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US manufacturing - "cheap labor"
Clipped to the Drawing Board by Adam Crighton  

An interesting double came across my desk today and surely this demonstrates a twist that most would never have envisaged only a few short years ago.
An Indian car engineer and manufacturer,  Mahindra,   who most US citizens have never heard of,  is contemplating buying into the US because it sees US manufacturing as "cheap" labor.
Whilst the giants of the US auto industry,  Ford and GM openly talk about reducing production in order to survive.
Sounds unbelievable doesn't it - read the articles and you be the judges

....click the links to read more 

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DesD () Newbie | 2007-12-04 16:48:13
"For a country that invented yoga, the science of stretching, we just didn't stretch ourselves." is a quote from the last paragraph of the Mahindra article and it strikes a chord with me - not that I invented stretching - but how often do we stretch ouselves as individuals or as a company. - But I digress - China, India/India,China.... the competition is on between those 2 countries the US market is wide open and getting wider - Some interesting comments regarding US manufacturing expertise, or lack of - will the US be the next cheap labour country ? and be exporting manufactured goods back to India and China ?
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Zane () Newbie | 2007-12-04 16:51:02
there's some garbage thinking out there - it'll never happen - the news guys pick up on a tiny comment or piece of stuff and try to beat it up into a major story - in your dreams dudes
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Patch () Newbie | 2007-12-04 17:00:52
if you have a free market economy, then by definition its - Free Market - and open to competition - and if the economy moves up or down, so do relative values of companies - The US went out into the world just after WW2 and bought into every country they could - it looks like a lot of these countries are about to return the favour - tho' having said that, the Japs did it a few years ago and the US hasn't imploded - well not yet anyway - it always starts to get a bit interesting if strategic industries are involved - lets watch closely - talk is one thing - dollars another
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bill (73) Senior board member | 2007-12-04 19:36:36
I think that in the US and probably in the western countries as a whole, Manufacturing will be a split between hi tech and low tech - and quite probably the low tech side will endure with low wages and conditions as they are forced to compete with the third world - whilst the hi tech side can do very well, with good profits and good wages - as engineers we are going to be employed across the whole spectrum - so how well we do as individuals will be dependant on where we are placed in the industry base -
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Patch () Newbie | 2007-12-04 19:42:27
a couple of points - 1) business always runs in cycles and whilst "certain" areas might be down at the moment - it will swing back and 2) the cheap labour countries arn't going to be cheap labour for ever - Japan was cheap labour a few years ago, but not now - so I wouldn't hit the panic button just yet
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Hans () Newbie | 2007-12-04 19:51:15
from a european perspective - the US squandered the opportunity to keep themselves in front - it was all too easy to throw labour at manufacturing design issues rather than engineer them out - in just about every area the european machinery is more sophisticated, more efficient and better designed - and now the US is paying the price
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Zane () Newbie | 2007-12-04 19:54:37
just a small point - but when the US gets out of Irag and gets some focus back on the economy, we'll see a big difference - in everything !!
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Tahlia () Newbie | 2007-12-04 23:31:45
If it's not too late that is. Seems like both India and China are positioning themselves to do quite well out of this situation.
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Jonno (92) Senior board member | 2007-12-05 03:32:06
its easy to see why Indian (and probably Chinese)companies would see investing in western countries as a good move
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=15410
if they need to rely on there own governments for infrastructure - growth will come to a grinding halt - easier to buy into an established area at a discount price
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Tuesday 4 December, 2007 10:10 PM
 
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