Manufacturing works : the vital link between production and prosperity

Contents

Front Material  i

Prologue  ix

Acknowledgments  xiii

Part One Production Means Prosperity

 1.   Unsung Achievements  3

Prosperity Is Not without Pain  7

Foreign Trade—Fueled by Success  8

Getting Out Manufacturing’s Story  10

U.S. Manufacturing: Still Good—But not Alone  11

 2.   Where the Money Is  17

The Rewards of Adding Value  22

Productivity and Output  24

Foreign Producers Follow Money and Opportunity  28

 3.      Indiana: Jitters in Comeback Land  31

Seeding the Rebound  34

The Battle Over Steel  37

Contrarian Approach Helps Region  41

Sources of Anxiety Remain  42

Part Two Changing Geography and What It Means

 4.   The Relocation of Industry  49

Relocation: A Combination of Attracting and Repelling Forces  56

Repelling Forces  57

Attracting Forces  60

The Important Variable—The Company Itself  62

 5.      Counties Gaining Momentum  64

Hinterland Highspots  64

Freeway Flyers  68

Metro Movers  70

Gradual Growers  73

Special Cases  76

Manufacturing in Search of Good Places  79

 6.      Counties Losing Momentum  82

Sliding Goliaths  85

Midrange Sliders  88

Smaller Sliders  91

 7.   Big-City Blues—Philadelphia and Beyond  95

A City’s Glorious History  96

Urban Industrial Decline—A Multitude of Whys  105

Troubles in Other Core Cities  106

Could Industry Come Back?  108

 8.      Manufacturing and Community Prosperity  111

Jobs versus Poverty  111

Manufacturing and Taxes  114

Manufacturing and Income Disparity  115

Part Three Coping in a World Economy

 9.   A Deeper Look at the Trade Deficit  119

Balance Slipping in Key Industries  120

Larger Deficits in Key Industries  122

Deficits with Whom?  125

China and the Pacific Rim  127

Contrasting Experiences  128

A Tale of Two Neighbors  130

How the Dollar Counts  133

10.      Globalization and the Transfer of Skills  136

The Big Problem with the Trade Deficit  138

Suppliers Are Key Building Blocks  140

Shrinking and Shifting Economies of Scale  143

Has Outsourcing Gone Too Far?  144

11.   The Shifting Defense-Industrial Base  150

12.      Investment: Booster Shot from Abroad   158

Part Four A Sector Still at Risk

13.      Factories: An Unspoken Word  169

Runaway NIMBYism?  170

Even Desirable Growth Is Hard to Sell  172

Engineering—Out of Favor Here, In Favor Overseas  173

Snubbed  175

Aging Industrial Professionals  176

Factories—Good Places to Work  177

14.   The Darker Side of Merger Mania  178

Today’s Mergers—Bigger and More Disparate Than Ever  182

Two Kinds of Mergers  184

The Search for a Managerial Model  188

15.      Wanted: Better Leaders  191

The Need for a Noble Purpose  192

Managers People Can Read  194

The Importance of Stewardship  197

Part Five Staying on the Edge

16.   Wall Street: Return to Sanity?  201

The Cost of the National Crap Shoot  206

Is Going Private the Answer?  208

17.      Driving Innovation: Manufacturing and Research  211

Constructing Research Triangle Park  212

Teflon and Green Clean  222

18.      Partnerships That Work  225

19.      Raising the Odds for a Better Tomorrow  232

Sudden Changes Can Jolt Counties  233

A Warning on Competitiveness  235

Many Bright Spots  236

Identifying the Small Knobs  237

An America without Manufacturing  241

Appendix A—Methodology for Choosing the

  County Groups  247

Counties Gaining Momentum  247

Counties Losing Momentum  248

Census Bureau Shift from the SIC System to the NAICS Methodology  249

Appendix B—Detailed Statistics on Sample Counties  250

Appendix C—Manufacturing Organizations  261

Bibliography  267

Index  283

About the Authors  297