Manex CEO, Brent Meyers comments on bringing back manufacturing to the United States.


The article below appeared in the Business Section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Overseas Manufacturers Losing Price Advantage
by Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle

 
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - April 26, 2009 - Manufacturing experts say quicker delivery times and lower inventory requirements also favor U.S. factories.

"You can't do just-in-time delivery when you're having it made in China and thrown on a boat," said Brent Meyers, chief executive of the Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence, a consulting firm in San Ramon.

Meyers said it is difficult to know how many small orders may be trickling back into the state from China because the manufacturing sector is populated by thousands of small firms whose activities are tough to track.

Based on government statistics, he estimates there are about 3,700 manufacturing firms in 18 Bay Area and Central Valley counties. Nearly half of these manufacturers employ 25 to 49 workers - a category that includes Wright Engineered Plastics. Another thousand or so have 50 to 99 employees.

Meyers said he hears anecdotal reports that low-volume orders are coming back to these small manufacturers, presumably saving or creating some jobs in the process, but the phenomenon is tough to quantify.

"I'd call it a latent trend," he said.

DeVol, the Milken economist, said this trickle-back effect doesn't seem like a huge opportunity relative to how many manufacturing jobs California has lost.

"But it does provide a chance to think about which functions could come back to California," he said.

The full article can be viewed on SFGate, home of the San Francisco Chronicle. Click here