America can manufacture at cost-parity with China

The factory of the future makes skilled labor more valuable.

[Photo: Getty Images]

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In a recent NYSE interview, a reporter asked me if my focus on Made-in-America manufacturing makes me afraid of having to compete with the cost of China manufacturing goods. My response surprised her.“Not at all,” I said. “As a matter of fact, it is highly possible for Made-in-America pricing to be at parity or even lower than the cost of China-made goods.”

Here’s why: Automation addresses an old competitive disadvantage while simultaneously creating a new advantage.

America has spent decades assuming that manufacturing migrated overseas because American labor was too expensive. That assumption was once true, but automation has changed the equation. When labor becomes a smaller percentage of unit cost, the issues of location, transportation, inventory, quality, supply-chain resilience, speed, and intellectual-property control (all of which we can control) become much more important.

But........

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