A hopeful article, with actual physically happening examples, “The Insourcing Boom,” talks about how manufacturing for US companies is coming home to the US.
So a funny thing happened to the GeoSpring on the way from the cheap Chinese factory to the expensive Kentucky factory: The material cost went down. The labor required to make it went down. The quality went up. Even the energy efficiency went up.
GE wasn’t just able to hold the retail sticker to the “China price.†It beat that price by nearly 20 percent. The China-made GeoSpring retailed for $1,599. The Louisville-made GeoSpring retails for $1,299.
In my classes we have talked about what kinds of jobs won’t be outsourced. Maybe that is less of an issue than I thought it was.
Still think Pink’s 6 + innovation are good ways for students to look at their potential work. Maybe I need to talk about these more in terms of culture, especially as we apply it to literature. Maybe.