Moving Manufacturing to China

I work for PennEngineering, and this article was taken directly from their website. The italics are mine. The facility where I work has seen many of its machines and product lines leave to furnish the Chinese factory with equipment and work. We can only speculate how long it will be until everything goes.

PennEngineering Automotive Fasteners

Continuing with its long history of providing innovative fastening and assembly solutions, PennEngineering now offers an extended line of fasteners to the automotive industry.

PennEngineering Automotive employs a unique manufacturing and distribution methodology based on manufacturing of high strength fasteners in Penn’s wholly owned manufacturing subsidiaries in mainland China, supported by sales, product inventory, distribution services and customer technical assistance strategically located in close proximity to its global customers.

PennEngineering is one of the first company’s in the world to develop the ability to manufacture high strength fasteners in China that meet today’s demanding global automotive quality standards. Both of PennEngineering’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in China have been certified to meet ISO/TS 16949, the global automotive standard for quality systems.

Utilizing the advantages of low cost China manufacturing, Penn is uniquely positioned to provide reduced product cost at the same or better quality level, as compared to its Western competitors who are locked in to high manufacturing & distribution cost structures. Penn’s local service centers provide its customers with close personalized service as well as assurance of continuity of supply of product from its China operation.

Unit 1 Lesson 2

Do you believe that a widespread and cataclysmic event such as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution could occur again in China today? Why? Why not?

It is entirely possible that an event similar to the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution could occur again in China Today, but it will be likely centered around a "cult of prosperity" rather than a "cult of personality". Despite its best efforts, China is becoming Westernized at an alarming rate as more and more American companies open factories on Chinese soil. The company for which I work recently built a manufacturing plant in in Kunshan to take advantage of the abundant cheap labor ($1.00/hour in China vs. $16.00/hr in US for a screw machine operator). More jobs are available, and suddenly, more people have the means to own the things they want.

Unfortunately, owning things in China (at least since the 20th century) did not bode well for the owner. As many as five million landowners were killed in the land reform of the 1940's in an attempt to bring prosperity to the impoverished peasants. It is not outside the realm of possibility to imagine modern-day rural dwellers who have not fared as well as their urban countrymen falling under the influence of another Mao. As Mao said himself, "When you go out to develop and engage in a mass movement or to lead a mass struggle, the masses will do as they wish and they will create their own leaders in the course of the struggle...". A new leader could rise up from the ranks of the those opposed to the Westernization of China, or, just as easily, from those who crave more of a Western lifestyle.

As in Mao's day, the revolutionaries will likely come from the youth, specifically students. Whether they will have an impact depends on whether they can gain support within the military, in order to circumvent another Tienanmen Square tragedy. Change, almost revolutionary, has come to China in the last decade. Time will tell whether this will be a bloodless revolution.