Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Want to Revive U.S. Manufacturing? Walmart has Some Suggestions
Engineering ^ | July 28, 2017 | Ian Wright

Posted on 07/31/2017 2:00:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Revitalizing American manufacturing has been a hot topic for some time, gaining prominence as a talking point in last year’s election. Donald Trump’s victory led many to speculate about the future of manufacturing in the U.S., particularly whether it’s possible to bring manufacturing back to America. The latest piece of advice on this topic comes from a rather surprising source: Walmart.

The retail giant recently convened a meeting of representatives from governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to present a Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing.

“As we’ve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal to source an additional $250 billion [USD] in products that support American jobs, we’ve learned a great deal about the challenges our suppliers face in domestic manufacturing,” said Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart vice president for U.S. Sourcing and Manufacturing. “The good news is we’ve also learned how to overcome the challenges and, because of our experience, Walmart is uniquely positioned to help facilitate broad engagement in accelerating the expansion of U.S. manufacturing.”

Before proceeding to the specifics of Walmart’s roadmap, it should be noted that a 2015 study by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that Walmart displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013 as a result of Chinese imports. The majority of these jobs were in manufacturing.

In 2013 alone, the value of Walmart’s imports from China amounted to approximately $45 billion; this is the same year Walmart committed to sourcing an additional $250 billion over the next decade on products that support American jobs.

Irony aside, Walmart’s policy roadmap cites four major barriers to U.S. manufacturing growth: 1.Lack of an available, qualified workforce. 2.Lack of coordination and financing in supply chains. 3.Complexity and costs of local, state and federal regulations. 4.Outdated tax system and trade agreements.

According to an analysis conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), addressing these policy barriers to domestic manufacturing creates an opportunity to recapture approximately $300 billion in consumer goods that are currently imported, including furniture, cookware and sporting goods, potentially resulting in the creation of an estimated 1.5 million American jobs.

Walmart’s roadmap includes ten “policy levers” to address the major barriers to U.S. manufacturing growth. Some, like altering trade agreements, can only be addressed at the federal level. Others, such as encouraging the growth of component production to help close supply chain gaps, require the cooperation of all levels of government, as well as manufacturers and retailers.

Many of the proposals for improving U.S. manufacturing are sensible and relatively straightforward. To take one example, in order to address the lack of an available, qualified workforce, the roadmap suggests rebranding American manufacturing to attract a new generation of workers and drive demand for American products.

For federal, state and local governments, this means allocating funds for manufacturer-run youth programs and career development initiatives. For manufacturers, it means developing youth engagement and public awareness campaigns to instill a positive image of manufacturing careers. For retailers, it means making and publicizing sourcing commitments to U.S. manufacturing.

Regardless of whether its projected monetary and vocational gains are realistic or its source is genuine in its enthusiasm for American manufacturing, Walmart’s roadmap does get one thing right: renewing U.S. manufacturing requires cooperation across the public and private sectors, from local governments to multinational retailers.

What’s your opinion on Walmart’s proposals for American manufacturing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Politics
KEYWORDS: deregulation; jobs; manufacturing; retail; walmart
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 07/31/2017 2:00:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bfl


2 posted on 07/31/2017 2:04:33 PM PDT by hoosiermama (When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.DJT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Kill the Department of Education

seriously. Returning all education responsibility to (and funding from) the States will have many benefits.

It will first of all pop the massive, government-funded debt bubble designed to funnel all students into 4 year liberal arts colleges. This is another progressive scam that simply winds up benefiting a major leftist voting bloc while tying down American youth with massive debt. Pop the debt bubble and university tuition rates will crash.

Secondly, having all funding coming from the states, will give some incentive to experiment with other education or apprenticeship programs.


3 posted on 07/31/2017 2:06:34 PM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Apply tariffs at the border to equalize costs American manufacturers incur complying with environmental and labor laws imposed on them by the Federal govt. Why should American workers be out of their jobs because a Communist country is willing to pollute their land and poison their slaves?


4 posted on 07/31/2017 2:23:53 PM PDT by Garth Tater (What's mine is mine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
My two step plan:
1. Train students in employable skills. A degree in Lesbian Thespians in the Middle Ages Studies may make you feel good, but it's no use to employers looking for web developers or air conditioning technicians.
2. Buy American. None of those jobs will last if we don't make it profitable to keep them here.
5 posted on 07/31/2017 2:27:50 PM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Prayers for our country and President Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
I went to Ace Hardware to buy a whisk broom. A shoddy Hecho en Mexico broom was selling for $9.99.

Went to Walmart, found a quality Made in USA whisk broom for $4.98, and it came with a dust pan too.
 

6 posted on 07/31/2017 2:31:07 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
WalMart used to work with small to midsize American business to develop demand for product, once the product was on shelf and selling well, WLmart would contract to have the product knocked off by an Asian schlock shop for pennies on the dollar

They did that to a small arts and crafts company next door to us . The owner had invested in new production equipment to meet WalMarts request for expanded production. According to WalMart, the Asian supplier was supplying finished shed goods for less than our neighbor's raw materials cost.

The debt load they took on to meet promised WalMart product demand killed the 40 year old company when WalMart abruptly cancelled its contracts in favor of the Asian rip off company.

WalMart did generously offer to buy all the patterns and IP for pennies on the dollar to send to the Asian rip off company

Instead, the owner moved everything out into an open field behind their shop and burned it right in front of the f’n WalMart buyers nose.

7 posted on 07/31/2017 2:32:09 PM PDT by rdcbn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

That’s rich.
Wal-Mart is directly responsible for Rubber Made and other companies opening plants in China.

In the case of Rubber Made Wal-Mart sent them a pricing sheet telling Rubber Made what they would pay for each item.
Each item was quoted BELOW production costs.
Rubber Made said no.
Overnight Wal-Mart pulled every item made by Rubber Made off store shelves and cancelled all orders.
Only took the suits at RM two days to cave. They had to open off shore plants just to satisfy WM.

Sam Walton died in 1992 and his kids started destroying their suppliers jobs soon after.

One of the many reasons I will not shop at Wal-Mart.


8 posted on 07/31/2017 2:34:49 PM PDT by oldvirginian (Eat At Joes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

`”... available, qualified workforce...”

How much do they want to pay? My son has a 2 year Associate of Science degree in technology with a very high grade point average. He’s a talented machinist and TIG welder with 3 years of job experience. He can do manual machining or set up, program and run a CNC mill. He can lay out parts in CAD and run them through the CAM system. Makes $18. an hour. If it weren’t for mandatory overtime, he wouldn’t be able to make ends meet.


9 posted on 07/31/2017 2:40:21 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: USMCPOP

Where does he want to work?


10 posted on 07/31/2017 2:45:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: PGR88; All
"Kill the Department of Education"

Great suggestion !

From related threads …

In fact, note that President Thomas Jefferson had officially indicated that the states would first need to appropriately amend the Constitution to grant the feds the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for INTRAstate educational purposes before the feds could do so, something that the states have never done.

So federal funding for intrastate schools, typically dependent on unconstitutional federal requirements, is arguably state revenues which the corrupt feds are stealing from the states in the form of unconstitutional federal taxes according to the Gibbons v. Ogden excerpt above.

Drain the swamp sewer! Drain the sewer!

Remember in November 2018 !

Since corrupt Congress is the biggest part of the sewer (imo) that Trump wants to drain, it is actually up to patriots to drain the sewer in the 2018 elections, patriots supporting Trump by electing as many new members of Congress as they can who will support Trump.

In the meanwhile, patriots need to make sure that there are plenty of Trump-supporting candidates on the primary ballots.

Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.

Patriots also need to make sure that candidates are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers shown in this post.

Also, unlike incumbent members of Congress who wrongly remained silent while misguided state officials abridged the constitutionally enumerated rights of citizens during the lawless Obama Administration, patriots need to make sure that candidates on the 2018 primary ballots commit to the following.

Candidates need to commit to making and enforcing 14th Amendment-related laws to prosecute misguided state officials who use state powers to abridge constitutionally enumerated protections, 1st Amendment-protected religious expression and free speech for example, such actions prohibited by Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.

”14th Amendment, Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States [emphasis added]; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Again, drain the sewer! Drain the sewer!

11 posted on 07/31/2017 2:50:19 PM PDT by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Best advice: Sell NOTHING to Wal-Mart.

All they will do is beat the company down to near Chinese level prices, then illegally violate intellectual property rights and buy the Chinese goods even cheaper.


12 posted on 07/31/2017 2:56:25 PM PDT by CodeToad (AA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

He’s considering places in central to northwestern part of Virginia at present.


13 posted on 07/31/2017 3:20:45 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: USMCPOP

Do you have names for cities in those areas?


14 posted on 07/31/2017 3:22:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

Kill the Dept of Ed

Kill the Dept of Labor. Let states compete on wages, hours, working conditions. Any new factory will be heavily computerized and totally different from the factories on which our obsolete labor laws are based.

Kill the EPA and other job killing agencies. Let each state regulate its own plowed fields and endangered species.

Technical training is needed! We need each state and each employer free to experiment. The fact is we do not know what will work in 2018 or 2025.

We do know that there is desperate need for people who can do 8th grade math. We need people who understand the simple concept of the role of a numerator and a denominator in math.


15 posted on 07/31/2017 3:36:37 PM PDT by spintreebob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Leesburg, Sterling, Chantilly, Centreville, Manassas, Gainesville, Warrenton, Stafford, Fredericksburg.


16 posted on 07/31/2017 3:42:35 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have a recommendation for WalMart and other brick and mortar retail.

Do better at advertising price against their online competitors. A shopping basket in my mind absolutely has to beat the shipping costs of each of those items handled, packaged, and shipped separately to an individual front door.

Insure that your warehouse + shipping + outlet work force be no larger than the online competitors’ warehouse + shipping.


17 posted on 07/31/2017 3:49:07 PM PDT by xzins ( Support the Freepathon! Every donation is importa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: USMCPOP

That is really pathetic for someone with those skills. I was a skilled tradesman making a little more than $18/hr.,but it was on a commission basis & wasn’t kept busy or cheated in other ways,so that was not only not paying off,but was getting worse all the time. It wasn’t that wages are so poor,it’s just that they are not commensurate with the prices we all have to pay.


18 posted on 07/31/2017 4:14:31 PM PDT by oldtech
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad

I’ve seen that very thing done to a company for which I worked. Walmart should never be trusted, and wise people need to stay clear of them.


19 posted on 07/31/2017 5:17:15 PM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: TwelveOfTwenty; LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Twelve - you left off gymnastics!


20 posted on 07/31/2017 5:34:33 PM PDT by HonkyTonkMan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson