Manufacturing USA

It was an interesting baptism in 1992 when I was thrown to the wolves at Cerritos College. I defended myself without too many wounds and survived most of it but I think the class that was the hardest to teach was “manufacturing practices”. It was actually about the history of manufacturing but the History department objected to any class title containing the word that was not taught in their department.

Anyway I had to emerge myself in the text book and ordered many other books for my office reference library. Eventually I got to a point of moral obligation being far more knowledgeable of the subject than the students. It’s the right thing to do, right? As it turns out this was my best class. We talked about the history of quality in the US post WWII and the rise of Japanese quality some 30 years later.

Pop quiz: which countries produce automobiles with non-union labor?
(answer below)

As the years wore on I added a lot of economics to the class because of the outsourcing of America jobs to Mexico, Korea, etc. I went to many seminars and Society of Manufacturing Engineering meetings and so forth. I brought the information back to my class and shared. I even shared with the Econ and History profs.

I left Cerritos about five years ago and at that time was trying to get the students to understand the “cost of quality” and the bind that American manufactures had gotten themselves into and with the “offshoring” of manufacturing jobs.
In fact there was a trend back then that appeared to change things. More American companies were bringing jobs back to America.

Here is a link explaining it and my response to the author posting it.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/sep/06/lets-try-onshoring/

"But as one Ford official noted, “It’s more than just labor costs that have to be considered.” Transportation of goods from a foreign country can be one problem. The volcanic eruption in Iceland shut down air traffic to and from Europe for weeks. Some companies found that having all their manufacturing overseas — like eggs in one basket — had a detrimental effect on the bottom line and certainly on getting the goods to customers in a timely manner. Another problem is quality. One audio manufacturer is moving earphone production back to Florida from China. The merchandise produced overseas without enough oversight produced problems with quality control."

my response:

The original reason to offshore was labor savings. Looking now at the real problems
1) offshore labor costs are rising
2) middle top management salaries have exploded so that the managers that are two-culture proficient cost "more" in China than in North America. They can walk out the door, cross the street, and get a new job instantly.
3) workers experience and education is a constant battle. Believe it or not workers in the USA are better educated and easier to train than in many countries.
4) Quality has fallen since off shoring and is too costly to remedy when the corporation management and the consumers are in North America
5) Transportation cost is going up and will go up more as fuel prices rise
6) Transportation has become unreliable as shipping companies are cutting the size of their fleets in order to make more money per voyage.
7) Huge problems with the supply chain (factories shut down waiting for raw material to arrive).

I discussed this subject with Dr Patrick Dixon at one our breakouts.



Anyway the new look is “reshoring”, “back shoring”, or “on shoring”.

In fact many American companies who offshored to China a decade ago are re-off shoring from China to Indonesia, Malaysia etc. Some futurist believe the next low cost labor pools will be in Indochina or Pakistan. But there are still many manufacturer that are coming directly home… North America

Anyway one thing is clear, jobs are coming back. Many that are coming back are relocating in right to work states to avoid unions. Many also are coming halfway back to Mexico.

Quiz answer: The only country to produce automobiles without union labor is the United States of America.

Obama is dancing

I was never interested in politics until W came along and since have been an avid reader and thinker.

Listen, elections have consequences. The GOP flooded the congress with their people. So what is the reason for all the angst? Reap what you sow, eh?

But allow me to tell you what is happening. The Pres has known since day one that the house would not tolerate any revenue increases and he has been playing the public. The Grover Norquist pledge hobbled the house GOP. It's all theater. Bless Bohner for trying but it's a lost cause... as are the Teaparty puppets. What they have done is give O the talking points he needs to sway the independents. He is succeeding.

Its all politics. Just know that. Know this game.
The only way you can extract truth is by reading not watching. Turn off your TV. Read Reuters, UPI, Christian Science Monitor, and newspapers spread around the country. Read, don't watch. They are making zombies of you.

Ron

PS the gang of six ruined what we had going. They raised more revenues and O could point to that and move the goal posts.

Read and learn.. dont watch and listen to learn.

Read this

 http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/jul/23/picket-obama-saw-gang-six-plan-and-likely-wanted-m/

Harvesting

Been harvesting lots of things this year but now gettting close to the really good stuff.
Stoop-picked about three or more pounds of beans. You would not believe how sweet and crisp these are.

Peppers are going great including the Hatch New Mexico green chilies. Made pork chilie verde last week.

Making verde sauce tonight... has to cook a long time.

onions (ours)

chilies (ours)

garlic

tomatoe

chicken broth

spices

Elephant's eye

What great theater

The teaparty vs the GOP vs Obama

GOP leadership wont let the Teapaty have its way.
They may even be quiet when the President simply tells the Treasury to borrow more money, ignoring the children in the house.

The 14th

Healing Arts Gallery exhibit

By invitation I have put up an exhibit at the Healing Arts Gallery at Kane County Hospital now through July 30th... 25 images.
We had a nice reception last Thursday night. Dignitaries and all.
This is a CEBA exhibit in conjunction with Dixie State College.

Below is the flier they designed and distributed around southern Utah.

Here are the images I hung as shot with glass glare and all :)

Oops! all got deleted

Moronic nuances

The old film photographers. They are so funny... watching them.
They validate their images as being worthy with "only true color... no digital enhancements".
Do they understand how silly they are?
What is "true" color? is it the color Kodak delivers? maybe true color is what AGFA shows.. or maybe Fuji, eh?
THERE
IS
NO
SUCH
THING
AS
TRUE
COLOR

Even if you don't account for large color perception variations with age and sex (or just person to person)  the film and process are all different. How can any single blue be displayed exactly as it was?

Photographers for the last century have manipulated color to fit their needs with filters, saturation papers, and high contrast chemical baths. Life Magazine, Colliers magazine, even Arizona highway or Playboy.
There is simply no such thing as true color. Color is what you wish to paint with.
You think Van Gogh really thought his Starry Starry Night was accurately depicted in his mind as "true color"?

I wish you would stop this this rant about natural color please... there is no such thing. There is art and there is photographic reporting and they are not the same thing.

Garden update

Things have moved along, season out to season in.
I have discovered I need to plan a three season garden.... it was 102 yesterday.

Corn is getting up there.. over 5 feet. Some are making corn flowers now. There are 60 stalks in the plot staggered over two plantings so we should be eating sweet corn through November.

 Strawberries were unsatisfactory this spring. I have about a dozen like this now making fruit. Should have had fruit in May though.

Now that the heat is up and I am flooding the onions every day they are getting real big. Have sweet white and Bermuda red. These onions will last us all year. As long as we have a cool dry place where we can store them without touching each other, we will be eating them this time next year. OH! and Liz and I have been cooking  a lot of Chinese and stir fry. Scallions from your own garden are unbeatable. Just take some scissors out there and snip a few.

Its getting hot so peppers and chillies are flowering. Should have more than we can eat or freeze in green, yellow, orange, red and New Mexico Hatch for rellenos

 Its been fun watching this grape twine up the tree. Last year it made it almost to the top of the Juniper. Maybe twenty feet high.

Beans should be doing better. As a lot of things this year it was new soil which I "made" from mulch, compost, peat, manure, and dirt. I think I didn't put in enough cow manure... not enough nitrogen.

Rhubarb

Rabbits got in... I forgot to put the gate up and they eat the squash flowers. Hence forth will halve lots of zucchini from this one. One flower can be seen and about a dozen more forming.

Water melon too has recovered from rabbit.

Cantaloupe and pulsar melon

Potatoes are going nuts... in the same soil blend. They must not need as much nitrogen

tomatoes really stunted for lack of nitrogen. I have been feeding them tomato grow and  they are doing better.

 The lean-to garden is just about finished. All the lettuce and broccoli and cabbage gone. I've left two broccoli and they are issuing baby heads which are really good. We made beef/broccoli with oyster sauce last night... to die for.

Small buds on the broccoli still

A volunteer tomato

A link for you

Thanks to Hirsch for this link

Debt ceiling

4TROOPS

Somebody somewhere is going to get a treat this 4th.
They will hear this quartet of vets sing the national anthem.

Try to keep a dry eye... I dare ya

Boehner and Obama, strange bedfellows.

The crash! Oh the coming debt limit crash... oh my.
It is sort of funny watching the left/right screams of anguish. It's not going to happen. The debt ceiling will not be raised: Teabaggers win! The treasury will sell assets (treasury certificates) and print more money: Obama wins! and they don't need the approval of congress. They have enough paper they own and money they can print to take the country to 2013... and do it with ease.

Oh how the lefties will scream when the debt limit is not increased. Oh how the Tea Party will scream when they find this out next year. LOL!!

And Obama and Boehner will be smiling. Both of those guys are moderates. Thank God for sane leaders.

Addendum... please note.
The DOW has been sky rocketing. Why? You think those Wall Street Kings don't know the inside scoop? The future is bright and they know why. Stop watching Fox News. Stop it NOW!

Cooling off

and those devil winds have quit.
Bu the noseums are all but gone. Welcome July