Entries by Bart Taylor
Like it or not, supply chains are infrastructure
One casualty of our political paralysis is momentum to enact supply chain and manufacturing initiatives that appeared to have bipartisan support coming out of the election. Today we can’t seem to agree on the need to agree. I thought as much reading Robert O’Brien’s insights last week in Bloomberg, “Supply Chains Are Our Most Critical […]
Event Recap: 2021 Colorado Manufacturing Awards
CompanyWeek Publisher Bart Taylor co-presented the 2021 Colorado Manufacturing Awards (CMAs) with Manufacturer’s Edge CEO Tom Bugnitz. Kicking off the virtual event, “This is pretty exciting to be in the second five-year period of the Colorado Manufacturing Awards,” said Bugnitz. “We’d rather be gathering in person, but we’re thrilled to be here,” added Taylor. “It’s […]
To turn the corner on manufacturing, California leaders are first acknowledging the pain
The Golden State’s most dependable manufacturing truth teller may be the trade group charged with its health and efficacy — the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, or CMTA. CMTA released data earlier this month that points to more pain than pluses. They deserve credit for doing so. Manufacturing is measured in multiple ways. Today, more […]
A boycott of the Beijing Olympics would be preposterous. Ask the brands that manufacture there
In American politics, China is the equal-opportunity villain. All sides have found reasons to pick a fight, including the media, where voices are drumming up support for a boycott of China’s 2022 Beijing Olympic Games. But an Olympic boycott is the worst of all options to protest China’s behavior or effect lasting change. For starters, […]
Handicapping the Colorado Manufacturing Awards: Here’s the list of finalists
Finalists were announced last week in the 6th annual Colorado Manufacturing Awards. It’s our own March Madness, and the brackets are incredible. More than 100 companies submitted nominations to the 2021 program, roughly 90 percent of all submissions. Nearly twice as many women were nominated for Colorado Manufacturing Woman of the Year than last year. […]
Industry Voice: Keys to a cut-and-sew comeback
In response to CompanyWeek Publisher Bart Taylor’s Feb. 21 column on reshoring, I think it important to consider a couple of points when thinking about sewing in the USA. American sewing operations will not look like Chinese shops. The Americans will either sew in smaller teams with more cross training and flexibility, i.e., more of […]
The new American manufacturing policy should be clear: No job left behind
Any discussion of reshoring manufacturing jobs from China to the U.S. runs headlong into two realities. First, American OEMs and brands outsource manufacturing for a reason: the combination of skilled labor, infrastructure, and materials in China is often unavailable onshore. As good as it sounds to reshore production — and the benefits of domestic manufacturing […]
Biden can avoid repeating Trump’s failures on reshoring. Here’s his difficult path
Reshoring is the topic of the day in manufacturing, and for good reason. Bringing back five million jobs to the U.S. — a goal of President Biden’s — would “balance the U.S. $800 billion/year goods trade deficit,” says Harry Moser, founder of the Reshoring Initiative. Balancing the trade deficit would be just one benefit of […]
U.S. manufacturing is poised for a breakout, but the last mile seems impossibly hard
The business leaders who navigate America’s diminished supply chain to successfully manufacture in the U.S. also carry with them a hard-edged realism about domestic production. The facts on the ground are these: It’s damn hard in many cases to travel the last mile, to see it through with U.S. fabricators and suppliers when so many […]