|
Bottom line costs and EPA drives business out of the USA. EPA I can stomach or understand but then cost comes in when you have to retool a factory to use EPA approved manufacturing. My current client just recently shifted 100% of it's recreational hydro therapy products to be made in Mexico. Directly because of labor cost. They could not compete with others in their business segment who had done that and were getting killed on cost. Now mind you the US based work force was not highly trained nor highly paid but the switch to foreign based labor yielded a net 32% reduction in cost and that's with sourcing all raw material still here in the US and shipping it down to TJ. Once they straighten that out it will be another @10% reduction. As far as China goes, I've had a couple of clients in the past who did their manufacturing in China in non-sterile environments, yes it's cheaper and the QC might lack some but the enviromental issues that go with producing those products are mind boggling. I personally saw in the Shanghai/Tangshan area contract manufacturers, porcelin sanitary ware products(read toilets and urinals) pumping high non VOC compliant liquids out to a common sewer. Those practices will bite them in the future once current civil liberties and such catch up and people can actually make claims against companies and the government for allowing it. Labor unions have been instrumental in driving cost up but also sate policies as well. Look at Boeing's current labor disputes over moving plants to SC. Management does not want it because SC is a right to work state and the labor union would have a field day raising the average hourly rate for factory workers in and around those locations affecting all companies. Sometimes union ideology has far outlived it's intended purpose of the late 19th and early 20th century organizations. Not an easy solution or decision to make if you are repsonsible for making an organization proifitable.
|