Reshoring U.S. Manufacturing: Why and How to Do It

While force majeure supply chain interruptions have always been a problem, the coronavirus outbreak has emphasized the risks associated with complex international supply chains. China has overtly threatened to disrupt supply chains intentionally by withholding rare earth and pharmaceutical exports. China has similarly threatened the Netherlands, which makes China an unreliable trading partner.

Concession of manufacturing superiority to other nations has meanwhile always been a leading indicator of national decline, as shown by the fates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, and more recently the Axis during the Second World War. This is now reflected by low wage jobs in the United States along with mediocre economic growth. 

The good news is however that American industrialists developed methods and principles with which to meet the challenge of cheap offshore labor more than 100 years ago. Henry Ford proved unequivocally that these methods deliver high profits, high wages, and low prices, and nothing has happened to change their validity today.

Why Should You Attend

• Manufacturing is the foundation of national prosperity and also military power. A decline in manufacturing capability is a universal leading indicator of a decline in national well-being and influence.
• The coronavirus outbreak has underscored the enormous risks associated with complex international supply chains.
• American industrialists answered the challenge of cheap offshore labor more than 100 years ago.
• Opportunity costs, as defined by Henry Ford, are invisible to the cost accounting system because money we don't make (as opposed to money we lose) cannot be written off as an expense.
• Reshoring American manufacturing is a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goal as proven by the fact that we already achieved manufacturing supremacy twice in less than 100 years.

Areas Covered in the Session 

•  Advocate effectively for the reshoring of U.S. manufacturing capability
•  Recognize and explain why low wages are counterintuitively symptomatic of low profits and high prices because they give enormous wastes and inefficiencies a place to hide
• Recognize that wages, profits, and prices are not zero sum; that is, the price does not equal wages plus profits. The price paid by the customer equals wages, profits, and waste, and the cost of the latter can easily exceed costs that are recognized by the cost accounting system. Henry Ford's recognition of this fact was among his success secrets.
• Understand and apply the principle of opportunity costs, i.e. money we don't make because of what we don't do, to make one high-wage American worker more productive than numerous low-wage offshore counterparts. Also recognize that extremely simple and inexpensive changes can boost productivity up to 100-fold.
• Japanese workers increased output of protective gowns 100-fold with items purchased primarily from a 100-yen (1 U.S. dollar) store.
• Agricultural workers in Third World countries have used extremely cheap equipment (e.g. made from discarded plastic bottles) to increase productivity substantially.
• The takeaway is that the U.S. worker can easily be made more productive and paid higher wages, and with higher profits for the manufacturer and lower prices for the customer.

Who Will Benefit 

•  All people with responsibility for strategic decision-making including supply chain