Co-Manufacturing
Big news just came down from the top. Everyone here is still in shock about it, but we had heard rumors for months that this was going to happen. Corporate has made the decision to begin production work of our instruments in Malaysia. We've had a manufacturing presence in Malaysia since the 1970s but until now most of the work they have done there has been component-level only. Like producing seven segment LEDs and chips. The test and measurement equipment we produce is complex compared to manufacturing simple electronic components.
The reaction has been very negative. Many employees are suspicious of the business move and are guessing that this could be the beginning of the end for our United States workforce. We'll see. None of this will take place overnight, in order to set up instrument production lines in Malaysia it's going to take a tremendous amount of logistical support, time, and money. It very well could take years to accomplish.
Upper management is calling the proposed plan "Co-manufacturing." To me, the Co-manufacturing concept seems like a politically correct way of saying "Offshoring." The way they claim it will work is three of our manufacturing divisions, one in Penang, Malaysia, one in Scotland, and our site here in California will all produce the exact same instruments. The breakdown of total production will be 40% from Penang, 40% from California, and 20% from Scotland. Everyone has been apprehensive about this so far. The same question keeps coming up, "What about our jobs?" Supervisors have responded by saying that 40% is plenty of work to do so our jobs are safe. I'm not so sure about that.
We have to get ready. In a few months there will be large groups of Malaysian employees here training with us on the product lines, learning what we do. We're also going to have to ramp up monthly production significantly. It is unclear what may be going on but I think something strange is happening with our future order picture. There's talk of a huge increase in demand for our boxes and we may need to do a bunch of hiring to meet the need. Things are probably going to become even more stressful and weird...
The reaction has been very negative. Many employees are suspicious of the business move and are guessing that this could be the beginning of the end for our United States workforce. We'll see. None of this will take place overnight, in order to set up instrument production lines in Malaysia it's going to take a tremendous amount of logistical support, time, and money. It very well could take years to accomplish.
Upper management is calling the proposed plan "Co-manufacturing." To me, the Co-manufacturing concept seems like a politically correct way of saying "Offshoring." The way they claim it will work is three of our manufacturing divisions, one in Penang, Malaysia, one in Scotland, and our site here in California will all produce the exact same instruments. The breakdown of total production will be 40% from Penang, 40% from California, and 20% from Scotland. Everyone has been apprehensive about this so far. The same question keeps coming up, "What about our jobs?" Supervisors have responded by saying that 40% is plenty of work to do so our jobs are safe. I'm not so sure about that.
We have to get ready. In a few months there will be large groups of Malaysian employees here training with us on the product lines, learning what we do. We're also going to have to ramp up monthly production significantly. It is unclear what may be going on but I think something strange is happening with our future order picture. There's talk of a huge increase in demand for our boxes and we may need to do a bunch of hiring to meet the need. Things are probably going to become even more stressful and weird...
posted by factory_peasant at 11:30 AM
6 Comments:
ummmmm yay globalism?!
yeah, what you said.
but wait! it gets far worse...
You know, I talk about offshoring when I teach Globalization and most of my kids just sigh and roll their eyes. It's funny because they think it will never happen to them but it is happening more and more and I now know a lot of people whose jobs have goen bye bye...in another language that is.
AHHHH
OK...done ranting.
-N
natalia i'll give you a little sneak peek at the outcome of this story.
before we began shifting instrument production to Malaysia we had four manufacturing sites here in this county employing 6,000 people.
today, we're down to only one factory and there's less than 1,500 employees remaining. more layoffs are coming. i expect when it's all over with maybe 100-200 people may still work there but at a much smaller facility. the other sites we owned have already been sold off or sub-leased to other companies. also, this doesn't account for job losses and sites across the rest of the US. everywhere else seemed to be affected far worse than we were here.
i'll get into the details and aftermath of all this very soon.
You know this is all our fault. If the production people had spent more time pushing boxes through and less time doing "Goo Goo Google Searches" we would not have been in this mess.
-So sayeth "The Beard"
i'll be rippin' up on The Beard shortly.
Shoelaces and Boomer, you guys got the best Beard stories so kick down. i'll post 'em... you know where to send 'em. yeah!
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