Re-shoring, Automation and Value Chains
When considering a lean value chain it can often highlight the time materials, reports, information all spend in transport or waiting.
This why many organisations discover that off-shoring work can drive down labour related costs whilst driving up Work in Progress and delay responses to customers. This off-shored work, over the last 30 years or so has often been located in Asia and the Far East.
Automation may be seen as the hope that jobs could be re-located back to the major Western economies.
In this Financial Times article (23/4/17) Kasper Rorsted, boss at Adidas. believes it's a an illusion that manufacturing can return to Europe or the States, in any volume anyway.
He states that the semi-automated factories of the Asia are still much faster than the automated factories they opened recently in Germany or Atlanta.
He also believes that any benefits of automation developed in the West will be shipped out to the factories in Asia anyway.
What does this mean for you and your sector?
Will robotics or automation reduce your costs and speed up delivery?
There is one thing to remember in China, Adidas GREW SALES BY 28% LAST YEAR, thus their factories are probably located in the sweet spot for their growth and near their customers.
