherwise prize will go to runner up.

How to Enter via Rafflecopterwidget below: 

We want to keep our giveaways flexible and allow our readers to enter in whatever ways they are most comfortable. There are a lot of entry options below, but don’t be overwhelmed. The FACEBOOK likes are required and so are the Newsletter subscriptions.  The Twitter follows are not… however, the more entry options you complete, the better the chances you’ll be a winner!!! 

This giveaway will close at 6pm EST on Wednesday 07/03. The winner will be randomly selected, verified for correct entry participation, and notified by email.  Winner will have 24hrs to respond.  If winner does not respond, a runner up will be chosen at random.

Enter to win

ALL AMERICAN 
JULY 4TH GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MTA Outsources $235M Verrazano Bridge Project to China

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United Steelworkers’ vice president said the work would cost about $30 an hour per worker in America but just $10 to $15 a day in China.

The agency says it could not find an American company capable of making the high-tech steel plates it wants, but critics say the decision came down to cheaper labor.
Add Staten Island’s Verrazano Bridge to the list of U.S. icons that are made in China.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority outsourced a $235 million renovation project to China for work on the statuesque steel span — over the protests of hard-up American steelworkers who say they could do the job.

“It’s a kick in the teeth. There’s a lot of New Yorkers who would be thrilled to work on this project. It should be American made,” United Steelworkers’ Vice President Tom Conway said.

The union has reached out to New York’s AFL-CIO to mobilize support among other labor organizations, the Daily News has learned.

“Our state has lost nearly half its manufacturing capacity in the past 20 years,” AFL-CIO head Mario Cilento said in a letter sent July 1 to its executive council.
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Once the steel plates are made in China, American workers will reassemble the Verrazano’s upper deck.

“Irresponsible actions by public agencies like the MTA will only make things worse,” Cilento wrote, asking members to “stand by” as they prepare to fight the MTA’s outsourced contract.

According to the MTA, there’s not a steel plant in America that can produce the type of high-tech steel plate it wants — known as orthotropic design.

“(The agency) worked diligently to find an American steel manufacturer with the capability, experience and desire to fabricate the steel bridge deck … the MTA could not find an American fabricator,” the agency said in a statement defending its decision.

Orthotropic design is rarely used in America because the bulk of U.S. bridges were built before the technology existed.

The MTA hopes to extend the Verrazano’s lifespan by replacing its heavy concrete upper deck with lighter, stiffer orthotropic plates. Similar work was done two years ago on another U.S. span, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
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The Verrazano Bridge is the starting point for the NYC Marathon.

The Verrazano, a double-decked suspension bridge — which opened in 1969 after 10 years of construction — was built by American steel and iron workers, Conway noted.

“We were good enough then, but now all that work will go to China, to a government-owned company,” the union veep said.

“Maybe we’ll get some work tying up the barges” that haul the steel from China, he added bitterly.

The MTA said it will have strict quality-control tests to make sure the Chinese steel meets U.S. safety guidelines and requirements. Production has already started, the agency said.

Once the finished Chinese-made steel plates are shipped back, American workers will reassemble the Verrazano’s upper deck.
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New York State AFL-CIO chief Mario Cilento said the agency “should be ashamed of itself” for the outsourcing.

“We are very skeptical about their claim they can’t find an American plant to make these plates. We found two in Pennsylvania — 100 miles from the bridge — that bid on the project and wanted to do it,” said Conway.

The real issue is money, he said.

“This job here is about $30 an hour. In China, the workers will get anywhere from $10 to $15 a day,” he said.

It would cost another $100 million to keep the project in America, the MTA said.

Cilento said the agency “should be ashamed of itself” for the blatant outsourcing.

“It is incomprehensible that the MTA would award a $235 million project to China when there are American workers ready, willing and able to perform the task,” he said.

The Made in America Movement All American Made July 4th Giveaway

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This giveaway consists of 4 pretty cool American made products! Today’s gift pack is worth over $200.  

All products have been generously donated by our Made in America Movement Members and Sponsors.  (MAM Members)

Rules for entry:

(1) Enter via Rafflecopter widget below.  
It may seem overwhelming, but it’s really quite easy. 

(2) Comment at the bottom of this BLOG

(3) Please SHARE blog link EVERWHERE and use hashtag #MAM1776 

Giveaway begins Monday, 07/01 at 6PM EST.  It will run for 24hrs ending Tuesday, 07/02 at 6pm EST.  One winner will be chosen at random.  Winner’s name will be posted at 7pm EST. Email will be sent.  Winner will have 24hrs to get in touch with us, otherwise prize will go to runner up.

How to Enter via Rafflecopterwidget below: 

We want to keep our giveaways flexible and allow our readers to enter in whatever ways they are most comfortable. There are a lot of entry options below, but don’t be overwhelmed. The FACEBOOK likes are required and so are the Newsletter subscriptions.  The Twitter follows are not… however, the more entry options you complete, the better the chances you’ll be a winner!!! 

This giveaway will close at 6pm EST on Tuesday 07/02. The winner will be randomly selected, verified for correct entry participation, and notified by email.  Winner will have 24hrs to respond.  If winner does not respond, a runner up will be chosen at random.

Enter to win
ALL AMERICAN 
JULY 4TH GIVEAWAY
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Volkswagen Opens News Tennessee Distribution to Keep Up with US Demand

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The Volkswagen Group plans to invest more than $5 billion in North America over the next three years in new products, technologies and infrastructure aimed at helping the company reach its long-term goals for the region.
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. celebrated on Tuesday  the grand opening of a $40 million Southeast Regional Distribution Center in Roane County, Tenn.

The 459,000-plus square-foot facility will be used for distributing domestic auto parts to global markets for the Chattanooga-made Passat.

The Center facility will begin as a redistribution center to service warehouses and will later expand to include a parts distribution center. The redistribution Master Depot will support the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Germany.

Read the rest of the article at Industry Week:  http://www.industryweek.com/expansion-management/volkswagen-opens-news-tennessee-distribution-keep-us-demand

American Made Makes a Comeback at Wal-Mart

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Jon Springer
Three months can be an awfully long wait.

Yet that’s typical of the time it takes to move manufactured goods from a factory in China to a store shelf in the United States, according to Hal Sirkin, senior partner with Boston Consulting Group, speaking at Wal-Mart Stores’ annual shareholders meeting events this month in Arkansas.
“Most of the time is spent on a boat, or waiting for a boat,” Sirkin explained. “If I’m selling a good that’s hot in the marketplace, I have to wait three months to get the next order. Now maybe you can air freight it but everyone knows that’s incredibly expensive.”

One solution, Sirkin suggests, is not to wait for boats but to buy products made closer to home. Wal-Mart is supporting such efforts with a goal announced earlier this year to increase its purchase of goods manufactured in the United States by $50 billion over the next 10 years.

The commitment to buying more U.S.-made products tests — but ultimately supports — Wal-Mart’s famous devotion to everyday low costs, according to Michelle Gloeckler, senior vice president of Walmart home goods who is heading the manufacturing project for Walmart U.S.

“It’s important to know that while this is a U.S. manufacturing commitment it is also doing good for our business,” Gloeckler explained. “Some of the things that have come out from this are terrific technology and collaboration.”

According to Sirkin, several factors have contributed to make manufacturing efficient enough again to move to the U.S. — chiefly, steep labor inflation in China and cheaper energy in the U.S. Combined with costs for transportation, duties, and the impact of a long supply chain, Sirkin predicts costs to manufacture goods by 2015 will be less in the U.S. than in China — and gaining as more retailers and manufacturers take on a similar challenge.

“Three years ago people thought it was impossible. But today we see people moving manufacturing back to the United States,” Sirkin said. “Not because they are patriots, but because it’s good business.”

Gloeckler said Wal-Mart would endeavor to meet its commitment by growing business from its existing U.S.-based suppliers; adding new U.S. suppliers; and by buying from existing manufacturers who shift production from current facilities to the U.S.

Hanna’s Candle Co., a candle maker based in Fayetteville, Ark., did $4 million in sales at Wal-Mart stores in 2012. The partners are targeting $30 million this year, Gloeckler said.

Elsewhere in the home category, Wal-Mart added a new supplier, Georgia-based Authentic Comfort, to replace a foreign supplier of the 1.5-inch memory foam mattress pads at its stores. The change represents around 20% of the category.

“We had to prove ourselves and our product,” Michael Rothbard, president and chief executive officer of Authentic Comfort, said. “We had to show the product was unique, had meaningful benefits and could offer great value. We also had to show we were capable of meeting Wal-Mart’s needs.”

This meant improving the efficiency of its processes and changing the product to reduce costs, Rothbard said. For example, the company removed a cloth covering on its pads that translated to a $20 to $30 extra charge at retail.

Products made in the U.S. are marked with special tags at Wal-Mart and have benefited from a warm shopper reception, Gloeckler said.

“We have research that says, yes, this is an attractive proposition,” she said. “Customers will buy more because of ‘Made in the U.S.’ We even have research that says customers will pay more for ‘Made in the U.S.’ but we don’t believe they should have to.”

Other benefits of using U.S.-based suppliers include the ability to respond faster to changes in the marketplace and manage inventories and store shelves with more precision by buying in appropriate quantities.

“From an economic standpoint, [proximity to suppliers] can mean I’m able to put the product on the shelf faster when it’s moving faster, or conversely, if it’s not selling at the rate we expected, I’m not sitting on a whole warehouse of inventory because I had to fill up a [shipping] container.”

Rothbard said business with Wal-Mart has created a ripple effect, with its suppliers of materials and packaging also realizing benefits.

Gloeckler said Wal-Mart has invited state governors, economic development professionals, suppliers and other retailers to a summit later this summer to discuss opportunities to expand relationships with domestic suppliers. For now, the company is looking for U.S.-based suppliers in particular categories of goods best suited for domestic manufacturing, saying highly automated, mass-produced products are most appropriate given labor cost disparity overseas.

Bangladesh Decries U.S. Cutoff of Duty-Free Access

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Bangladesh expressed dismay at a U.S. decision to cut duty-free trade access, insisting Friday that the government has taken concrete steps to improve safety and working conditions since a factory collapse in April killed more than 1,000 garment workers.
The U.S. had suspended the trade benefits a day earlier, saying Bangladesh hasn’t moved to extend internationally recognized rights to workers.

The decision is “shocking for the factory workers,” Bangladesh’s foreign ministry declared in a statement, accusing “a section of people” in both countries of having campaigned for the cutoff.

“We’re committed to working with our U.S. counterparts and we hope this suspension will be lifted very quickly,” commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed told The Wall Street Journal. His government, he said, has taken steps to amend the labor law to allow workers to unionize freely, formed a ministerial committee to ensure factory compliance and pushed through an agreement among the government, factory owners and workers to ensure worker rights.

The suspension, due to begin in two months, is regarded as largely symbolic…  Read the rest of the article at The Wall Street Journal:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323873904578572852012416298.html

Ford F-150 Beats Toyota Camry in American Made Ranking

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The F-150 snapped a four-year streak for the Camry and earned the No. 1 spot in Cars.com’s 2013 American-Made index. The index ranksSource: Ford Motor Co.
Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 pickup, pacing the biggest gain in U.S. market share among automakers this year, topped a consumer website’s list of most-American made models, replacing Toyota Motor Corp (7203)’s Camry sedan.
The F-150 snapped a four-year streak for the Camry and earned the No. 1 spot in Cars.com’s 2013 American-Made index, the website said today in an e-mailed statement. The index ranks model lines based on their sales and whether car or truck parts and completed vehicles are built in the U.S.

Ford’s F-Series trucks have propelled the biggest U.S. sales increase among major automakers this year, climbing 22 percent through the end of May. The automaker said last month that it’s adding 2,000 workers and a third shift at its F-150 factory in Missouri to increase pickup production beginning in the third quarter. The F-150 also is assembled at a plant in Dearborn, Michigan, where the company is based.

“Ford’s top ranking this year is a good indicator of how pickup trucks are dominating auto sales so far in 2013, and how the domestic automakers are bouncing back,” Patrick Olsen, Cars.com’s editor-in-chief, said in the statement.

Read the rest of this article at Bloomberg News:  
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-25/ford-f-150-tops-toyota-camry-in-american-made-ranking.html

Top US States for New Manufacturing Jobs

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A welder builds parts for finished petroleum tanks at Southern Tank and Manufacturing Inc. in Owensboro, Kentucky, U.S. | Photo Credit: Ty Wright, Bloomberg – Getty Images
Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. appear to be coming back—if ever so slightly.
Several American firms, including Caterpillar, GE and Ford, have announced they’re shifting some manufacturing operations back to the United States, mainly because of increasing production and energy costs overseas.

And since January of 2010, the United States has added 520,000 manufacturing jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are currently 12 million manufacturing jobs on record in the United States.

But the U.S. is clearly in catch-up mode.

A report released last year by Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) said that manufacturing in the U.S. declined more in the last decade than it did in the Great Depression.

The ITIF says that translates into some 5.7 million lost jobs in manufacturing— at an “average loss of 1,276 manufacturing jobs every day for the past 12 years.”

In fact, in January 2012 there were more unemployed Americans (12.8 million) than there were Americans who worked in manufacturing (just under 12 million) the ITIF said.

“We are never going to see manufacturing in this country like it was before,” said Tony Cherin, a finance professor emeritus at San Diego State University. “We’ve become a more service and information industry economy, and while manufacturing is still important, it doesn’t carry the weight it once did.”

Where The Jobs Are

So where are the manufacturing jobs now?

Read the rest of the article at CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100832195

Lawmakers Push Government: Buy American Flags From Domestic Companies

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Photo Credit: Daniel Goodman / Business Insider

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are renewing a push to stop the federal government from buying and flying American flags made outside the country.
A bipartisan group of House legislators led by Iowa Democrat Rep. Bruce Braley introduced the “All-American Flag Act,” which would require the government to only buy flags from domestic companies, this month.

It’s believed that about $3.6 million dollars worth of American flags are imported every year, $3.3 million worth coming from China.

Read more at Business Insider:   http://www.businessinsider.com/american-flags-china-made-lawmakers-2013-6

Made in USA: Journey Behind the Label

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New documentary follows one man’s journey to live off only products “Made in USA.”  
After a manufacturing plant closed down in his hometown of Ravenswood, W.Va., resulting in 650 people losing their jobs, Josh Miller began to wonder what was really made in America anymore.

He decided to set out on a 30-day road trip across the United States in search of answers for how to revive American manufacturing – all the while trying to survive on only goods and products stamped with “Made in USA.”

“I really thought that I could take this opportunity to give the Made in America movement and these folks a voice,” said Miller, who documented his trip in a film, “Made in the USA: The 30 Day Journey.”

Read the rest of the interview and watch the video clip here: Yahoo News

“Made in the USA Films, LLC” presents a unique insight into the world of American made products. Josh Miller traveled the United States for 30 days living off of only USA made products. Can it be done? Josh and his film crew interviewed politicians, businessmen, historians, and economists to discover what has caused the rise and decline of USA made products. They also interviewed locals as they travel to find out if “Made in USA” really means anything anymore. 

Made in USA Documentary Shows Power Behind Patriotic Production

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The slogan “Made in the U.S.A.” is far more than a patriotic platitude. It’s a rallying cry for the rejuvenation of the middle class.So argues filmmaker Josh Miller in Made in the U.S.A.: The 30-Day Journey, a new documentary now available via streaming as well as DVD.

Miller, a true Everyman, traveled across the country for 30 days to learn why buying and making goods locally matters. He met with passionate U.S.-based entrepreneurs and economists to absorb the cold realities facing the modern American worker.

It’s a global economy we live in, and even a wizened tailor who specializes in hand-crafted suits relies on materials produced overseas.

Read the rest of the article here —>  Breibart Big Hollywood

Follow Josh Miller and his team.  Please show your support by purchasing an American Made DVD.
Facebook:  Made in The USA: The 30 Day Journey
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Twitter: @USA30DAYS
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