Born in the USA

  

  The new iMAC desktop computers are being assembled in the USA. There are many reasons why these units are now being made locally instead of in China like they have been in the past.
      Some believe that this is just a publicity stunt to make the world's second most valuable company look good in the eyes of the world. Previously Apple contracted with Foxconn Technology in china where the working conditions were so bad that the company put up suicide nets to prevent deaths.
      This may be true, however, wages for Chinese workers in the private sector have risen almost 20 percent in the last year. This is closing the labor gap between American and Chinese workers.
       It is difficult to monitor quality control in China and China has suddenly experienced a lack of experienced labor. The people who work for Foxconn experience a dramatic decrease in their standard of living once they move to the city. Most elect to stay in rural areas.
      The Chinese government has also defied the US government on all foreign policy objectives. This includes environmental impacts, poor working conditions and the manipulation of it's currency.
       It remains to be seen if other American and Multinational companies follow Apple's lead. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact the loss of manufacturing jobs will have on the Chinese economy and will China make concessions to try and reverse the trend?

Made In America 2.0

     The U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative has published a report about manufacturing in America. It states that manufacturing must be part of America's economic plan for our country to remain competitive.
    Over the last quarter century entire industries have been shipped overseas. These jobs go away and they do not come back.
     When most people think of manufacturing they think of outdated factories and dirty and noisy apparatus floors. Modern manufacturing employs the latest technologies and flourishes in new high tech facilities. A lot of manufacturing is done in high tech industries such as computers and aircraft.
     There are exceptions. Weather Tech is one of them. Weather Tech manufactures automobile floor mats.
       www.weathertech.com/
      This is certainly a low tech product that has undergone a high tech makeover.
      Weather Tech used computer controlled manufacturing devices. They use lasers to measure each vehicle and their products fit perfectly for the vehicle that they are designed for.
      All stages of design, engineering and manufacture is performed in the United States. The raw materials used are also made in America.
      It's about time that the Made in America label is applied proudly to more products and that people proudly purchase them.

The Last Round- Up

    
    Last month marked the demise of Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies, Devil Dogs and a plethora of other popular brands from the 1950's including Wonder Bread. On November 21 Hostess Brands got final approval to close it's 33 bakeries and put 15 thousand people out of work.

     The company has had tough sledding over the last ten years. Ownership has blamed the union for the demise because they would not agree to any more concessions and the union naturally blamed management with top mangers continuing to get obscene bonuses while the business floundered.

     What hasn't been discussed however was the lack of innovation shown by this company. The snack segment of the food market was the fastest growing segment over the last decade. It has been growing at a pace greater than ten percent a year. Hostess made absolutely no effort to develop new products to cater to the shift in America towards healthier snacks. They could not even change their marketing campaigns.

     Hostess continued to sell it's products to the same people who ate them in the 1960's. This aging population no longer had the stomach for most of the foods produced by Hostess.

     Instead of changing it's products to attract a new customer base they continued as if the 1960's never ended. If they could have grown 10 percent per year which is the amount the total snack food segment has grown they would have had the revenue to meet their expenses and pay down their debt.

     Innovation is important for all businesses if they are to compete in today's global marketplace. It does not matter what your market share used to be. What matters more is what your market share will be next year.

    Instead of investing in new technologies and updated marketing techniques, Hostess management looked at shareholders profits above all else and led the company into the last round up.