When whole overseas industries become more Agile

 

This very interesting article from the NY Times talks about how and why the US lost out to China for the manufacturing of the iPhone.  Though most would think it is cost that drives companies like Apple to transfer their manufacturing overseas, the article points out that it was only one of several major factors:

It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

The article goes on to talk about the incredible Agility of Chinese companies like Foxconn in China, where "Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States... In China, it took 15 days".

Furthermore, companies in China have many skilled workers who have highly specialized technical skills that are above most manufacturing level labor, but not necessarily at the level of a formal engineering degree at the university that just cannot be matched in the US.  They are also able to mobilize them very quickly with no issue both for the employer and employee, for the most part, to work 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week.

We can dispute in this country whether that work level will be sustanable and if it's worth the loss of personal life with family and friends that will take its eventual toll, but in my opinion I have no doubt much of this comes down to people in countries like China who are just more hungrier for financial success than we are in the US and Europe.  Whether this is good or bad in itself is missing the point that China other countries are and will continue to outpace us in manufacturing which is a catalyst for creating middle class jobs.

What this entails for those of us in the project management field, is that as we all know, the world is getting flatter, faster and more projectized for as the article points out,

The pace of innovation, say executives from a variety of industries, has been quickened by businessmen like Mr. Jobs. G.M. went as long as half a decade between major automobile redesigns. Apple, by comparison, has released five iPhones in four years, doubling the devices’ speed and memory while dropping the price that some consumers pay.

Your now going to have to deal with whole industries in other countries that are more agile, flexible and speedier with respect to how they dispatch and deploy their workforce, engineer their business processes, and manage their portfolio of projects.

We are in for some interesting times indeed.