It’s a shame that the reshoring trend (of manufacturing back to the USA) will take years to be realized. I’m a fan of course, I’ve written about it here before. Like many trends, it’s emerging in dribs and drabs; and some dispute it’s even really happening. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to raise funds for new manufacturing ventures in the USA. It’s a sad truth today that VC’s are more interested in funding the next iPhone app than a start-up that actually makes something. It’s also not good that the most likely candidates for reshoring — high tech equipment intensive/low labour requirement operations — are very expensive to set up. The business case can be hard to make, but the numbers and the intangibles do in fact line up.

If it’s a hard case to make in the USA it’s an even harder one to make in the UK or most of western Europe. Reshoring is a concept that is barely on the radar at all. It’s crazy too because of the amazing manufacturing tradition in the UK — once upon a time they were really quite good at it. Reshoring should be embraced by the UK, but they’ll have to do something to make setting up new companies easier, regulations in the UK are daunting.

Reshoring suffers from a lack of awareness in spite of the noble efforts of Harry Moser with the Reshoring Initiative. I’ve not read a book, or a single piece that really did justice to exactly Why and How. That is, until now. Derek Singleton an ERP expert with Software Advice out of Austin, Texas has written a comprehensive article that really makes the argument in a succinct way. I was tempted to re-publish the whole thing here but it goes against my “not more than 500 words” rule.  There is an abstract below. Singleton really makes the business case — if you’re interested in reshoring or need supporting materials to argue for it, click here.

Please help us get more exposure for this article, share it! And thank you Derek Singleton.

The story of manufacturing in the United States over the last couple of decades is one marked by job loss due to globalization and offshoring production to low-cost labor countries. However, recent news around American manufacturing has been about companies deciding to bring production back to North America after years of producing in Asia. The trend is being dubbed “reshoring” and is receiving media attention in the U.S.Derek Singleton of Software Advice recently covered this trend in a blog post titled, “What Can be ‘Made in the USA’?” In his post, Singleton identifies the trends prompting companies to reshore production to North America. Among the trends cited are things like intellectual property theft in China, supply chain and collaboration issues, and the rising cost of Chinese labor. After looking at the drivers behind reshoring, Singleton profiles three companies — Hurst, General Electric and Peerless Industries — that brought their production back home and explains why they decided to do so. If you’d like to read the full article, you can visit the Software Advice blog here.