The math that drove companies overseas in the first place has also change

The math that drove companies overseas in the first place has also changed.

“The cost advantage of low-cost countries is not nearly as great as it once was. Labor inflation in China has been steadily high, particularly as the country transitions from a pure low-cost exporter to a consumer society where workers demand more.

In the U.S., we've had the opposite, with north of a decade of labor deflation in the manufacturing world that, while unfortunate, was necessary to improve competitiveness. To make labor costs in the U.S. competitive, you need to be able to produce the same quantity of product with about half of the employees that would be needed in a similar factory in China.

This was not possible five years ago but is today. Automation and other technologies play a big role here, and advancements are accelerating.

With progress in data analytics, the low cost of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, the factory is evolving into a new age. Companies that have already made these investments report all kinds of secondary benefits, including higher safety levels, higher employee morale, lower turnover among staff, higher quality control, faster new-product cycles and lower environmental impacts. The payback is not just financial, as brands are enhanced by quality and corporate culture is enhanced by safety, better job satisfaction and stability.

Software changed the world the consumer lives in; now it's changing the world that manufacturers live in. And while there are few silver linings in a pandemic, the rate of positive change for American manufacturers has been accelerated for the better. The outlook hasn't been this encouraging for a very long time.” [1]

1.     Year in Review (A Special Report): Manufacturing --- Made in America: Why 2020 may turn out to be the bottom of a two-decade-long decline in U.S. manufacturing. Davis, Scott. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]17 Dec 2020: R.5.