As recently as 10 years ago, economists, bankers and businessmen concerned with future growth of the economy made their investments in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia-the rising star nations with the greatest growth. At the same time, disappointment reared its ugly head in Great Britain, Australia, Brazil and Poland with no new investment opportunities. The U.S., meanwhile, had the largest set of problems-grossly unbalanced budgets, record foreign debt and high unemployment and inflation. Generally, the masses thought that the next generation's standard of living would be reduced. Everywhere we turned, we were being beaten by those who could deliver better quality at a lower cost, and this was especially true in manufacturing. We were moving toward a "hamburger-flipping" service economy-ironically, in a nation where the TV, the transistor, the printed circuit, the computer and the VCR were invented. In fact, we were inventing very little and were being beaten by our own manufacturing techniques. Manufacturers abroad listened to the likes of Edwards Deming and his colleagues and were told to try something new and "just do it" differently. And that's what they did. Meanwhile, the U.S. management and business style didn't vary, while our industrial world-including metalcasting-was crumbling. We were unable to stem the Asian and European flow of higher quality products and lower prices. In fact, our valued auto industry was at risk while its suppliers, including those in metalcasting, were equally in trouble.
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