ASQ Phoenix May 11, 2023, Program Meeting – Virtual
6:00pm – 8:00pm Phoenix (UTC: -7)
AGENDA: All times are Phoenix (MST):
6:00 pm – Gather
6:05 pm – Virtual Networking
6:30 pm – Welcome & Announcements
6:45 pm – Guest Speaker Presentation
7:45 pm – Q&A
7:55 pm – Wrap-up
8:00 pm – Adjourn
ASQ Phoenix Virtual Meeting May 11, 2023, Revised Program
Reshoring Production: How to Rebuild Manufacturing in the USA Using Lean Manufacturing
Paper originally presented at ASQ New Jersey 2023 Annual Spring Conference.
The events of the past three years have underscored the enormous dangers associated with the loss of manufacturing capability. The United States experienced a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) which was needed prior to deployment of a vaccine for Covid-19. History shows, however, that loss of manufacturing capability has always been a leading indicator of national decline; there have been no exceptions. The discovery of treasure in the New World, for example, ruined the economies of Spain and Portugal by allowing them to buy manufactured goods from their rivals England and Holland. Portugal ended up selling the vineyards of Oporto (the source of Port wine) to England just as property in the United States is being bought up by offshore investors. The United States’ export of raw materials and, even worse, borrowed money to offshore manufacturers is a distinct warning sign; the former was identified as a danger more than a hundred years ago.
The good news is that the United States has had proven off-the-shelf methods, which we now call lean manufacturing, with which to reshore and expand manufacturing and pay the high wages American workers deserve. Harrington Emerson’s The Twelve Principles of Efficiency (written originally in 1911) depicts the entire issue as a struggle between efficiency and inefficiency and a key takeaway is that the high-priced workers depicted by his contemporary Frederick Winslow Taylor have proven universally superior to any amount of cheap labor. Henry Ford put these methods into practice with proven results to make the United States the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth, and nothing other than dysfunctional paradigms to the effect that cheap labor delivers high profits and low prices stands between us and the realization of similar results today.
William “Bill” Levinson, P.E., FASQ, CMQ/OE, is the owner of Levinson Productivity Systems P.C. which specializes in quality management systems, lean manufacturing, and industrial statistics. He is the author of numerous articles and books on quality, statistics, and management including the upcoming Reshoring Production: How to Rebuild Manufacturing and Restore High Wages, High Profits, and National Prosperity in the USA.
LOCATION: via Zoom
COST: Free
We will be using Zoom to broadcast the May 11 2023, Program meeting live.
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Zoom registration link:
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