Tim Hutzel will never forget the first time, back in 1995, that he walked the shop floor at Hamilton Caster & Manufacturing Co., a maker of industrial wheels, casters, carts and trailers in Hamilton, OH. Hutzel had just left his job as director of lean transformation at GE Aviation to strike out on his own as a consultant and lean guru. Hamilton Caster was his first customer.
There’s lots of talk about a manufacturing renaissance. Some call it a resurgence, others a revolution, but the name doesn’t matter. There’s also been a lot of argument over the magnitude of the decline in manufacturing and how to measure it. Some say there wasn’t a decline at all. None of that matters, either.
Good news: America is now luring as many factory jobs back from overseas as it’s losing to continued offshoring. That’s the assessment of the Reshoring Initiative, a nonprofit group that encourages companies to move work back to the United States.
EVANSTON, IL—Solar panels made in China have a higher overall carbon footprint and are likely to use substantially more energy during manufacturing than those made in Europe, says a new study from Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory.
CHICAGO—America is now luring as many factory jobs back from overseas—a process known as reshoring—as it’s losing to continued offshoring. That’s the assessment of the Reshoring Initiative, a nonprofit group that encourages companies to move work back to the United States.
BRUNSWICK, OH—Santa’s Own, a manufacturer of artificial Christmas trees, will reshore some manufacturing work from China back home to its assembly plant here. The company said rising raw material costs and higher labor rates overseas were among the reasons for bringing business back to the United States.
WHITEWATER, WI—Generac Power Systems, which makes generators, is part of a growing wave of U.S. manufacturers that have reshored production from China in the past year.