Blognote: The August 7 posting (scroll down to find it), Back to the Future, prompted some comments culled and reposted to continue the provocative topic that furniture manufacturing probably will return to North America, but much differently as in clustered production.
Agree, disagree or both. Share your thoughts. They are welcome.
The impetus for the posting came from Dr. G. Stephen Taylor, director of the Franklin Furniture Institute at Mississippi State University. Look to the right and click on the MSU logo for trip to a fine institution.
From Whitey:
I could not agree more with the premise that furniture manufacturing will return to the US. I also could not agree more with the premise that it will be based in the Southeastern region of the U.S.
Simple economic analysis indicates that the problem with US manufacturing in furniture was underinvestment.
For many categories of mainstream furniture, a dash of automation would have solved the comparative cost problem and exploited the benefits of local manufacturing — speed to market, custom manufacturing, and more.
In fact, in product differentiated competitive strategies, domestic manufacturing is superior from a total cost standpoint.
I do disagree with the fact that the manufacturing will return to High Point.
Just as the transplant auto and appliance manufacturing operations have concluded, it is best to get away from the intellectual base that created the fiasco in the first place.
From Calidad:
Once again, we see history repeat itself. This happened in automotive, electronics, call centers, and many other industries. Many of them also cried to Washington, "Unfair!".
At the end of the day, it seems that industry executives are unable to learn from others and have to make their own mistakes. It is unfortunate that so many people and communities suffer from their arrogant blunders.
From Steve Hodges:
Actually, I think you're quite prescient on this subject. I think too many CEOs with little foresight too quickly padlocked their factories in their rush to follow everybody and his brother to Asia.
Unfortunately, a lot of smaller manufacturers who couldn't weather the current rough retail climate couldn't hang on to survive.
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