This article is a web-exclusive companion to Home-Run Hitters: Four manufacturers who are confronting globalization--and winning--by maximizing the competitive advantages of U.S.-based production. Here the leaders share additional insights on maximizing U.S.-based production in a global world. They include the following:
Brian Jones, president, Nypro Inc., Clinton, Mass.
Richard E. Dauch, co-founder, chairman and CEO, American Axle & Manufacturing, Detroit
William B. Stockwell, president, Stockwell Rubber Co., Inc., Philadelphia
Dov Charney, senior partner, American Apparel, Los Angeles
Richard E. Dauch, co-founder, chairman and CEO, American Axle & Manufacturing, Detroit
. . . on the most important training a company can provide: "The first training is to have the CEO meet with the workforce face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball and discuss: Why is this company here? What is your charter? What is the role of the individual? What is the competitiveness [of the company and individual]? -- because nobody's entitled to a job and nobody's entitled to a business."
"We're in a globalized market, and people who have grown up competing city-to-city, or state-to-state or regional-to-regional, or just nationally need to be educated [about] globalization."
"We do town hall meetings three times per year. We talk about the state of the business, state of their factory, state of their gross national product within AAM, and what's their role. We always talk about product."
"I always tell my people: This [town hall meeting] is no event. This is a process and you're part of the family. We will give you and share with you very important and urgent data that you need to know, and then we will have at least 15 to 20 minutes at the end where you simply stand up, speak up, make your comment, ask your question, make your name known -- and then we'll discuss that right there in front of the family."
. . . on the importance of building U.S. manufacturing strength: "We have got to take a look: Do we care about our society? Do we care about our quality of life? Do we want to take our work standard and our quality standard of life down to where we eat two bowls of rice a day? Not me. I don't want to do that to my children, my grandchildren or the people that I have the privilege to lead or [to] those who have had the confidence to invest in our company."
. . . on being global: "You have to be at least selectively global. You don't have to be everywhere in the world, but you have to decide: What is your product niche? Where is your market? Who are your customers? Then you have to selectively decide where will you give your global presence."
"When I started here at AAM 10 years ago, I only had two customers, and we only shipped to two countries. Now we have 75 customers. We now produce in eight different countries and ship to 10 different countries."
"This is a very big world, and everyone says it's getting smaller -- and that's [not true]. It's 126,000 miles around that circumference, and you still have to be able to get your part to where it's supposed to be just in time, or [in] sequence parts delivery. And the farther you source from the user, the more difficult [it becomes] because you can't predict the weather, you cannot predict labor strife . . . . So you have to do a lot of strategy on people, on product, on process, on capacity, on logistics, on ROIC."
