Conventional wisdom holds that high wages, high capital costs, and worker inflexibility have cost America its ability to compete in the world manufacturing marketplace. This book demonstrates that U.S.-based manufacturing can compete in terms of quality, product features, and timely delivery—the real measures of competitiveness in the 1990s.
The committee identifies attributes that attract manufacturers to given locations and assesses the attractiveness of the United States as a location for different kinds of manufacturing. The volume dispels myths that have guided management decision making in the past and offers recommendations to promote the United States as a manufacturing site.
The volume discusses new approaches to understanding and controlling costs. With case studies from three important industries—consumer electronics, semiconductors, and automobiles—the book explores factors in site location decisions, highlighting advantages the United States can offer as a manufacturing site over low-cost rivals.
- DISPELLING THE MANUFACTURING MYTH
- Copyright
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Contents
- Executive Summary
- 1 Introduction
- THE STRATEGIC BUSINESS DECISIONS MODEL
- REPORT STRUCTURE
- NOTE
- 2 Consumer Electronics
- THE AT&T EXPERIENCE
- Background
- AT&T Product Cost Analysis
- Labor Analysis
- Load Analysis
- Materials Analysis
- Analysis of Functional Drivers Impacting OEM Costs
- Transportation and Duties
- Quality Management
- Make to Order
- Unquantified Risks
- Summary Observations: AT&T Cost Analysis
- THE TOSHIBA EXPERIENCE
- Background
- Cost of Materials
- Labor Costs
- Capital Budgeting
- Summary Observations: Toshiba Color Picture Tube Manufacturing
- CONCLUSIONS
- NOTES
- 3 Semiconductors
- BACKGROUND
- IMPORTANCE OF PROCESS CONTROL
- LOCATION DECISIONS
- CONCLUSIONS
- NOTES
- 4 Automobiles
- BACKGROUND
- INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS OF PRODUCTION CAPACITY
- MANUFACTURING COSTS
- EFFECT OF FUEL ECONOMY REGULATION
- SUMMARY
- NOTES
- 5 Conclusion
- WHAT ATTRACTS MANUFACTURERS?
- Access to Low Costs
- Access to Skills, Technology, and Capabilities
- Access to Markets
- Risk Factors
- ABANDONING MYTHS
- Myth 1: Automate, Emigrate, or Evaporate
- Myth 2: Manufacturing Offshore Cuts Costs
- Myth 3: Sourcing from Foreign OEM Suppliers Is Preferable to Building Internal Capacity
- Myth 4: Moving Offshore Is a Quick, Expedient, Reversible Solutionto Transient Competitive Pressures
- Myth 5: The Role of Offshore Plants Is Fashioned by Communication Barriers
- AFTER MYTHS: RETHINKING COSTS, COMPETITIVENESS, AND ATTRACTIVENESS
- TOWARD A DESIRED STATE
- RECOMMENDATIONS
- NOTES
- Bibliography
- Index
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