America makes!

Citation

(2006), "America makes!", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 55 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2006.07955hab.006

America makes!

Taking a look at American manufacturing reveals a decline in terms of its domination of world manufacturing but also a remarkable resilience. The USA is actually making more goods, in dollar value, than ever before.

Of course the USA has to continue to rise to the challenge of increasingly sophisticated competitors. Even President Bush recognised that when he outlined a “competitiveness initiative” during his State of the Union address.

“Certain parts of the base are disappearing, and employment is falling across the board in manufacturing”, says Robert Lawrence, an economist at Harvard University. But “it doesn’t mean we can no longer produce the products … We’ve had very robust productivity growth in manufacturing”.

In general terms, the production of consumer goods - often relatively low-tech work in which profits can be tied heavily to labour costs - has been shifting overseas. Textiles and shoes are good examples. USA producers have therefore focused increasingly on higher-end industrial goods, from aircraft to heavy machinery and on high technology areas.

The economy is increasingly service oriented but manufacturing still has a big role to play. In fact, many services are linked closely with the delivery, maintenance, and use of goods. All manufacturing nations have to think differently – and to consider the whole value chain associated with manufacturing before rejecting and exporting it.