AsiaIndustrial NetNews: US media said that Vickers Engineering Co., Ltd. represents the potential of American manufacturing.New Troy, MichiganmechanicalThe company supplies precision parts to Toyota and Volkswagen and exports to Mexico and Canada. The company’s chief executive, Matt Taylor, said its workforce has quadrupled over the past 10 years and average wages have doubled.
According to the US “Wall Street Journal” website reported on March 26, the Japanese and German factory equipment has helped Vickers become a successful example of “Made in America,” Taylor said. In 2006, Vickers first purchasedindustryRobot, you can only choose between European and Japanese models. “We don’t have any American-made options.”
This advanced production machinery – including digitalmachine toolto complex packaging systems and robotic arms – for newautomationThe factory provides the power. And the United States is losing the battle to provide this advanced production machinery.
In advanced “flexible manufacturing” products, the U.S. had a $4.1 billion trade deficit with Japan, the European Union and Switzerland, leaders in the industry, last year, doubling from 2003 and albeit from 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. There was a drop from $7 billion in 2018, but the decline stemmed from the expansion of foreign equipment suppliers in the United States, not the resurgence of American companies.
U.S. companies are also losing market share at home, according to the German Machinery Manufacturers’ Federation. In 1995, they met 81% of domestic factory equipment needs. In 2015, that percentage dropped to 63 percent.
The aforementioned trade deficit presents a conundrum for US President Donald Trump, who wants the US to expand manufacturing and reduce exports. He criticized auto, air conditioner and farm equipment makers for shifting production abroad. So companies responded by saying they would invest in U.S. factories. Yet a renaissance in American manufacturing will lead to more equipment purchases from foreign companies, as companies have no choice.
Manufacturers are annoyed by the lack of automation suppliers in the U.S., as tomorrow’s digital, miniaturized and customized products are increasingly tied to innovation in the machines used to make them.
A 2012 report on advanced manufacturing submitted to former President Barack Obama’s Council of Science Advisors concluded that the “hard truth” was that the United States lags other rich countries in manufacturing innovation.
At the same time, China seeks to move beyond a model of global competition that relies solely on cheap labor. Its “Made in China 2025” strategy aims to dominate advanced manufacturing, one of which is through aggressive overseas acquisitions, such as home appliance maker Midea Group’s acquisition last year of Germany’s Kuka, a global leader in industrial robotics.
The White House has declined to comment on whether Trump sees the factory technology gap as an issue.
Until the 1970s, the U.S. dominated advanced manufacturing, where the advantage was mainly machine tools.
In the 1980s, U.S. manufacturing declined, and according to a 1993 RAND Corporation research report, nearly 70 percent of U.S. machine tool companies closed their doors due to falling demand, a strong dollar, and strategic missteps.
U.S. manufacturing continues to decline this century as U.S. manufacturers increasingly out
