Must read: The Manufacturing Coalition

Thanks a lot for the info. This is what I have been waiting for. Thanks again Patrick

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As someone who has worked for a contract manufacturer in China, I can tell you that regaining manufacturing jobs in the US will be a difficult task. Difficult, but not impossible. Many companies are discovering that manufacturing has only ONE advantage in China, cost. Each year, hundreds of thousands of engineering grads in China take entry-level jobs. The actual machine operators and other factory workers are paid even less. So, naturally, a product can be built for less...at least initially. There are many, many disadvantages, however. Here are just a few: LOGISTICS. It's a royal pain doing shipping/receiving/customs paperwork. The Chinese government and Customs in particular, routinely delay shipments for no apparent reason. Bribery of government officials is EXPECTED! CULTURE: Make no doubt about it, there are significant cultural differences. Management is circa 1600. It's an antiquated, emperor-like hierarchy that no Westerner can understand. QUALITY/PROCESS CONTROL: It's not just the time difference (which is significant) Making real-time manufacturing changes is tricky. Getting Chinese management to admit to a "mistake" is almost impossible. Couple these things with the real health concerns that companies have when sending people to China. SARS, rampant TB, and other diseases place employees at great risk. Most SEZ's are in remote areas far from medical help.

Clearly, China is not competing fairly in the world markets. The government has resisted multi-lateral requests for currency stabilization. Tax breaks offered to foreign firms disappear after 5 years. When all the beans are counted, the actual manufacturing costs are almost identical to Mexico! Will manufacturing ever return to late 1990's levels? Absolutely not. But, expect to see a good amount return as EMS/CM's and OEM's realize China is not the panacea everyone thought it would be.

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Aw... you've gone and woken me from my slumbers again. But I'll take the bait anyway. Seems to me that it is the big brand name American and European corporations that are "destroying the American manufacturing industry"... oh yes, them and all the consumers that want new toys cheaper and smaller. When I tried to replace my crappy European branded US made telephone a couple of years ago I couldn't find a single phone that was made in the US, but then I also couldn't find a Chinese branded Chinese made phone either. If anything the big US Electronics corporations are exploiting the Chinese to keep their shareholders happy - this is always the way, look in your history books... and quit whining. I'm just about stupid enough to keep my real name on this.

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Hi,

We are all getting the similar thought. I heard other story like the oversea gorverment (China, Brazil, Vietnam...) are taxing $$$$$ for incoming finish products up to the sky per Items. From Automotives to Electronics and others. That forcing many other Manufacturing open up their Manufacturing in that country to do assembly and that is how they create jobs for their citizens. So, My thought was Why Doesn't the US Gorverment doing the same way to bring back the bussiness into the US (tax the hell out of them) and that one of the way to help reduces the unemployment line. Sorry and forgive me if what I said or wrote that you are disagree or taking serious meaning other ways.

Hope Its will getting better every day for everyone of us.

Vinny.

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