May 27 2009
Last month I wrote a post, “Dumping your waste upstream isn’t LEAN“, giving an example of how one large American company I know (and have left unnamed) has been bullying it’s vendors into accepting the costs of wasteful stocking in order to lower it’s own costs and leadtimes, while actually raising their own costs in …
Jan 19 2009
Lots of China-based bloggers are talking about Nicholas Kristof ’s latest Op-Ed in the New York Times, so I thought I’d attack it from my angle. Basically, Kristof’s argument is that Western intolerance to sweatshops lead to joblessness and misery in poor countries. After all, a sweatshop job is better than abject poverty. He writes: When …
Dec 11 2008
The “lean vs. China” argument presupposes a false dilemma. In it’s most recent post, Evolving Excellence cites and agrees with a Manufacturer’s Monthly (Australia) article comparing the total costs of outsourcing to China with the total costs of purchasing from a lean local factory. The conclusion from the Manufacturer’s Monthly article is succinctly stated: Agility …
Oct 29 2008
Obsessing about cheap labor without considering overall value can be pretty stupid. About 10 years ago, I was hired as the sourcing director for ***** Electronics, a privately held company headquartered for over 40 years in southern California. We were a smallish power supply company, supporting OEM projects for some major players in the medical, …
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