Andy,
Thanks, Well I have seen basically the same situation,
in many industries now, not just ours. Even when it comes
to just digging a hole in the ground, yeah you could get some
cheap labor straight off a boat or across a border, and yes
a hole will be dug. But as soon as you need a neater hole
or add some sofistication in how the hole is dug you will
ultimately need that more expensive more trained workforce.

I can't tell how many times my brother in-law has told
me about the crew he has to oversee on construction projects.
Yup you'll get that hole dug real quick.
Most of the crew does not even want to learn anything
just show up and be told what to do. And the next
day told all over again. He told a crew they were building
a temporary wall. What did they do, went nuts with
the nail gun, probably more nails in the wall than wood.

So one could get 5 guys to put up a temp wall
with nail guns in 30 seconds then have the five
take half day to rip it out, and fix the mess it caused.
Not to mention the time to explain what went wrong and how to fix it.
Or do it with one skilled guy and have the whole process
of putting wall up and taking it down take about an hour.

 What I see as Bill mentions fads, is that most companies really
don't want the other companies to know what they are doing or not doing.
So a fad comes along company A jumps on it, as others eventually hear
about thye jump on it. but by the time company A finds out that hey
this really isn't that great or needs some tweeking, many companies
have implemented the original plan. Takes awhile for these companies
now to wake up.

That is good to hear Japan at least is waking up, I hope we wake
up before we realize we gave the farm away.
And I still firmly believe that old saying "ya get what ya pay for".
The cheapest tool in the store is not always the overall cheapest
solution for the tasks at hand.

Bob Wolfe



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jilly & Andy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 1:00 PM
Subject: [DC] Outsourcing coming back to insourcing


> Just finished reading a really interesting article about how Japan is
> managing its manufacturing resources in the face of growing threats from
low
> labour costs in China and Taiwan. Titled "(Still) made in Japan" the
article
> appears in The Economist April 10th 2004 edition as a Special Report, and
> looks at the issues of designing and keeping Japanese technology for the
> benefit of Japanese companies, while using the economic advantages of
> offshore manufacturing without having their competitive edges open to
> copying.
>
> There are a lot of singular lessons in this article for US manufacturers
> too. The article is too long to reprint, but this paragraph struck me as
> being the pointer to a way forward for the US. After talking about
> sophisticated and efficient manufacturing plants, the article gives these
> reasons for returning mini-disc player manufacturing back to Japan:
>
> "Unlike Kenwood's Malaysian workers, who come and go frequently, workers
in
> its Yamagata factory stick around long enough to master several different
> tasks. A typical Yamagata worker can quickly do four or five steps in the
> assembly process before handing over to another worker, whereas employees
in
> the Malaysian plant did one step each. These days it takes four employees
to
> put together a mini-disc player in Yamagata, compared with 22 Malaysian
> workers before the move. The Japanese plant takes up 70% less space, while
> the defect rate has fallen by 80%."
>
> Isn't that a lesson for the US too? More skilled, more dedicated workers
> backed with efficient tools and processes that 'do more with less, and
> better' ?
>
> I believe we can apply this to board design too - the principles are
> identical. It just takes management focus and a longer term view, and both
> of these seem to be sadly lacking at the moment, in the rush to reduce
short
> term costs by whatever means available.
>
> Andy Kowalewski
>
> Chairman, IPC Designers Council
>
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