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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (57146)	10/5/1999 12:38:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

>>We are importing PhDs Zoltan, not manufacturing labor. The old manufacturing workforce has been relegated to service industry jobs at minimum wage. Minimum really doesn't apply in most places and is normally for a short duration. The vast majority of workers that we are "importing" are not PhD's, unless of coarse they are the ones running across the borders and disappearing at airports. >>But anyway, I'm a free market person myself, if you recall the original point was, "Did Reagan know what was going on". Imo, well, sort of, but they couldn't handle the Japanese, they were just hoping everything worked out ok, and it did The Reagan administration saved the US semiconductor industry and forced (along with currency flutuations)the Japanese to move their US bound auto production here. Honda makes more cars in the US than Japan.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (57146)	10/5/1999 1:25:00 AM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 108807

Manufacturing is alive and well in America. I've personally visited a few dozen companies, in the last 2 years, in and around Seattle producing all kinds of items. From high-tech to low tech. What held the largest key to the American business turn- around was the knowledge of "Quality management". We can thank the Japanese for showing us the road. And the following guru's for tirelessly teaching American managers the need to unlearn what they had learned and once again challenge the assumptions regarding ways organizations operate. Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Tuguchi, Covey, Shein, Figebaum, Crosby, Drucker, Shultes, Asshcroft, Senge', Porter and Peters. The paradigm has now shifted back, and American products are once again looked on with envy by the rest of the world in quality and reliabiltiy. We are still barely half way toward what Michael Porter calls the "production frontier road". The next decade will see dramatic shifts in higher productivity, as mid-size corporations adopt sound management practices and outsourcing becomes a norm for large corporations. Look for manufacturing companies such as Solectron and Medtronics to grow substantially in the next decade. Michael

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (57146)	10/5/1999 2:30:00 AM
From: Michael M	Respond to of 108807

"Lizzie" -- You raise interesting points on interesting subjects. I hope you won't object to the following personal observations. 1. On the loss of "manufacturing jobs" -- Americans bought Japanese cars because the Japanese built good cars. Had Ford and GM and the Unions had an ounce of sense, you might never have heard of Toyota. I remember one of those "ships in the night" conversations a lifetime ago -- waiting for "a ride" long overdue -- a few hours, maybe getting to know someone you'll never see again better than most of the people you've known all your life. Don't remember the guy's name but he was from western PA. I asked him why he was in Vietnam instead of working in the steel mills (this before the country was overrun by draftees). He said he went around to the mills when he got out of high school and they wanted to know who sent you, who you knew or where was your "he's OK" note from some union punk. For all I know, he made the wrong choice. But, he made it sound like there was a worse place to be than where he was. IMO, the most significant single thing Reagan did in office had nothing to do with defense, it was not caving to the air traffic controller union. I like the principle of "produce or perish." I think the Japanese made us a lot better at this. 2. Re intellectual property in Asia. Been a problem forever and remains so -- Kantor or not. I have a pal who just returned from 3 1/2 yrs as "The Man" for a Fortune top 50 company in all of Asia and Australia (except Japan). Although his company's sales and partnerships soared, he is the first to admit that (in China) for every one we sold they made 10 or 20 copies of their own that they sold. FWIW, this post was about U.S. goods and manufacturing jobs, not Reagan. Sorry his name crept in. Too lazy to edit. Way past my bedtime. Good dreams for you, Lizzie and everyone else.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Mike