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China and the great failure of United States manufacturing

2 min read

To the editor:

One of the most highly respected Quality Assurance Management experts was the late W. Edwards Deming. Following World War II, Deming predicted the demise of United States manufacturing expertise because industry leaders refused to adapt to the principles outlined by Deming that make great manufacturing companies. They ignored him and sent him packing. The Japanese, however, embraced Deming’s principles and went on to become The World Leader in car and electronics engineering and manufacturing.

Japan produces complex, very-high-quality products at low cost. For example, cameras, televisions, stereo electronics.

China, while not as sophisticated in the design/engineering aspects of a product, is now the low-cost manufacturing supplier to the world. The United States citizens want high-quality, low-cost products because it enables them to maintain their high standard of living. The products we demand are not made in the United States.

According to the Forbes Magazine article, ‘Why American Companies Choose China Over Everyone Else’, China is the best country for manufacturers: “For all-around emerging market manufacturing know-how, for reliability, for currency stability, for safety and for domestic market growth, China is No. 1. The rest are more like No. 100. No one comes close in the developing world to China. And that is why U.S. companies are so headstrong about staying there. The trade war will have to get much worse before they are forced to source elsewhere.”

Despite all of our President’s anti-China rhetoric about China behaving unfairly, it’s hard to believe China is fully to blame. After all, it is too expensive to manufacture in the United States because the U.S. corporations refused to learn about low-cost, high quality manufacturing processes when Deming offered his expertise and was rejected by the U.S. corporations. And now we are paying the price for the short-sightedness of United States manufacturers.

As long as we keep blaming China for our problems, we will never improve our manufacturing capability. It will only work if a thoroughly designed and implemented Visionary Plan is put in place to produce low-cost, high-quality products; it simply can not be willed into existence. This is not my “gut feeling,” it is purely factual.

It will take a visionary leader to make the United States a world leader in manufacturing and I do not envision its realization any time soon, or in the next decade.

Paul Kiefner

Cape Coral