Focus on Strengths
Rather than get too worried about jobs we are losing, we have to ask ourselves what we are really good at and how we can do it better," stresses Carnegie Mellon's Kekre. "We should look ahead in terms of asking ourselves how can we increase our capability in terms of innovation, in terms of systems capability. And we should leverage the best resources we can get -- it might require dipping into some resources in China and India in terms of manufacturing and sourcing of parts -- on the other hand we can service their markets."
Agreeing with Kekre is Robert J. Graves, senior professor for emerging technologies at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering in Hanover, N.H. "I think [innovation] will go a long way to help U.S. manufacturers recover if not a lead position, a closer position to the forefront in the global marketplace," Graves says. "A reenergizing of American industry, but looking at different and better ways to do things [by] relying more on disruptive types of technology to shake up the status quo."
While U.S. manufacturing has been a frontrunner in innovation and design, resting on laurels may prove to be a bigger issue than outsourcing. According to Kekre, other countries, such as Singapore, have created infrastructures to train their companies in advanced computer-aided design and manufacturing.
"It is that infrastructure where they are allowing these small companies to not only be good in manufacturing, but they are also becoming very good in design," says Kekre. "Ironically, these countries are getting help from U.S. companies [that offer] licenses for using these advanced machines and software at a price you just can't get in the U.S. . . . Those countries are going to develop capabilities that are going to . . . challenge [U.S.] companies to compete in those markets where not only is manufacturing cheaper, but also the design capability is going to be very high. We are resting on the premise that the American companies are good at innovation, but you are slowly finding that these countries are going to build up their design capability, and then the game is going to get even tougher."
And that means engineers can't just throw a design "over the wall" to the production people. What is happening now, in terms of outsourcing, is a disconnect between the engineering and manufacturing components. If one part of the puzzle is located thousands of miles away, over the wall is no longer an option. There have to be open, detailed lines of communication.
"[Companies need] to improve their levels and depths of communications and tool support so that they can truly jointly develop new products with their outsourced suppliers," says Dartmouth's Graves. "Such as integrated networks that make use of databases on equipment, assembly lines on the shop floor and spacing issues so that the designer back here in Connecticut or California or Florida can access the information he or she needs to tune the design to fit that supplier's capabilities. We don't do that today. But if we were to do that we could manage the instabilities in a new-product development process through the use of technologies."
All-shore sourcing is a fact of business and life, and so is the notion of going forth with thought.
"In order to access markets, we have to outsource in the country that commands the market," explains Graves. "If we have to do that, let's do that intelligently. Let's look at not only the costs of it, but also look at designing our organizations and our processes -- product development. Let's look at fixing those processes so that we are doing this intelligently, that we really can support it."
"Are we going to be a country where we just consume everything that is going to be made overseas or are we going to be a country where we are going to innovate and dream of new products and services and bring in partners from all over the world?" asks Kekre. "I think the latter is what we want to do. And I think we have to go back to the good old American way -- fostering innovation and creativity."
