Tick Tock

摘要

The clock is ticking for U.S. manufacturing. At a competitive disadvantage in terms of labor, raw materials and energy costs, no other business sector has been transformed so widely by globalization. It's telling when, after 39 consecutive months of declining job numbers, labor and business organizations trumpet the fact that the rate of manufacturing job losses is "slowing" and "below average." Yet there are plenty of reasons for hope. Every issue of INDUSTRYWEEK tells stories of U.S. manufacturing operations leveraging their advantages―proximity, customer knowledge, process innovations, management skills and technology―to serve their customers better than competitors half way around the world. But as inspiring as these accounts are, they leave a lot of unanswered questions.