In January, President Donald Trump traveled to Davos, Switzerland, to speak at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF). His message: "America is open for business."

The United States is facing a crucial workforce skills gap. For more rapid reshoring to take place, we need a more highly skilled and larger workforce.

For the past several years, the Reshoring Initiative has been helping manufacturers reshore production or keep existing work here through total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis. However, calculating TCO is only part of the overall competitiveness equation.

In his August 2017 editorial, “Tariff Debate Pits Producers Against Consumers,” chief editor John Sprovieri clearly posed the dilemma of low-priced Chinese steel imports, which have severely impacted the U.S. steel industry.

For the first time in decades, more manufacturing jobs are returning to the United States than are going offshore. The reshoring trend is at record levels, and I need your help to drive more growth!

Use the Total Cost of Ownership Estimator (TCO) to make a strong case when selling against offshore competitors! Sixty percent of companies make sourcing decisions based on rudimentary metrics, such as wage rate, ex-works price or landed cost, often resulting in a 15 to 30 percent understatement of actual offshoring costs.