Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
Actually ... China's costs have gone up significantly in recent years and more and more companies are looking to other nations for cheap labour. Some say that Mexico and China are nearly equal on build cost now, but transportation speed and cost from Mexico to North or South America is significantly less than from China.
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You're absolutely right DG. Even more, despite what some folks are claiming the notion that moving production anywhere else lessens costs is based on faulty logic to be kind. Many, many items are better served when manufactured right here.
Example? Graded fasteners come to mind immediately. Nucor fastener went into business in 1986 and they are hands down the overall leader in the manufacture of graded, threaded fasteners.....and keep in mind this is an industry that at one point was literally almost dead domestically. Nucor is very cost competitive and manages that while providing phenomenal compensation and providing a product no competitor can touch in terms of quality. Oh yeah, they are also extremely profitable.
How?
1: State of the art manufacturing. American manufacturing shines when we press our advantages, and this is one of them. Nucor uses bespoke, state of the art machinery (American designed and made machinery by the way) that absolutely antiquates the machinery of any rival company.
2: A well compensated work force. You still get what you pay for, and when you are willing to pay for it in a way which makes sense American productivity is still the best in the world IMO. Much of a Nucor employees pay is based upon meeting quality and productivity goals, which they virtually always do. No union needed here, just the common sense that says I'll give you a more than fair days wage for an especially honest days labor....who would have thunk it.
The effect this has had is surprising only in the measure of it's effect. These guys don't just love their job and put in a real days work everyday, they treat this place like they would treat their own mother. This place is so clean it would put your kitchen to shame. Even more mind blowing? I worked with these guys when they decided they simply didn't need such a large, dedicated quality control department anymore. That's right, almost all quality control is done by the folks who make the product because they are so good at it redundancy is pointless.
3: They manufacture something that logic dictates is better served if made here. If quality and attention to detail actually matter then U.S. manufacturing is difficult to beat.
Nucor is the best example of how you get it done in America and hammer the rest of the world in the process.