News | Powell-Mucha Consulting, Inc. Blog
A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) indicates that manufacturing job loss is not due to automation, but instead due to the activities of countries who incentivize transfer of manufacturing jobs through their policies. Those of us who work in manufacturing already know this. Yes, automation is a factor, but not everything can be automated cost effectively.
The good news is that folks who grew up in the service sector now have a little “data” to influence their opinions about the relevance of domestic manufacturing jobs. I’m not a proponent of protectionism. However, I do believe that countries with strong manufacturing sectors prosper. I also believe that manufacturing regionally (vs. perpetually chasing the lowest cost manufacturing market) is more cost effective for many products. Back when I was teaching leadership and marketing classes at a couple of local universities, I frequently brought up the example of Henry Ford because his choices apply to both curriculums. He was criticized by his peers for the above market wages he paid his employees. He pointed out that his production lines could build more cars than the rich could buy and that he needed a middle class capable of buying cars. We need transformative manufacturing jobs to sustain a middle class. By transformative, I mean jobs with a path to higher compensation as an employee’s skills increase. The service sector doesn’t have enough of those. A manufacturing resurgence floats all boats by increasing consumption, lowering governmental “welfare” costs associated with underemployment and creating a growth driver for the middle class that isn’t paid for by our taxes. To me, the middle class is the conscience of the country and also its biggest engine of consumption. When trade is balanced that is good thing globally and well as domestically.
As I’ve written before, a U.S. manufacturing resurgence is also good for EMS companies. Reports such as this signal changing attitudes. It is the right time to invest in marketing strategy. PMCI can help. Learn more here.
Circuits Assembly has just redone its website. The new look is great, but they haven’t finished re-indexing all their articles and apparently it will take some time. If you click on one my article links and get a bad page, just contact me and I’ll get you a copy of the article. Once they’ve fixed their site, I’ll re-index my links but their process may take several months. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Years ago when I was giving a seminar on EMS Competitive Advantage at SMTAI, a person working at an OEM had also signed up. When I asked why he was registering for what was essentially a marketing class for EMS companies, he told me he wanted to hear what I was telling EMS companies about marketing. He’d been disappointed by companies who couldn’t walk their talk and basically wanted to see if I was telling companies to overstate their capabilities. The short answer was that I wasn’t. The EMS industry is selling a service-based relationship. Marketing efforts that focus on undeliverable promises do more harm than good. My February article in Circuits Assembly looks at the challenge of providing points of differentiation that track to deliverable customer benefits.