I found this a telling statement... it is in line with my own reflections on how we deal with outsourcing... "Indeed, many manufacturers are responding to competition by keeping core technologies secret and at home, while moving low-value-added production and assembly operations abroad. For instance, Toshiba, Japan's biggest chipmaker, is racing to develop high-end chips, and says it is determined not to repeat past mistakes. Initially it co-operated with South Korean chipmakers in basic DRAM memory chips, which have since become commodities, only to find its rivals overtaking it far more swiftly than it had expected." Bill Brooks PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 -----Original Message----- From: Jilly & Andy [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 10:00 AM To: [log in to unmask] 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To set a vacation stop for delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To set a vacation stop for delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------