Manufacturing Renaissance

An August 25, 2011 press release from The Boston Consulting Group is music to the ears of manufacturing advocates nationwide.  The press release headline "Report Elaborates on Why America Is Likely to See a ‘Manufacturing Renaissance’" sounds good and the report's headline, " Made in America, Again: Why Manufacturing Will Return to the U.S." sounds even better.

Back in the Spring, BCG published a press release touting a yet-unpublished report on manufacturing with favorable leanings.  Now, the 19-page report is out and the news remains good.

The report considers China's status, essentially losing its edge as a low-cost location for manufacturing products that return to the U.S.  The report says, ". . .In terms of supplying North America, China will no longer be the default option.”

The report doesn't foresee other nations replacing China either saying, "Some manufacturers, of course, are relocating factory work from China to nations with lower labor costs, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico. But these countries will not be able to absorb all the higher-end manufacturing that otherwise would go to China, because they lack adequate infrastructure, skilled workers, scale, and domestic supply networks."

The bottom line message is that manufacturers in the United States will need to, more and more in coming years, look closer to home for production. 

That's a good thing for a manufacturing renaissance.