Once Booming Mill Towns Given New Hope
Not so long ago, this rural town an hour outside Atlanta was a hotbed for textile manufacturing. Read more
Made in the USA & Apparel Reshoring: Expert Round-Up
Made in the USA & apparel reshoring is a hot topic in the apparel industry these days. Corporate America is definitely interested- we need to look no further than Walmart’s American Manufacturing Commitment to buy an additional $250 billion dollars of goods made in America over the next 10 years to see evidence of that. Read more
Whirlpool to Expand Dishwasher Assembly Plant in Ohio
Whirlpool Corp. confirmed on Thursday said it would invest $40.6 million in its Findlay, Ohio, plant, and anticipates adding 50 new jobs at the dishwasher-manufacturing facility. Read more
Study Says: Walmart Imports From China Displaced 400,000 Jobs
Imports from China by Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies.
Read moreGood Jobs Aren’t Coming Back
SPRING HILL, Tenn.—The hulking General Motors factory in this town south of Nashville undermines the complaints by politicians left and right that America doesn’t make things anymore. Read more
Under Armour, Why Not Made in USA?
Wondering why Under Armour couldn’t make some products in U.S.? Read more
Manufacturing Day Highlights Opportunities to Bolster US Manufacturing
“American manufacturing is back!” breathlessly exclaim the ebullient cheerleaders in locales such as Forbes and the Boston Consulting Group. But while U.S. manufacturing may have bounced back slightly from Great Recession-lows, the reality is that America’s manufacturing recovery remains tenuous. On this National Manufacturing Day, policymakers can and should be doing much more to stimulate the growth and competitiveness of America’s manufacturing economy. Read more
Walmart’s Suppliers Are Finally Fighting Back
After years of meeting demands for ever cheaper prices, many Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suppliers are saying no to new margin-squeezing storage fees and a payment schedule that could delay for months how quickly some are paid. Read more
Call Centers: Reshoring Instead of Offshoring
Call centers are coming back to America, and flyover country is proving to be the biggest beneficiary in new jobs and overall boosts to local economies. Read more
How Made in USA Manufacturing Put K’NEX Back on Track
When the leader of the free world comes calling, most people jump. When the Obama administration first contacted Michael Araten, in November 2012, he hesitated. Read more
Reshoring Initiative and Walmart Helping Suppliers Reshore
The Reshoring Initiative recently announced a program in partnership with Walmart to help companies manufacture more consumer products in the United States. Read more
7 Key Facts to Keep in Mind about Walmart’s U.S. Manufacturing Summit
It’s been two and a half years since Walmart announced its so-called “U.S. manufacturing initiative”, which means it’s time for another PR-heavy, Walmart manufacturing “summit,” this one in Bentonville, Arkansas on July 7th and 8th. Undoubtedly, Walmart will use the summit to deliver feel-good talking points to the media, so this seems like a good time to review some facts about Walmart’s impact on the U.S. manufacturing sector, past, present and future. Read more
Nike CEO told POTUS About U.S. Manufacturing 4 Years Ago
When President Obama visited Oregon in 2011, Nike Chief Executive Mark Parker foreshadowed what was on the sneaker giant’s horizon. Read more
Nike To Create 10,000 Jobs in U.S. with Approved Trade Pact
As it prepared to welcome President Obama to its headquarters campus Friday morning, Nike announced it would pour more money into advanced footwear manufacturing in the United States if and when the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement is approved. Read more
Read Obama’s Speech at Nike: Full text
The White House posted the full text of President Barack Obama’s speech at Nike headquarters near Beaverton on Friday morning. The White House has also posted a video of the speech. Read more
Lots of Fuzzy Numbers Behind Walmart’s American Manufacturing Push
Walmart, the nation’s largest importer of foreign goods by volume, is currently hosting an open call for American-made product pitches at its Arkansas headquarters. This “American manufacturing summit” is part of the company’s commitment – made very publicly, with lots of fanfare, in 2013 – to buy $250 billion worth of American-made products by 2023. Read more
Walmart: Opening Our Doors – to Open Bigger Ones Across America
100 new hires. That’s how many Emilia PC expects to add by the end of this year, all resulting from one step the beauty product manufacturer took roughly 12 months ago: attending Walmart’s Open Call for products that support American jobs.
U.S. Manufacturing Costs Almost As Low As China’s
Manufacturing in the United States of America is becoming more affordable. The reason? Fracking. Read more
Made in USA Sells Again
Last fall, Wal-Mart promised to purchase $250 billion in Made in USA products by 2023, a move it said would create 1 million U.S. jobs over time. Two-thirds of the goods in its domestic stores are already made, sourced, assembled, or grown in the United States, the company added. Read more
Kentwood Company Moving Toothbrush Production Back From China
KENTWOOD, Mich. (WZZM) – A toothbrush company that outsourced some of its manufacturing to China years ago is bringing work back to West Michigan. Read more
SoftWear Automation, Creating U.S. Jobs by Revolutionizing the Textile Industry
The SewBots have arrived and they are bringing manufacturing back to the United States. SoftWear Automation, in Atlanta Georgia, has developed robotic technology for the textile industry to automate sewing, significantly reducing manufacturing labor costs. The machines are surprisingly inexpensive and allow for greater precision, higher speed and much longer hours than the traditional seamstress can manage by hand.
We first became aware of SoftWear thanks to Valerie Uhlir. Valerie serves as our Chief Marketing Officers, in addition to leading a boutique marketing agency based in Atlanta where she has worked with a large number of high-growth global brands over the past few years. She served as SoftWear’s head of marketing and PR from 2014 through the end of 2015, helping the company perfect their messaging leading to the wave of coverage including features by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Economist, and many others. Given the company is based in the USA and could have such a large impact on American manufacturing, we’re happy to cover them.
“Not only will this technology help manufacturers bring operations back to the United States with the reduction of labor costs, it will create higher paying technical jobs for American workers.”, said Valerie. Traditionally, manufacturing jobs are some of the least desirable roles that many individuals do not desire due to the repetition, poor work environments (hot warehouse, anyone?) and low wages. High turnover and an aging workforce have made it difficult for manufacturers to keep jobs here. Additionally, other nations do not have minimum wage restrictions and are willing to use underage labor due to less stringent regulations. All of these factors have created a void of manufacturing in the United States, SoftWear Automation would like to change that.
This month alone, the company is delivering several LOWRY systems to manufactures in the southeast United States. The future of sewn product manufacturing has officially arrived.
The U.S. has lost thousands of jobs in the past 10 years due to offshoring. In 1960, 95% of clothing sold in the USA was made here. Today, 98% of clothing purchased in the U.S. was made abroad. By implementing this technology, American manufacturing plants have several advantages:
- Lower costs on both labor as well as shipping costs, dramatically dropping the costs of creating sewn products
- Increase precision of products with ThreadCount™ technology
- Speed up production and deliver products to consumers faster
- Reduce waste
- Customization will become commonplace and inexpensive
- Localize manufacturing
Tailored clothing and details customized to an individual have long been expensive due to the additional time and costs to create customization. SoftWear technology eliminates that additional cost. Add this to online ordering and it is a recipe for low cost customization. For example, the software could make your jeans slightly smaller in the waist than the last pair of jeans in the same amount of time it would have made them anyway.
“Robotics are already taking over multiple industries, creating safer work environments and helping with some tough, dirty jobs. Textiles have been challenging to automate due to the pliable nature of fabric. SoftWear has created hardware that detects bunching and can fix creases before fabric is sewn, changing the game in fabric automation.“, said Valerie.
Walmart believes in bringing manufacturing back to the United States, but they also know that keeping prices low will be a challenge for their brands. Walmart invested a two million dollar grant to SoftWear Automation, through ATDC, to help bridge the gap and provide this technology to brands that want to bring their manufacturing home.
Sound exciting? We left out just one thing: this technology is for ALL SEWN products. Shoes, curtains, jackets, pants, carpet, towels, ties, hats, backpacks, blankets, bedding, car upholstery, handbags, hair ties, baby toys…
Watch the SoftWear LOWRY system work its magic here:
Connect with the friendly team @SoftWearInc on twitter to stay updated on how they continually disrupt the manufacturing industry.
What sewn products are you most excited to have Made In America?
Made in the USA – Reshoring Children’s Products
For all expecting and new parents, you probably have learned how quickly buying your child’s products adds up! So why would you be willing to pay more for an American-made product when you could purchase a similar product or even the “same” product, produced overseas, for half the cost? Read more
The Rise of ‘Made by China’ in America
Later this year along the banks of the James River outside Richmond, Virginia, a paper products maker based in northeastern China will begin construction on a new U.S. manufacturing plant. The factory will churn the region’s straw and corn stalks into household products including napkins, tissue and organic fertilizer—all marked “Made in the USA.” Made by China, in America.
With Exports Rising, US Cities Expand Their Global Footprint
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Jack Brown Produce workers sort apples on a packing line in Sparta, Mich. The state, a big exporter of agricultural goods, is among U.S. regions raising its export profile.
It’s well-known American jobs have been lost to overseas competition. While work on U.S. manufacturing floors has declined, overseas markets have developed a growing appetite for American-made goods—from chemicals and wood products, to medical devices.
Documentary: Made by China in… America?
Documentary: Made by China in America? directed by Miao Wang about Chinese firms bringing manufacturing to the U.S. It is part of Morgan Spurlock’s “We the Economy” series (www.wetheeconomy.com).
When I was a baby, my mom waited in line at 3am with her ration ticket to pick up the monthly allowance of meat. As fortunate dwellers of China’s capital city, we received a little more than two pounds. In remote provinces, it was half or a quarter of that amount.
The U.S. Medical Device Industry
The United States remains the largest medical device market in the world with a market size of around $110 billion, and it is expected to reach $133 billion by 2016. The U.S. market value represented about 38 percent of the global medical device market in 2012. U.S. exports of medical devices in key product categories identified by the Department of Commerce (DOC) exceeded $44 billion in 2012, a more than seven percent increase from the previous year. Read more
Toy Maker To Bring Lincoln Logs Production Back to U.S.
Production of Lincoln Logs coming back to U.S.A. Manufacturing will once again be made in the U.S.A. (Photo courtesy of K’NEX Brands)
A Montgomery County manufacturer of plastic injection molds and K’NEX construction toys is bringing production of one of its classic toy brands back to the United States from China.
Lincoln Logs, a classic toy brand developed nearly 100 years ago, is part of the K’NEX family of brands. Beginning next year, Pride Manufacturing in Burnham, Maine, will manufacture the Lincoln Logs product line. The Maine company is a manufacturer of engineered wood products.
Related Article: Production of Lincoln Logs in USA Creating Jobs [p][/p]
K’NEX Brands, which licenses the Lincoln Logs brand from Hasbro, has designed Lincoln Logs since 1999, but decided to build upon its reshoring initiative that it introduced in 2009, said Michael Araten, president and CEO of K’NEX and its subsidiary, The Rodon Group in Hatfield. As part of this initiative, K’NEX delivered the production of Tinkertoy products back to the U.S. in 2012, where it is mass produced by The Rodon Group.
Since The Rodon Group does not make wood products, it needed to find a manufacturer in the U.S.
“We kept at it and finally found a manufacturer in Maine who will manufacturer the Lincoln Logs,” Araten said. “It’s really about substituting our U.S. supply chain for the China supply chain.”
Now, the entire supply chain for the production of Lincoln Logs will be U.S.-based, Araten said.
K’NEX will continue to design Lincoln Logs in Hatfield.
“We’ve started production of the logs now, so we can have product on the shelf in July,” Araten said.
Next year, K’NEX will launch 10 new sets that are made in the U.S.: Horseshoe Hill Station, Country Meadow Cottage, Oak Creek Lodge, 100th Anniversary Tin, Collector’s Edition Village, Wrangler’s Ranch, Wolf’s Lodge, Mountaintop Hideout, Grand Pine Lodge and Colts Creek Command Post.
Next on the company’s agenda is to potentially bring production of toy motors back to the U.S. “That’s our next big initiative,” Araten said.
He said there are many reasons manufacturing is returning to the U.S. from China.
Chinese labor rates are rising dramatically, the U.S. is experiencing an energy boom, manual labor is being replaced by automated systems in U.S. manufacturing facilities and the flexibility and skills of the American workforce are strong, according to Araten.
Lincoln Logs to be ‘Made in USA’ Again Creating Jobs in the Process
Lincoln Logs, the popular building toy created nearly a century ago by a son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is coming home to the U.S. Read more
More Manufacturers Looking To Re-Shore Back To U.S.
Frank Krejci, president and CEO of Strattec Security Corp.
Master Lock LLC, Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co. and Whirlpool Corp. have all re-shored products back to the U.S., but more manufacturers are starting to lay the groundwork to come back home, according to a presentation by Deloitte Development LLC.
The reason — U.S. manufacturing labor costs have remained flat over the past 12 years and are substantially lower than in China, Canada and Germany; the cost of energy and plastics has dropped; and Chinese-made goods are more expensive for U.S. consumers to buy.So are suppliers to larger firms starting to think about coming back home?
Brad DeNoyer, manufacturing and distribution leader for accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, said a lot of middle market manufacturers supplying larger companies are starting to come back to the U.S.
“There’s just not necessarily a drive to go there anymore and there is talk about coming back,” DeNoyer said. “Five to 10 years ago, the work was leaving and going overseas, even the smallest of companies was going to China. Now the faucet has stopped and there is talk about whether to come back.”
But some manufacturers are just starting to have conversations with Milwaukee-based suppliers about re-shoring.
Frank Krejci, president and chief executive officer of Strattec Security Corp., also heads up a contract die-casting division called Strattec Component Solutions. Companies that used to get castings from China are now looking to bring back the work to the U.S., but this push to come back home isn’t going to happen overnight, Krejci said.
“This is not an impulse buy at a grocery store,” Krejci said. “The choice is…do you move inventory or tools? What manufacturers are more likely to do is create a separate set of tools, then ramp up in America and shut down in China. But they are still getting the parts from China.
“But next year they are coming out with a new and improved version of their product. And instead of having the new tools coming from China, now they are making it in America.”
Krejci also said more companies are auditing his firm to determine if they might need his company’s services six months or two years down the line for their next product generation.
What does that mean on the jobs front?
Jeff Sachse, regional economist for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said that he’s seeing manufacturing companies in the four-county metro region have been hiring at a stable rate. The re-shoring effort has been segmented, but companies have also been reinvesting in some production facilities and cutting costs.
“There is a lot of interest in re-shoring from China…Some of that was driven by labor costs because they dropped during the recession and a lot of companies got rid of the high-wage earners because a lot of that was driven by seniority, but there was definite cost cutting going on,” Sachse said. “So we’re seeing relatively lower wage rates in assembly here than there used to be and we are seeing more competitive costs compared to other countries like China.”
SOURCE: Milwaukee Business Journal
U.S. Manufacturing Becoming Low Cost
Picture Eugene Hoshiko, File/Associated Press
U.S. manufacturing becoming low cost over the past decade compared with factories in China, Brazil and most of the world’s other major economies.
So says a new private study, which found that rising wages and higher energy costs have diminished China’s long-standing edge over the United States. So has a boom in U.S. shale gas production. It’s reduced U.S. natural gas prices and slowed the cost of electricity.
The Boston Consulting Group is issuing a report on its study of manufacturing costs in the 25 biggest exporting countries. Only seven of those countries had lower manufacturing costs than the United States did this year. And since 2004, U.S. manufacturers have improved their competitiveness compared with every major exporter except India, Mexico and the Netherlands.In 2004, for example, manufacturing in China cost 14 percent less than manufacturing in the United States. By this year, the China advantage had narrowed to 5 percent. If the trends continue, Boston Consulting found, U.S. manufacturing will be less expensive than China’s by 2018.
Over the past decade, labor costs, adjusted to reflect productivity gains, shot up 187 percent at factories in China, compared with 27 percent in the United States. The value of China’s currency has risen more than 30 percent against the U.S. dollar over the past decade.
The higher Chinese currency made goods produced in China and sold abroad comparatively more expensive. And foreign goods became comparatively more affordable in China.
Chinese electricity costs rose 66 percent, more than double the United States’ 30 percent increase. The start of large-scale U.S. shale gas production in 2005 has helped contain electricity bills in the United States and neighboring Canada and Mexico.
China, too, has reserves for shale gas. But it will need years to develop them.
“This is not something you can turn on overnight,” said Justin Rose, a partner at Boston Consulting and co-author of the study.
Brazil has lost even more ground than China. In 2004, manufacturing was 3 percent cheaper in Brazil than in the United States. By 2014, Brazil was 23 percent more expensive. Brazilian factories didn’t improve efficiency enough to offset rising energy and labor costs.
The countries where manufacturing was cheaper than in the United States are Indonesia, India, Mexico, Thailand, China, Taiwan and Russia.
Australia was the most expensive country for manufacturing. Its costs were 30 percent higher than those in the United States.
The survey doesn’t include transportation costs, which vary depending on where goods are shipped. Several countries also face obstacles not captured by Boston Consulting’s manufacturing cost index — from corruption to inefficient government bureaucracies.
SOURCE: Washington Post
