Does America Really Need Manufacturing

List three key effects of Frederick W. Taylor's scientific management on the practice of manufacturing management in America. What are some signs of the decline of American manufacturing? How long has this been going on? Give some pros and cons of the portfolio management approach to managing a complex manufacturing enterprise. Compare a professional manager (i.e., a manager who is allegedly capable of managing any business) to a manager of a purely financial portfolio. List some strengths and weaknesses that such a person might bring to the manufacturing

Klein, in “The Discarded Factory,” provides many examples to show that corporations are much less concerned about production and much more about their brand name. The statement he uses to help explain the reason behind why they are doing this is, "The difference between products and brands is fundamental. A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a customer,” (Peter Schweitzer). Many companies believe that while their products and factories are temporary and require upkeep, respectively, their brand will live on for much longer. Because of this, they shift towards outsourcing their production to keep costs as low as possible. The companies then use this extra money to help build their brand using sponsorships and marketing campaigns. In addition to sponsorships and marketing campaigns, companies will also improve their packaging, distribution, and retail channels, and they will expand. A quote once said by Nike’s

Outsourced almost 87% of production activities involving spare parts while maintaining core competencies like R&D, design, quality control and key trademark

Many consider Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner an example of a failed project. Twenty-six billion dollars over budget, almost four years late, and several quality issues surround the innovative new aircraft (Ausick 2014). This paper explores Boeing’s approach of materializing the Dreamliner from a project management perspective by comparing the company’s undertakings with project management principles.

The success of the automotive parts manufacturing industry is, at its core, is derived from the health of the automotive industry as a whole.

One reason for why America heavily adopted standardized manufacturing was that America was experiencing a rapidly growing population. This was thanks to large amounts of immigrants entering the country and populating it. With a rapid rate of population growth there was rapid demand growth for specific types of commodities. The country at the time was growing nearly three percent per year in population which was double of any European country. The growth increased the market opportunity available. New households were being created and this required new improvement to transportation and railroad construction would be the large abundance of land available. With land not being a scarcity in America as it was in Europe meant the food prices in America were relatively low. This meant they had a large amount of disposable income because they weren’t spending a lot on food. They wanted specific commodities now. In order to meet the increasing demand and opportunity standardized manufacturing was a key adoption in doing so. For example, when the author states “Americans were rapid adopters of foreign technologies when it suited their economic needs, and they were also skillful in modifying someone else’s technology to make it more suitable to their needs” (Rosenberg, 105) which clearly shows technology was advancing with the Americans resources and skillset.

A lot of factors contributed to increasing American production some of these are: war, communication improvements, transportation improvements, and mass production. War helped to increase American production because it caused more equipment to be made in the factories for war, which helped American industry to improve. It also created more jobs, competition, and businesses. Communication improvements increased American production because businesses and companies could send messages that otherwise would take days, in one day, allowing for instructions to be given faster and perhaps clearer. Transportation improvements increased American production because it allowed for goods and services to be transported faster, allowing more goods to be produced

The article goes on to state that we could be the leader of industry again. Americans need to relearn how to be a patriot again we have lost sight of this and we have become more divided then any time in our history. When I was growing up the saying was cheap junk made in Japan now that is how other countries view our products.

There are many factors that have affected American manufacturing however, the four that I will be discussing are: increasing costs overseas, decreased energy expenses, changes to the American tax code, and labor law changes. Beginning with increased costs overseas caused by there not being enough skilled workers, as a result the cost of continuing a successful business has increased. Next, is the decreased energy expenses this has been a result of the new fracking technology which has increased the use of solar, and wind energy. Third, is the changes to American tax code such as there being a decrease in corporate taxes which is in place for businesses to become more profitable. The last factor that is affecting American manufacturing is the changes in labor laws. The sudden increase in all wages across America has caused companies to leave for a cheaper workforce elsewhere.

The plan calls for suppliers to ship mostly completed fuselage sections, already stuffed with wiring and other systems, to Boeing facilities around Seattle so they could be put together in as few as three days. Existing production methods can keep a plane the size of the Dreamliner in the final-assembly area for a month. But many of these handpicked suppliers, instead of using their own engineers to do the design work, farmed out this key task to even-smaller companies. Some of those ended up overloading themselves with work from multiple 787 suppliers, Boeing says. The company says it never intended for its suppliers to outsource key tasks such as engineering, but that the situation seemed manageable at the time. "We tended to say, 'They know how to run their businesses, '" says a Boeing executive familiar with the company 's thinking. "Now Boeing is hostage to the suppliers, and there 's very little they can do about it," says Tom Wroblewski, president in the Seattle region for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which was critical of all the outsourcing. Despite the start-up problems, Boeing and its suppliers still say they believe this new method of developing planes is the model for future projects. Once the production line is running smoothly, they argue, it will be more efficient and profitable than existing construction methods.

Boeing adopted the radical change approach for designing and developing the 787 Dreamliner not only to attempt to create new aircraft through the innovative design and advanced material, but it also drastically changed the production process. With a $10 billion dollar project in mind, the goal was to reduce the financial risks involved as well as the new product development cycle time. Meanwhile, Boeing produced a remarkably complicated supply chain that included greater than fifty partners in over 100 locations all across the globe. In addition to the complicated supply chain, they experimented with various firms in diverse areas to align complementary skill sets. Furthermore, this was the first time the company outsourced the two most crucial parts of the plane, the wings and the fuselage.

6.2 The Boeing model adopted was to spread the design and development to suppliers on a global scale with costs met by suppliers (Ostrower & Lublin, 2013). A strategy such as this should have been tightly controlled from the outset. Without this control, difficulties in assembly and ill-fitting parts requiring redesign added to the delays experienced by the project (Denning, 2013), with hundreds of Boeing engineers sent to various companies to solve technical problems (Tang & Zimmerman, 2009).

The Boeing Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers in the world. Rivaled only by European giant Airbus in the aerospace industry, Boeing is a leader in research, design and manufacture of commercial jet airliners, for commercial, industrial and military customers. Despite enjoying immense success in its market and dominating an industry that solely recognizes engineering excellence, it is crucial for Boeing to ensure continued growth through consistent strategy formulation and execution to avoid falling behind in market share to close and coming rivals.

Automotive Builders, Inc. (ABI) is a company that consistently changed its production lines and strategic goals relative to the needs of the times, starting out producing diesel engine parts for tractors in the 1940’s, switching over to the production of parts for military vehicles during World War II, and then, after the war, settling into its current placement in both the automobile and tractor industry. Due to the downturn in the economy and stiff and superior competition in both quality and price rising up from the Japanese who had recently entered into the industry, ABI is trying to find productive and innovative ways to improve sales and guarantee placement as the number one company in its

This case study presents how BMW, a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company, is trying