U.S. Factory Shipped To China

[David]

Eight months after a factory that makes television screens shut down, an invasion of sorts has landed in Pennsylvania.

Scavenger crews are now dismantling the plant for a Chinese company that's bought the equipment and plans to put it to work on its own soil, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta.

"Our competition is overseas and people in the United States are losing out," said former factory worker Ron Welch.

Welch and 1,100 other workers once made TV screens here. Now they see trucks clearing an economic battlefield that America lost.

"It's hard to watch our jobs going down the road in tractor trailers," said Scott Conway, another laid-off worker.

Once this project is finished and the equipment is reassembled in its new plant in China, the workers won't be making $18 an hour. Over there, the average wage is closer to $2 a day.

The factory's owner, Corning, claims it no longer made sense to build the screens in Pennsylvania, as most TVs are now assembled in Asia. That's where the company is opening its own new factories.

"So you have to decide whether you're going to continue to bleed cash and try to maintain your position, or exit the business and invest your resources into something new," said Corning spokesman Paul Rogoski.

Innovation, free-trade advocates maintain, stimulates the economy and will eventually create jobs here at home.

But critics say laid-off workers can't wait that long.

"If we don't address this situation and take a very cavalier approach to outsourcing, to allowing imports into this country unfairly, we will not have a manufacturing base left in this country," said Larry Lasoff, an international trade attorney.

As for Corning's laid-off workers, some have found jobs taking apart their old plant.
Ron Welch would rather drive a school bus at $20 dollars a day.

"Hold onto your hats,? Welch said. ?Because eventually, if we don't stop this, you're going to be out of a job."

[David]

Decent words can not express how I feel about this. I watched this happen to the auto industry, the steel industry, and most recently my industry as well. Although many claim the IT industry was felled by short sightedness it is simply being sold to the highest overseas bidder for fast profit. This is a sad state of affairs

[Seascamp]

About the time when Detroit?s big three were on the ropes, the rust belt was just starting to rust, the US 2nd industrial revolution began in earnest. The reality of a global market and economy hit like a pallet of bricks and we were in big trouble on most fronts.
One of the curious things at the time was that the name ?Demming? was synonymous with ?eccentric crackpot? in the USA but was nearly deified in Japan. These days the most prestigious Japanese industrial award is called the ?Demming Award?. Japan?s going from being the producer of cheep toy clicker frogs to a modern major industrial power in less than a generation in nothing less than remarkable and Demming with his supposed ?crack pot? ideas loom large in that transformation. Demming was one of those remarkable people we seem to have ignored here, but are pivotal in bootstrapping industry to higher levels elsewhere. Oh, Demimng works aren?t ignored in the US anymore, not by a long shot. Actually, the only place where Demming?s works are rare to unknown is within many of our Universities, but certainly not in the area of industrial education and training.

So sure, the US has been playing catch up ball a lot, has missed and is missing opportunities and the sad saga of Corning is evidence that we are still not up to speed. It may be a surprise to some, but Singapore has a higher per capita income and standard of living than the USA and yet they are fierce global competitors in terms of commodity goods engineering, marketing and manufacturing. And it?s an absolute certainty that they are being emulated through out SEA, except for contemporary Vietnam that is, but that?s a different story.

All I can speculate is that Corning ignored the rules and trends and got them selves caught up short. As an example; Fuji Film has been doing their homework and is now a leader in digital camera technology and accessories along with their traditional photographic film products. Did we miss the heads-up call on that? Ya we did, big time.

A remarkable story but true: The original quartz crystal time peace was presented as a novelty deal at a trade show- just something fun to look at, etc. and no patents were filed or anything, etc. Along came a group of Japanese business men touring the show, knew what they were looking at and booooom, guess who now makes the some of best quartz crystal watches on the market/ dominates the market and guess who went out of business for lack of competitive products.

Another aspect is that Government and industry need to be partners in keeping our industries moving along and looking ahead. However, we seem to prefer an adversary relationship and that hurts us all, costs jobs, but that is where we have been for half a century and counting. The continued exiting of industry and jobs from Cal. to other places is the poster child for failed Government ?industry relationships and that can?t be ignored as an aberration unique to Cal. if we have any sense about ourselves.

So I?d say that US industrial failures have many causes, not the least of which is self inflicted lack of foresight and poor planning, plus the reality that some of our body politic think that the goose that laid the golden eggs in the past is still capable of that level of performance or is in robust health.

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

Or, is it also possible that in the endless insufferable clamor to inflate "return to stockholders", some industries chose to do that instead of re-invest in themselves and upgrading/shifting gears?

Just a question...

[Stick]

Scamp. In the late '80's I was sent to school by the car company that I worked for at the time. The man who was teaching the class was none other than C. Walters Demming, and industrial engineer who had been fired by that same company decades before and went to Japan to help them with his processes, to recover from WW2. His process was novel in the respect that it gave the responsibility and ownership of a job to the person that was doing that job. The person doing a job was his own boss and another boss was only redundant and a cost item. Demming's idea was to get rid of the Supervisor and hire an enabaler to make sure that producers had whatever they needed to get the job done. Inspectors were another cost item if the person doing the job was responsible for selling his quality product the the next person down the line. It takes one cycle to produce a scrap part and another cycle to replace that scrap part. The cost doubles and industry can not afford to pay for such waste.
We took a department that had lost $38 million in one year and instituted Demmings process. Two years later that same department generated $238 million in product, $50 million of that $238 mill. was profit to the department. We did not loose any hourly employees but did loose several Salaried employees. QC people were assigned to training others throughout the plant in the process. The process name is TPM (total productive maintenance, total productive management) and known in Japan as TPS (Toyota Production System).
After the two years of doing the TPM process we reduced our price that the assembly line paid for our block but the decision to do that was made by the TPM team.

[Seascamp]

Your company was one of the first to get out of denial, get moving and become an industry leader that was at the cutting edge in the US. Demming always promoted the concept that quality is for free and attack the problem, not the people. Along with concepts there were tools like SPC (Statistical Process Control) and logistics management tools like MRP (Manufacturing Requirements Planning) that all grew and came together to allow the forward thinking companies to get off the ropes and get to acting rather than reacting. The proof is always in the final product and the company you were at now manufactures a world class automobile and this allows that company to focus on real issues rather than self-inflected wounds.

In the last times of my Navy experience I was being recruited by the defense industry. I interviewed at a place that made the Polaris missile and got a tour of the facility. One thing stuck in my mind at the time was that the rework area was as large as the main assembly area and the place was just working alive with inspectors. I didn?t know what I was looking at the time but the thought did come to mind that reworking every missile didn?t seem exactly right, scary actually. But that was the norm at the time but later concepts like build the quality in, don?t inspect it in came around. I didn?t go to work there as I?d had quite enough of military equipment so went on to the energy industry.

Actually my enlightenment and when the light first turned on was while working a project in the former Soviet Union. There, Fiat had put in a truck plant near where I was working and that was an amazing thing to see. Literally acres upon acres of partially finished trucks and truck parts were all around the place. Those trucks that had made to the paint process were all green, imagine that. But that that was my living proof that things can really get screwed up and soon enough ya end up serving the monster rather than the enterprise. And in the case of the Soviet Union, they were killing the anointed monsters rather than the real ones.

So yes, we have come a long way, but the journey is still long and some won?t even bother to begin the journey and the results become front page items and create nothing but victims.

As an aside, it might be a surprise to some to learn that US industry in conjunction with some Labor Unions have combined training and education expenses/ budgets that eclipse higher education expenses in the US. Now I?d say that is putting the emphasis on the right syllable for once. As well, the industrial training and education sector is a major growth industry, attracting our best and brightest as instructors, and helping the people to get those skills that keep them moving along with the dramatic pace of things. That is real good news, a good thing and a huge part of the winning plan.

Scamp

[Gimpy]

but I DO have a couple of other folks views to "share".

See below.
####

March 17, 2004
Powell Reassures India on Technology Jobs
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN



NEW DELHI, March 16 ? Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, encountering the other side of a tempestuous debate in the United States, sought to assure Indians on Tuesday that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country.

In discussions with Indian leaders and college students, Mr. Powell found that the issue of the transfer of American jobs to India by leading technology companies was as emotional in India as in the United States.

But whereas American politicians have deplored the loss of such jobs, it was clear that the anxiety in India focuses on threats by some members of Congress to try to stop the transfer by legislation.

Responding to a questioner in a session with students who asked if he supported or opposed outsourcing, Mr. Powell said: "Outsourcing is a natural effect of the global economic system and the rise of the Internet and broadband communications. You're not going to eliminate outsourcing; but, at the same time, when you outsource jobs it becomes a political issue in anybody's country."

Mr. Powell told the students what he had said to reporters earlier in the day after a meeting with Foreign Minister Yaswant Sinha: an appropriate American response to outsourcing was to press India to open up to imports of American investments, goods and services.

He said one purpose of his trip was to explain to India that because outsourcing had created a political problem in the United States, India could help by lowering its trade barriers. He said he was making that request, not as a condition for the United States allowing outsourcing to continue, but because it was in India's interest to be more open.

In February, Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stirred a political outcry when he called the outsourcing of jobs a long-term "plus" for the economy. While Mr. Powell said Tuesday that "it is the reality of 21st century economics that these kinds of dislocations will take place," he was quick to add that the Bush administration would work to train people for new jobs.

In Washington, the White House endorsed Mr. Powell's comments.

"The secretary made clear in his remarks that we are concerned when Americans lose jobs, and we are focused on creating jobs for American workers, and the best way to do that is to open markets around the world, including in India," said Claire Buchan, a spokeswoman for the White House.

But David Wade, a spokesman for Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Mr. Powell's comments demonstrated how the Bush administration has "failed to fight for American workers."

###

Taking jobs, alienating customers
By PETER ZIMMERMAN

Published March 14, 2004

For weeks Americans have been told that the outsourcing of high-tech jobs is good for our economy. So said Greg Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a recent report signed by President Bush. So, too, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in articles praising the rise of call centers in India used for everything from making airline reservations and reading medical X-ray films to providing tech support for American computer firms.
Intercontinental outsourcing is a direct result of satellite communications and supercapacity undersea fiber optic cables.

These advances have made the real cost of telecommunications independent of the distance between the two ends of the conversation. It costs the phone company about as much to call India as to call across the street.

Friedman praises Indian call centers for their ability to provide upwardly mobile jobs for educated Indians. Offshore technical centers certainly are cheaper for the American companies that contract for their services, but they come at the price of lost American jobs.

The globalization argument for offshore call centers is that they provide economical service, and that they actually make more jobs for American higher-technology workers. It is said that the Indian call centers use IBM computers, or Dell machines, or some other U.S.-built products. They use American-written software, and American-made chips.

The truth is different.

The Microsoft keyboard in front of my Princeton Graphics monitor run by my Dell computer might have been made here; it doesn't say. The monitor was made in China, and most of the parts in the computer were made in the Far East. Microsoft has established major software coding and research facilities in India, so even Windows may not be an all-American product. My IBM laptop was made in Korea.

As the Washington Post reported on March 9, Indian call centers certainly aren't helping the economy in impoverished Clintwood, Va. In 2001 Travelocity, the online travel company, opened a call center employing more than 275 people in Clintwood. The county leased space for the center and sublet it for six years, at a loss, to Travelocity as an incentive to come to Appalachia.

Less than three years into the lease, Travelocity is leaving Clintwood for India.

Even if Indian call centers cost some jobs here, the idea might be a good one if the centers did their jobs well and lowered the price of purchases made by Americans. But I now have two weeks of frustrating experience with three companies. Their names and those of their employees have been fictionalized.

I recently wanted to install a home network to tie my computers together. Wanting to make things easy, I chose to stick with one brand for everything, an industry leader I'll call "Gearlink." I first tried installing the equipment on my desktop computer which used the Windows ME operating system. The gear didn't work, even though the equipment is certified for Windows ME, so I called Gearlink's 24/7 call center, reaching "Vinay" somewhere in India. He told me that I should upgrade to Windows XP, which I did. He also said that in order to install Gearlink properly I would first have to uninstall my firewall and antivirus software, a fatal mistake.

In the few minutes I was "naked," I got hit by the Blaster worm and another virus, and had files trashed.

The American technician who answered the Microsoft "Blaster Hotline" told me exactly what to do to get my system clean. The call was free and the information correct.

Unfortunately, after the operating system upgrade my e-mail vanished into cyberspace. (I easily found the files, hidden and undamaged, just not linked to "Interscape," the mail program.) Interscape offered good tech support last year. Now the call is routed to India where I met "Balaji." Before I could talk to him, Balaji demanded a credit card and a $40 upfront payment. Two and a half hours later, and $40 poorer, I had most of my e-mail back, a job that should have taken no more than 15 minutes.

Now my hand-held computer wouldn't synchronize with the XP computer, though it had no trouble with the laptop running Windows 2000. So a call to the maker, "ComHand" was in order. One year ago ComHand offered exceptionally good, free, tech support and advice from an American call center, but no longer.
Back offshore. A technician tells me "Sir, your handheld is an old model (bought April 3, 2003 and still in warranty); it will not work with Windows XP, sir." I remind him that ComHand's Web site says it will. "But we do not recommend it, sir. You should buy a new one."

The next call to ComHand reached a "technician" who said that I should install a new service pack for the operating system, even though Microsoft warns that doing so would damage the operating system. I ask for a second-level technician and get 30 seconds of silence. I ask if she is still there; "Yes, sir, I am, sir." I ask again for a second-level tech, and the silent cycle repeats. I ask for a supervisor and am told she has no supervisor.

Twenty five bucks down my third offshore call center rat hole. My son and I talked about the problem on the phone, got an idea, and in 5 minutes the two of us got the handheld synchronizing perfectly with the desktop. We have no special training in fixing ComHand's products.

My problems had nothing to do with language difficulties, only with technical training and proper management. Without exception everything any offshore technician suggested I do was wrong or woefully incomplete. "Gearlink," "Interscape" and "ComHand" might be saving money on labor, but it's not worth the cost to the companies and the frustration of their customers.

Dell Computers, famous for support and service, invested heavily in an Indian call center, but has now given up on the idea.

Customer satisfaction was simply too low, and customer complaints too loud. Dell knew that it could not afford to alienate its customers, and is back creating jobs in the United States.

There is a lesson here: Until offshore call centers can provide the service Americans demand, the fact that they save our companies money and give good jobs to Indians misses the point. They are a bad investment for U.S. companies and a disservice to Americans, both those who need help with their equipment, and those who need help because their jobs disappeared down the fiber optic cable. ###

AMEN!

[Seascamp]

Thanks for the question Sis. The issues that Stick and I were kicking around are business survival methodologies and ways we are going about keeping jobs here, and these activities are totaly outside Govenment stir-sticking. I could go on and on about what has gone on during this 2nd industrial revolution and all the profound changes that have occurred, but space and time here is limited. In terms of what the alternative looks like we need only look at the UK. There they have the most advanced thinking and engineering capability in automotive technology to be found, bar none. As a matter of fact the undisputed king of Indy Car racecar chassis, engine, design and manufacturing has been out of the UK. At the same time they import virtually all their passenger cars simply because they can?t get their collective act together.
As to profit motive for going off shore, sure that exists, but from what I have been in on, it has been more an issue of continuing on or just getting out of the business entirely. I know of several manufacturing facilities around that run 24/7 with only the staff necessary to load feed stock and keep the automation running but are moving out of business hostile areas and to locals that want the jobs and the economic infrastructure that goes with it. Sure, sometimes that is off shore, sometimes not. As an example, Canada is a lot more business friendly than the US west coast. So the Gordon Lightfoot song ?Alberta Bound? may have a bit more meaning than the words of the ballad. As another example, Nevada is more or less known for vice kinds of things, but one of our booming industries is warehousing. Virtually all the major retailers in northern Ca. warehouse in Sparks, Nevada. The east-west rail line goes through there as does highway 80 and inventory tax in Ca. is absolutely brutal so the only trick is just keeping enough on hand to serve the business and the stock replenishments are sourced out of Nevada. As well, we are picking up lots of good refuge light industries and the jobs that go with them. One of the best known coffee shops around now has their coffee bean roasting and prep facilities not more than six miles from my home.
As another example, the construction of a base load power plant takes about 3-5 years on average. In Ca. the construction permit time is longer than the construction time, so the inevitable happened and power plants are being built on the Mexican side of the border and power exported to Ca. Of course that has set off a round of law suits that are trying to block further construction and all exports of energy. And it isn?t the consumers or power production outfits that are trying to do the blocking, nope, not by a long shot it isn?t.
I?m not a fan of sweatshops anywhere but I have witnessed what has happened. Almost universally the host country acquires the technology, then ends up owning the technology then becoming a player in the export market on their own and this tends to bootstrap up the local economy and voila, a Singapore or Malaysia happens. Then they intern go offshore for simpler items and the cycle repeats.
I for one do not consider our Government, past or present administration, to be a partner in success necessarily, and depending on location and local politics can be a hindrance to outright hostile. But credit where credit is due, I consider OSHA to be a very sincere business partner and if ya call them with a question or problem, they are on it instantly with education, surveys and truly helpful information. On the hand if one gets into their enforcement section it can get tough. But ya have to really work hard to have those enforcement guys coming around.
So anyway, I?m in my grove with this topic and probably boring everyone to tears.

Scamp

[Seascamp]

This topic is turning into a Bush bashing political deal. I suggest we move it or scrub it.

Scamp

[Gimpy]

???Bush bashing?

If the "truth" is "Bush bashing"..........then I suppose it is. But, if Scamp will take a hard look at what you said", it is simply being sold to the highest overseas bidder for fast profit. This is a sad state of affairs." Then, aren't the authors of the two articles I posted saying virtually the SAME thing?? :cd: