Gathering Strength For U.S. Manufacturing: Whirlpool Moves Production Of Washers To Ohio From Mexico

Forbes ^ | 12-23-13 | Dan Bigman

[qwertyz]

Thanks — without reading the whitepapers, I assume the combination of flat-line wages plus easy money to finance robots on the production side and low-interest financing on the consumer side is helping out.

[Ouderkirk]

I will bet that they will be engineers to program and maintain the robots doing the work

[Right Brother]

Exactly what I was thinking. Whirlpool should just move to SoCal and they could keep the same employees.

[rocket002]

The closing of the Maytag facility was preceeded by several union strikes. My brother-in-law worked for them. I remember seeing all the signs wanting better pay, better benefits, more vacation, etc. Then they were shocked when operations were moved to Mexico.

[Resolute Conservative]

Didn’t McKenzie fire a guy for whistling in his nose when he talked?

[Ben Ficklin]

"Here's a small but real example of the return of manufacturing jobs"

I'd have to disagree with you.

The first clue is the 60-80 jobs. Not very many.

Secondly, manufacturers tend to move product lines around their various plants all the time, especially small product lines.

Finding another source on the subject, they are moving this small product line into a large plant where they already manufacture residential washers for the US market.

Meanwhile, they are moving another line of residential washers for the Mexican market into the Mexican plant, which will keep the same number of employees.

If there is a conclusion to reach from this, it would be that Mexican middle class is growing

[Wyatt's Torch]

True. But manufacturing jobs have been declining for decades. Peaked in the late 70's. To not utilize technical advances is foolish for companies to do. That's why productivity has improved over the same time horizon. here is a chart showing $ of manufacturing goods divided by the number of people:

[Las Vegas Dave]

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[Sherman Logan]

In 1980 one of the most valuable companies in the world was GM. It employed 700,000 people in USA, most of whom were "core" guys who built cars.

In 2013 the most valuable company in the world was GM. It employed 50,000 people in USA, most of whom were retail store types. Only about 12,000 were "core" business engineers, execs and such.

IOW, the profitable and valuable businesses of today employ far fewer people, at least in USA, than the equivalent businesses of the fairly recent past.

This trend will only continue and accelerate.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Yep. Productivity enhancements drive earnings.

Only thing is that GM isn’t anywhere near the most valuable company in the world (at least defined my market capitalization) AAPL and XOM are 8X larger than GM.

[Mastador1]

I was going to say it but you beat me to it. Actually they don’t have to move any workers from Mexico, there are already millions of Mexicans here.

[Alberta's Child]

Maybe I’m missing something, but I find it hard to believe that GM was the most valuable company in the world in 2013.

[Sherman Logan]

I actually didn’t (quite) say that. I’m reasonably sure it was one of them, though.

My point, of course, was that immense wealth is now more and more often created with smaller numbers of people.

Those who work for these companies do very well indeed, but they just don’t need very many. Especially very few blue collar types.

100 years ago, to become very rich you generally were forced to in the process create many jobs for blue collar workers. Not so much, today.

[khelus]

Re: "Here's a small but real example of the return of manufacturing jobs"

I'd have to disagree with you.

The first clue is the 60-80 jobs. Not very many.

Secondly, manufacturers tend to move product lines around their various plants all the time, especially small product lines.

Finding another source on the subject, they are moving this small product line into a large plant where they already manufacture residential washers for the US market.

Meanwhile, they are moving another line of residential washers for the Mexican market into the Mexican plant, which will keep the same number of employees.

If there is a conclusion to reach from this, it would be that Mexican middle class is growing

Thanks for the post. You saved me typing. I found the same information.

[Sherman Logan]

I find it hard to believe that GM was the most valuable company in the world in 2013.

Me too. That's why I said it was in 1980. It was then one of the most valuable, although probably not THE most.

[Alberta's Child]

I understand.

Either I misunderstood your prior post, or you typed something incorrectly here (see bold item):

In 2013 the most valuable company in the world was GM. It employed 50,000 people in USA, most of whom were retail store types. Only about 12,000 were "core" business engineers, execs and such.

[Sherman Logan]

You are quite right. Mea culpa.

I intended to type Apple there, not GM.

My point, which I screwed up, was that GM was a dominant force in the world economy in 1980, as Apple is today. If the date seems wrong, move it back a decade or two, the idea remains the same.

Yet Apple employees FAR fewer people per unit of sales or profit than GM ever did, especially at decent wages.

I think this is a dominant paradigm in today’s economy. The most profitable and dynamic businesses of today just don’t employee many people, which is of course a primary reason they’re so profitable. :)

Sorry I screwed up the post, which I think is a point at least worthy of discussion.

[Alberta's Child]

No need to apologize ... and thanks for clarifying your post. Your point makes perfect sense now.

Part of the issue you raise is that GM and Apple produce two very different product lines. Apple's productivity is probably enhanced by the fact that their products don't just require less labor to produce, but that they are much smaller, require fewer raw materials, and are easier to ship long distances at lower cost.

A more appropriate and interesting comparison might be made between the largest companies in the world in similar industries. How does GM of 1980 compare to the largest auto manufacturer today, for example?

[SunkenCiv]

> About 80-100 jobs will be created in Ohio, the company said. It currently employs 15,000 U.S. manufacturing workers and says it is committed to spending $1 billion from 2010-2014 to expand its manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

That’s $12,500,000 ($1 billion over 80) per job. Thanks bigbob. Just discovered too that WinDopes 8.1 either doesn’t have a Calculator, or has hidden it somewhere. What a P-OS!

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Apple is now manufacturing a lot in China.

Their leadership would seem temporary.

I believe they will eventually be overtaken by competition.