America can manufacture at cost-parity with China

In a recent NYSE interview, a reporter asked me if my focus on Made-in-America manufacturing makes me afraid of having to compete with the cost of China manufacturing goods. My response surprised her.“Not at all,” I said. “As a matter of fact, it is highly possible for Made-in-America pricing to be at parity or even lower than the cost of China-made goods.” Here’s why: Automation addresses an old competitive disadvantage while simultaneously creating a new advantage. THE NEW ADVANTAGE America has spent decades assuming that manufacturing migrated overseas because American labor was too expensive. That assumption was once true, but automation has changed the equation. When labor becomes a smaller percentage of unit cost, the issues of location, transportation, inventory, quality, supply-chain resilience, speed, and intellectual-property control (all of which we can control) become much more important. But we face a conundrum: We still need people, but automation changes the nature of the people we need. That includes the humans who manage and control the automation. It also includes the electricians, welders, engineers, and other skilled trades that form the base of the manufacturi…

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