In 2013, we were a contrarian voice forecasting that headwinds battering U.S. manufacturing were subsiding and that an extended period of expansion was imminent. But even we couldn’t have anticipated that, by June 2020, America would be united in its support for a full-on manufacturing comeback. Turns out COVID-19 is only the latest episode in […]
Before California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Nevada announced the Western States Pact last month to coordinate a “shared approach for reopening our economies” in response to COVID-19, states in America’s West had already formed a loose confederation. The informal union lacked a crisis of COVID’s magnitude to codify ties, and an official name, but the […]
We’re inviting OEMs, brands, contract manufacturers, and key suppliers to communicate production and product updates in light of coronavirus-related disruptions. There is no fee for a 250-word submission with photography. All submissions will become part of CompanyWeek’s new searchable supply chain directory — SCoP. Use this form to create a directly listing, post to the […]
Two powerful forces are reshaping U.S. manufacturing in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis: Broad support, finally, to fortify U.S. industrial supply chains to reduce the vulnerability of offshore disruptions, but more, to ensure investments in people, equipment, and technology are made in U.S. communities. A seismic shift in the way companies do business. In-person […]
As gratifying it is to watch the country rally around manufacturing, new laws that would incent companies to reshore jobs, or require companies to source domestically, will run headlong into issues that force companies offshore in the first place, including the most obvious: an inability to find qualified, cost-effective suppliers in the U.S. It’s why […]
My Payroll Protection Program (PPP) experience was over before it started. On the evening before the April 3 opening of the program, I’d gathered information for the application and documented payroll expenses per the language in the CARES Act, that stated: “Payroll costs include the total amount of any compensation to (1) employees in the […]
In August of last year, as tariffs were buffeting U.S brands, I wrote, “There may never be a better opportunity to rally the nation around a moonshot-like goal to reconstruct our manufacturing commons, our national means of production.” I was wrong. COVID-19 is even a more compelling reason. For years, consumer spending has powered the […]
I reached out to several manufacturers last week to ask about COVID-19-related disruptions and assess — to the extent we can at this early stage — any long-term effects on operations or supply chains that support regional manufacturing. Companies managing global operations have been dealing with COVID-19 fallout for many weeks. A redundant or diverse […]
As the human tragedy of the novel coronavirus unfolds here, the impact on China compounds for the worse, in loss of life and now in the increasingly dire consequences for its mighty manufacturing base. If tariffs forced U.S. companies to look harder at manufacturing in China, coronavirus will only accelerate the exit of American brands. […]
To label any business “nonessential” has always been a non-starter. It’s anything but to founders, employees, and customers, and to suggest there’s any daylight between working and living for stakeholders in America’s vast engine of small businesses is naive at best. It was only fitting that in Colorado, nonessential beer and cannabis forced a reversal […]