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Due to wage/cost inflation in China and the coming rise of the Yuan (along with the weakness of the dollar), the US is about to become the cheapest place for hi

Due to wage/cost inflation in China and the coming rise of the Yuan (along with the weakness of the dollar), the US is about to become the cheapest place for high end manufacturing in the world.

rdl 15y ago
Plus IP and counterfeit/security issues, communications issues, and such. Provided I didn't need to be colocated with Chinese parts suppliers, and that my production process wasn't dirty enough to have major environmental issues in the US, the US seems like a top choice.
larsberg 15y ago
Modulo regulatory approval, of course. Most of my family works in various manufacturing industries (high end foundry, steel mills, etc.) and you're looking at years to get even the most basic permits through unless you are in one of the states that allow you to "purchase" fast-track approval. Companies end up buying the old, dead husks of manufacturing plants that went out of business not because they want any of the machines or people but because their permits are often still valid and in some cases transferable to your other locations. Even if you wanted to expand to meet increasing demand, the opportunity will be gone before you can get approval to build out for it (even in relatively business-friendly states like IN). And the company-purchase strategy has to be taken carefully, both because business capital is hard to come by today and because manufacturing operates with margins so small that there's no room for error. Further, you have the risk of OSHA shutting you down or penalizing you to unprofitability. As I understand it, safety regulations are much like traffic laws -- if a police officer wants to pull you over while you're driving, they can almost definitely find something to charge you with, even if it's just their interpretation -- and the same is true of your OSHA inspector. Wages/productivity play a large portion of being a good place to do high end manufacturing, but are still a relatively small part of your ability to profitably grow and run a manufacturing business.
- eru 15y ago
  Yes. Basically the US can only afford to have so many stupid rules, because they are so productive.
bane 15y ago
The good news is that the U.S. is decades ahead of most countries in terms of automated manufacture. Probably only Japan and South Korea (maybe Germany too) can comfortably compare. The videos linked to in this same topic show a completely automated surface mount process to build the motherboard of a computer. Something that's still not regularly used in most countries because it's hard and expensive. Easier to just have low paid workers solder the stuff on by hand.

Due to wage/cost inflation in China and the coming rise of the Yuan (along with the weakness of the dollar), the US is about to become the cheapest place for high end manufacturing in the world.

rdl 15y ago

Plus IP and counterfeit/security issues, communications issues, and such. Provided I didn't need to be colocated with Chinese parts suppliers, and that my production process wasn't dirty enough to have major environmental issues in the US, the US seems like a top choice.

larsberg 15y ago

Modulo regulatory approval, of course. Most of my family works in various manufacturing industries (high end foundry, steel mills, etc.) and you're looking at years to get even the most basic permits through unless you are in one of the states that allow you to "purchase" fast-track approval. Companies end up buying the old, dead husks of manufacturing plants that went out of business not because they want any of the machines or people but because their permits are often still valid and in some cases transferable to your other locations. Even if you wanted to expand to meet increasing demand, the opportunity will be gone before you can get approval to build out for it (even in relatively business-friendly states like IN). And the company-purchase strategy has to be taken carefully, both because business capital is hard to come by today and because manufacturing operates with margins so small that there's no room for error. Further, you have the risk of OSHA shutting you down or penalizing you to unprofitability. As I understand it, safety regulations are much like traffic laws -- if a police officer wants to pull you over while you're driving, they can almost definitely find something to charge you with, even if it's just their interpretation -- and the same is true of your OSHA inspector. Wages/productivity play a large portion of being a good place to do high end manufacturing, but are still a relatively small part of your ability to profitably grow and run a manufacturing business.

eru 15y ago
Yes. Basically the US can only afford to have so many stupid rules, because they are so productive.

bane 15y ago

The good news is that the U.S. is decades ahead of most countries in terms of automated manufacture. Probably only Japan and South Korea (maybe Germany too) can comfortably compare. The videos linked to in this same topic show a completely automated surface mount process to build the motherboard of a computer. Something that's still not regularly used in most countries because it's hard and expensive. Easier to just have low paid workers solder the stuff on by hand.