Posts Tagged ‘Outsourcing’

Irony in Ireland: Global trade and volcanic ash

April 19th, 2010
By: Tim Heston

‭This week has dripped with irony.

On Wednesday I traveled to a press event at Combilift,‭ ‬a forklift and material handling equipment manufacturer several hours northwest of Dublin,‭ ‬in the rolling green hills of County Monaghan.‭ ‬The company exports most of its vehicles and keeps much‭ ‬of its supply base local,‭ ‬a practice that has won the company numerous awards from Irish commerce organizations.‭ ‬The forklift-maker has achieved something local business groups anywhere would applaud. It manufactures locally,‭ ‬sells globally.

Then,‭ ‬well,‭ ‬there‭’‬s this volcano,‭ ‬which has brought a portion of global business to its knees.‭
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Offshoring not what it once was

March 18th, 2010
By: Dan Davis

We live in extraordinary times. You can tell because people are creating their own words, and society adopts them without questions. It's fantabulous.

Metal fabricators should embrace this new word with open arms: Re-shoring. Manufacturing jobs that once went overseas because of low-cost labor are apparently coming back in a large way. In fact, the folks at the National Tool & Machining Association (NTMA) and the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) are so excited about it that they have made it the theme for their May 12 contract manufacturing trade event: "Re-shoring: Bringing Work Back to the U.S.A." (more...)

A welcome farewell to the aughts

January 4th, 2010
By: Tim Heston

A year ago Troy Berg wasn't in a good place.

"I knew in January that 2009 was gone. Never in the history of my business have I had to kiss off a year in January & Now that we're through 2009, the hard cuts have been made, we've made a little bit of money, and those of us who are still standing are looking at 2010 to be a better year."

A few days ago Berg told this to a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal. Berg is president of Dane Manufacturing, a precision sheet metal shop in Dane, Wis., north of Madison. His comment pretty much sums up where metal fabricators stand today: battered and bruised, cautiously optimistic (an overused phrase these days), and ready to take on a better year. Some are expecting strong growth this year, some foresee it taking several years before sales volume gets back to 2007 and 2008 levels, but most agree we've started the recovery.
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Where is St. Jude when we need him?

December 23rd, 2009
By: Eric Lundin

On Dec. 12, I received a press release with an earth-shaking announcement: Dr. Orly Taitz Esq. was scheduled to fly to New York the following week to film a documentary for NBC news, highlighting "her legal efforts to bring to light the vital records of mr Barack Hussein Obama and the issue of his legitimacy to presidency due to lack of Natural Born Status." The poor punctuation, wacky capitalization, and ridiculous timing told me that this e-mail was best deleted and forgotten.

As December wore on, a few other nutty events cropped up, and I noticed a trend.
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All I want for Christmas is …

December 9th, 2009
By: Vicki Bell

Jobs—especially good paying jobs that can't be exported.

Well, that's almost all. I also want world peace and an end to hunger and homelessness. Then there's the climate. Oh, all right, I guess I want more than jobs, but it's beginning to look as though jobs—which certainly factor in ending hunger and homelessness—might be right up there with my other seemingly elusive goals.

Yes, the latest employment numbers are better than previous months', but let's see what happens after the holidays when seasonal help loses their jobs.

Earlier this week, I ran across an item on morganton.com, a Web site of The News Herald that serves Burke County, N.C. Vance Patterson of Blythewood, S.C.-based Patterson Fans wrote about why the U.S. needs good jobs that can't be exported.

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Reworking a codependent relationship

October 27th, 2009
By: Tim Heston

Did you hear? The automotive biz is rockin' and rollin'. General Motors—that's right, the same GM that trudged to bankruptcy court earlier this year—reported 2009 growth of 40 percent. Heck, the industry overall reported 90 percent growth in August. Simply amazing!

Oh, I forgot to mention: You have to move to China to join the party.

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From buying Cristal to being cheap

October 5th, 2009
By: Tim Heston

It's 2005. A group of investment bankers visit a dimly lit New York club. One banker in his 20s makes more than a million a year packaging mortgages and sending them on to the big Wall Street firms. Two waiters arrive carrying four champagne bottles each with tiny sparklers. Everyone turns to look. Those bankers just ordered four bottles of Cristal at $1,000 a pop.

It's 2009. Tom Tseng, general manager of Chinese bicycle-maker Tandem Industries, tells a newspaper reporter that "China's ability to consume has reached a fairly high level & [while] in the U.S. people now only want to buy cheap things."

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Proximity makes a difference

September 21st, 2009
By: Tim Heston

On a flight to a manufacturing event last week, I read an article in BusinessWeek that got me pretty down. The headline on the magazine cover screamed, "America's Manufacturing Crisis." The topic: Why stuff's invented stateside and sent abroad for manufacturing.

"While the Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, and Chinese plowed billions into megaplants to churn out commodity products, America steamed ahead in more lucrative pursuits, such as software, life sciences, and financial services," the article stated. "As for companies such as Dell and Apple, they could still reap high profits by focusing on marketing and design while letting offshore contractors handle the grunge work."

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GM & Chrysler – Will you buy their cars?

August 26th, 2009
By: Vicki Bell

The August issue of "Stamping News Brief" (SNB) featured comments from an SNB reader responding to an item in the previous month's issue about employment in the metal stamping sector. This reader said, "I am soon to be unemployed, and there are really not many prospects around here for employment as an engineer. I currently am traveling 55 miles one way to work for 25 percent less than a year ago. As more and more people here in the U.S. have to accept lower paying jobs, I really do not know where the off-shoring companies expect to find their markets. China sure is not much of a market.

"[The company I work for] is a former automotive supplier with a <10PPM, but yet all of the former Big 3 are off-shoring the parts we made. With our bailout money, they are transferring our equipment. I used to be a staunch buy-American, but I believe [domestic automakers] have lost about 150 potential automobile buyers here. I sure hope they find their market in Costa Rica."

The August SNB then described how some talk show hosts and others in the U.S. have been calling for a boycott of GM and Chrysler and asked subscribers about their car buying plans.

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Too lean to cut

March 9th, 2009
By: Tim Heston

From what shop owners tell me, the metal fabrication sector has had quite a ride during the past few months. It's hard to believe that in October at the FABTECH® International & AWS Welding Show, shop managers told me stories of strong business that, though not as good as in 2007, still had enough orders to keep machines humming on the floor. They told me largely the same story in November too.

Then December happened.

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