Category Archives: Uncategorized

Another bankruptcy occurred this week in US Solar Power manufacturers with the announcement of Solyndra that they will cease operations.

This is especially troubling since the US government invested over $500 million in our money into what is now another bankruptcy.  It is important to note that once again, we fail in a market that is increasingly price driven.  US manufacturers are not set up to compete in such a market.  We thrive in markets where innovation and efficiency are king.  Not the “ME TOO” markets like solar power.

I am sorry to see another tombstone in this market, but it will likely not be the last.  What do you think?

Remember the outcry and boycotts of blood diamonds in the 80s and 90s?  Well, the modern-day equivalent is here and it is called conflict minerals.  This has taken center stage as of April 1, and now Intel and Apple have joined on the bandwagon.  This will ban the import of products that cannot show that minerals commonly mined from conflict countries, such as tin and tantalum, did not come from the DRC.

I spent part of last week at IPC’s Electronic Manufacturing Services Management Meeting learning about this topic and how it will impact companies like VirTex.  We continue to m promote sustainability and green manufacturing to our customers and this is a topic until last week I knew little about.

It is now incumbent upon the supply chain to provide assurances in the form of documentation to their customers.  This means you have to know your sources.  This becomes increasingly challenging when those sources are scattered around the globe.  When all smelting are production was done in the US, the job would have been difficult, but now spans almost every continent.

Let’s hope the playing field on this one is a little more level for US manufacturers than ROHS and REACH were.

A recent article in the Boston Globe highlights the problems US manufacturers face in competing for green jobs on a global landscape. In an era where over half the world’s solar panels are made in China and the US ranks 11th among G-20 countries in clean energy investment, US green jobs continue to shift offshore.

Evergreen Solar (Massachusetts) is the latest to shift 800 jobs to China, recently announcing the closing of their Devens manufacturing plant, despite  over $58MM in state aid.  Aid such as this is just not enough to compete with the subsidies and cheap labor being offered in other countries.

In order to compete effectively, the US needs to come up with a better plan to maintain our global competitiveness.  Manufacturing revenue create revenue in other sectors at a rate over double that of the service sector.  According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), $1.43 in revenue is created for every dollar of manufacturing revenue, compared to $.71 in the service sector.

The time is long overdue for a National Manufacturing Policy that rewards investment in manufacturing to create true global competitiveness.  Groups like NAM and the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) need support to bring this issue out in the open for a frank and complete discussion.

GE announced today that they are creating four Green Manufacturing Centers of Excellence, who will focus on design and manufacturing using lean manufacturing practices.  They will create 500 jobs in this program and are committed to increasing US manufacturing competitiveness through this venture. 

Increasingly US Manufacturers are coming back to the realization that agility and communication in the design process between engineers and manufacturing is better when we are all in close proximity.  Even in this age of video conferencing and 24/7 communication through email, SMS and social networking, very little takes the place of true team interaction. 

It seems like it was only a decade ago that we all decided this was the right way to do business.  Cross functional teams were the new paradigm shift.  Glad to see that some good ideas can come back around and maybe they will stick this time.

What an amazing week.  At the Progressive Manufacturing Summit in Sarasota, FL, I recently got to spend time on stage in a round table discussion with Managing Automation Editor-In-Chief David Brousell and senior executives from Dow Chemical,  Cisco Systems and General Dynamics.  I never thought I would be on a panel with manufacturing giants like this.  It was an amazing exchange of strategies our companies were using to combat the economic downturn.  What a great experience. 

This was topped the next evening when my company, VirTex Assembly was awarded the summit’s highest honor Progressive Manufacturer of the Year in the Small to Mid Size company category.  We were awarded this for a project we started using “right-shoring” principles.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I believe in alternatives to China and selecting the best location to do the work which gives lowest cost, lowest inventory levels and lowest overall logistics cost.  This minimizes a lot of the waste associated with the high amounts  of fuel and shipping containers spent sending everything across the ocean.  What a great validation of our business model.   

Brad

Everyone knew that it had to happen, but gasoline is on the rise again.  As you probably have realized, I am not in the group of people that think you should necessarily buy something new to get the newest features.  There are ways to retrofit existing vehicles and reduce emissions.

VTM ,or Variable Torque Motors, LLC produces retrofit kits to convert existing trucks to hybrid vehicles.  This to me still seems like a better route and more green than buying a new car to get better fuel mileage.  Why not convert  an existing vehicle?

 Other series of retrofit kits for motors are for electric only carts and ATVs.   How cool would it be to increase the amount of time you can spend out four wheeling,  while reducing the amount of emissions you produce? 

More manufacturers need to think of ways that they can provide products people need while not breaking their wallets.  If you think in these terms, we have more than enough capacity in the US to build the conversion kits necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Brad

http://www.virtexassembly.com

http://www.variabletorquemotors.com/

In the spirit of the season, I just had to comment on this article when I saw it in the Le Mars Daily Sentinel.  Yeah, I know, I read way too many articles or have too much spare time if I am reading a newspaper in Iowa, but it just caught my eye in my Google search for something to write about.

They were comparing the virtues of a real Christmas tree and its environmental impact versus the fact that we are cutting down tree to get it.  Sometimes it seems to me that we can’t see the forest for the trees (yes, pun was intended).  It is unlikely that these trees would ever have been planted at the tree farm if people did not want live trees for Christmas.  So the reality is likely that demand for trees helps lessen our carbon footprint.

I am not sure how much energy it takes to grow a  tree, cut it down and haul it from the Great White North to Central Texas, but I’m sure it’s a lot.  How about the little man who sleeps in his motor home on the tree lot for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas with his generator powering the string of Christmas lights, or the gas burned to go get the tree and bring it home.  The list goes on and on. 

It is easy to slant an article toward the point of view of either side.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was a uniform way of measuring the impact of a product and weigh it against the good?  My guess is it would not matter.  People want what they want. 

Most people don’t care what country builds something until they need to deal with tech support.  Why should they care how a product impacts the environment until they have to pay $4.50 a gallon for gas?  The same reason as tech support, cause by then it is too late.

I will probably squeeze one more post or two in before the New Year, but right now, I would challenge you to think about the joy of the season.  Forget about everything going wrong with the world and focus on what is going right.  This time of year, everyone smiles a little more and is a little nicer.  The air smells fresher (maybe from the Christmas trees).  I hope we never get so environmentally focused that we give up Christmas cards in favor of email greetings.  And I hope the Le Mars Daily Sentinel has a prosperous New Year and doesn’t wipe out too many trees with their paper.  Do you think they recycle Christmas tree to make them?

Brad