Reshore Production Now How to Rebuild Manufacturing and Restore High Wages High Profits and National Prosperity in the USA 1st Edition by William Levinson ISBN 9781032445403 1032445408

1 Wages, Productivity, and Inflation

Money Is Not Value or Utility

Money Debasement, Then and Now

Even Precious Metals Often Lack Genuine Utility

Weimar Wastepaper and Cryptocurrency

Money Supply and Velocity, and the Equation of Exchange

Deficit Spending and Inflation

Productivity Counteracts Inflation and Pays Down the Deficit

Revenue Must Also Balance Profits and Costs of Production

Waste Is Inflationary

We Must Produce Our Way Out of the National Debt

Notes

2 Loss of Manufacturing Equals National Decline

National Prosperity Comes from Adding Value to Raw Materials

Be at the Top of the Food Chain

Raw Materials Are Fleeting: Manufacturing Endures

The Danger of Manufacturing Inferiority

The United States’ Response: Lean Manufacturing

Emerson’s Twelve Principles

Leaders of the American Response to Japanese Organization

Industrial Power Equals Military Power

Pre-Agricultural Warfare

Modern Warfare as a Product of Agriculture

The Rise of the Military-Industrial Complex

Lepanto (1571) and the Spanish Armada (1588)

The American Civil War

The First World War

The Second World War

Manufacturing an End to War

Cooperation Is Natural, and Conflict Is Dysfunctional

War Was Once a Private Affair Between Absolute Monarchs

War in the Industrial Era

Application to National Social Problems

Collapse of American Shipbuilding and Maritime Commerce

Summary

Notes

3 The PRC Is a Dangerous Geopolitical Rival

The PRC’s Threats to American Supply Chains

Chinese Communists Lobbied Against Legislation to Promote US Chip Manufacture

Counterfeit and Substandard Products

Failure Mode Effects Analysis Perspective

Dangerous Pet Toys and Pet Foods

Counterfeit Fasteners in Aerospace and Construction

Counterfeit PRC Medications Threaten US Supply Chains

Substandard Respirators for COVID-19 Protection

General Supply Chain Risks

Semiconductor and Automotive Supply Chains

Other Supply Chain Problems

Summary

Notes

4 Cheap Labor Is a Dangerous Illusion

Meet the High-Priced Workers

High-Priced Workers and Standards

High-Priced Soldiers Are Cheaper Than Cheap Soldiers

Gideon and His 300 “High-Priced Men”

Cheap Labor Is Costly

What about Piece Work?

Can We Compete with PRC Automation?

Near Common Sense versus Supernal Common Sense

Financial Metrics: The Road to Ruin

Be Careful What You Wish; You Might Get It

How Dysfunctional Metrics Brought Down W.T. Grant

Unsalable Inventory and the Laxian Key

Marginal Revenues, Costs, Profits, and Sunk Costs

Transfer Pricing Traps

How to Outsource Manufacturing at a Loss

Dysfunctional Purchasing Incentives

Total Cost of Ownership and Toyota’s Seven Wastes

Waste in Trucking Hurts Drivers and Makes Just-in-Time Impossible

Book Value Is Not Real Value

Costs of Foregone Opportunities

Slavery, Robot, and Corvée as Free Labor

Aristotle Predicted That Automation Would Abolish Slavery

The Suez Canal: Late and Overpriced with Free Labor

Automation Eradicates Slavery and Cheap Labor

False Economy of Cheap Equipment and Training

Low Wages Indicate Low Profits and High Prices

Lose the Luddites

Shoe Manufacture: A Case Study

The Ford Motor Company: Early Twenty-First Century

Self-Service Kiosks

Longshoremen versus Bar Code Scanners

Luddism and Mechanical Power

Don’t Prove the Luddites Right

Summary

Notes

5 We Can Do It!

Think Like a Greek

Learning from Hercules

Learn from Everything You Encounter

Break Paradigms and Think Around Problems

Our Legacy from Alexander the Great (and Henry Ford)

When Education Is Dangerous

The Basic Principles

Efficiency Makes the Per-Unit Labor Cost Negligible

Friction and Opportunity Costs

Taylor’s “Improved” Pig Iron Handling Still Shows Enormous Waste

Gap Analysis

More about Friction

Modern Depictions of Friction

The Value-Adding “Bang!”

Friction, Motion Efficiency, and Standard Work

Interrupted Thread Fasteners

Japanese Disposable Gowns

Fruit Harvesting

Shoveling

Bricklaying and Roofing

Floor Tiles, Sidewalks, and Safety Tape Marking

Standard Work

Standards Are Documented

Use the Standard to Identify Improvement Opportunities

Elements of Standard Work

The Job Breakdown Sheet

Opportunity Costs

Textiles and Cotton

Opportunity Costs in Agriculture

Opportunity Costs in Fruit Harvesting

Pay Attention to Materials and Energy

The Material and Energy Balance

Material and Energy Review

Hunt the Coal Thief

Paint Parts, Not Air

Fertilize Crops, Not Groundwater

Baptize Converts, Not Parts

Raise Meat, Not Animals

Dye the Yarn, Not the Water

Sell the Coal Chemicals, Don’t Burn Them

Light the Streets, Not the Sky

Ship Product, Not Air

Avoid Wasteful Overhead

Expensive Cities Add Costs

Educate the American Consumer to Buy Value and Not Waste

Don’t Buy Indulgences or the Emperor’s New Clothes

Extended Warranties

Advertising

Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Names

Cryptocurrencies

Private versus Public Universities

Summary

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index