Manufacturing renaissance?

The profits from decades of just in time, offshore labor and lower cost infrastructure do not get forgotten because of a few years of pandemic issues/  Hate to say it but manufacturing has had no respect for anything but profit for too long.  Things may shift a bit, but in the end follow the money for answers.  Just read that part of the gas problems is due to refinery capacity in the US.  Cheaper to run the old plants at 110% than build more refineries and run all of them at 90%

Except Change.   All change is inevitable. Companies that fail to embrace change  ultimately fail.  
    The only thing that may hold back  the change of the US bring back manufacturing is the lack of skilled technician, engineers, mechanics, electricians,  plumbers, and machinists.  Due to academia's  inability to see the value  of anything beyond liberal arts. 

TurnerX19 said:

The machine shop where I work part time has had an enormous surge in orders beginning almost two years ago. none of these are documented re-shoring, but many of the really new (not re-orders) might have been off shored previously. Another 5 axis CNC mill is coming on line this month, making 5 units running, and a  horizontal is being shopped for. It won't happen overnight, and probably not totally as before 1980, but the tide has turned.

I'm curious about this. What kind of products does that shop produce?

My best friend's family owns a machine shop. Their main work was machining tire molds. They have multiple huge mills and also some very high dollar multi axis CNC equipment. All the ancillary stuff - 6-7 decades of investment.

Several years back they started losing regular tire mold work to the offshore competition - had to layoff many talented machinists. Their quality of work and ability to turn things quickly (including repairs to offshore molds) was their only lifeline. 

Growing up "the shop" was tremendously profitable but the tide simply turned. Situation dire. For a few years I've been afraid to even ask how things are going because it seemed bad.

I'm curious what kind of things are being machined domestically that would be profitable state side.

In reply to porschenut :

I agree with that, but between geopolitics and natural disasters, the last 20 years have shown the importance of diversifying the supply base. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

frenchyd said:

STM317 said:

I think it's equally likely that we see large corporations continue to manufacture in cheaper locations but focus on taking more control over their global suppliers and raw material pipelines so they may control more of the overall process.

Not with Shipping.  An ocean voyage is expensive.  The ships are expensive the fuel and yes the crew all are expensive.  
   Then you have the dock situation.  Even if due to warming. the  Arctic  passage opens up. Stuff made where labor is cheap still has a month or more of transit time  before reaching markets. 
  That time has a inventory cost of its own aside from shipping costs.  In addition some markets are extremely transitory.   A modern version of say the PetRock. may burst on the market and in a few weeks reach saturation point.   So between tooling delays, shipping delays , never reach the market while the demand is there. 

Shipping is cheap when done in bulk.

It is so cheap that hogs are slaughtered in the US, shipped to China, butchered there, and shipped back.

It costs about 20 gallons of fuel to ship a car across the Pacific.

Fuel doesn't begin to cover costs.  There is the cost of the ship, insurance of the ship and cargo,  maintenance on the ship, crew costs,  loading & unloaded no at the ports. Shipping out from the ports.  Use of energy at the ports,  The value of the land at the ports, the cost of the equipment at the ports, the staff of the ports, inspection of contents, security, immigration,  containers, ••••• I'm sure I'm missing out on countless other costs. While the costs may be divided many ways.  In the end it all adds to the price people pay that they would not have to pay if manufactured here.  
 
  So China is out of low cost labor.   Wages there have increased by many multiples since Nixon's visit.  An apartment in China is many times an American apartment. Food most of which  is imported,  utilities. Cars are selling, not bicycles.  Without a national Social security system.  Workers in China invest in real estate to the point where there are major Ghost cities all over Eastern China. ( I remember 22) cities with a potential population of over 300,000).  The western 2/3 of China is arid or mountainous.  
    These are completely empty buildings without even plumbing, wiring,  or windows.  Left empty due to Chinese belief in Bad luck.  
     In short the Chinese are investing in empty buildings where no one lives. It's not like here in America where you own land.  In China it's a 70 year lease. 

   China is only the tip of the iceberg.  most Asian countries are in similar shape.  

  Regarding meat processing. How much of that is due to Covid?   A lot of American Slaughter houses were closed due to Covid and have been slow to reopen due to labor shortages.  With aggressive immigration enforcement sending illegals home. 
     Much of that shipping back and forth is adding to the high cost of meat.   Sooner or later reality will open our borders back up. 

In reply to OHSCrifle :

The shop I work for makes everything from guitar parts (well, lost that one 17 years ago to Mexico) to race car parts to small pneumatic cylinders to experimental 15" diameter sealing collars to the spherical bearing remove and install tools you can buy from Pegasus to fix your formula car's suspension. These same tools are used by every Formula One team, made in Easton PA. USA.  Also a very successful LMP2 team sends all of their suspension parts over from Belgium to be serviced in this manner. Your friends shop is not flexible enough to succeed if they only do one type of job. We started out 28 years ago making replacement suspension parts for Formula cars, and never had more than one machine on a "mortgage".  

The whole work from home thing isn't going to go away, but some companies are realizing that at least some in-office time is necessary.  There's only so much employee interaction you can do with emails or Zoom meetings, without the benefits of speaking to each other face to face.

My company makes high end products in the USA, sources many components globally and sources comparatively high end products overseas. 
We source in a different sort of way from most of others in our industry in that we work very closely with the OEM suppliers...and we actually have partners. Lots of people say it, not so many do it. 
I think the level of collaboration and partnership is key to the future. We are not the biggest business in the world, but I can imagine plenty of ways of scaling what we do. 
I spend a fair amount of time in factories overseas watching over processes, teaching and developing products. This works for me. 
Transportation costs went x4 at the height of things...just getting a container was cause for a high 5 one year ago. Things have started settling down a little...i think the notion of Central America and South America is valid. Some people I know manufacturing in Mexico are seeing success, but with challenges...some struggle. 
In summary. The cornerstone of our business is made in USA. That will never change. I don't see sourcing abroad changing, but believe smart manufacturers will get more involved with their oems.