Along the Way: A silver lining in shortages, supply chain snarls
There is good news amid all the commotion over materials shortages and the so-called supply chain.
Don Schjeldahl, the industrial relocations expert and a Minnesota native who resides in Kent, tells me that American businesses are building new factories in North America at a record pace.
“I have never been this busy,” he said about his consulting business, which involves finding suitable locations for companies that want to build new factories.
The current pace, he said, is the result of the traffic jam in the supply chain by which goods manufactured in East Asia, mostly in China, are shipped across the Pacific Ocean and unloaded in Los Angeles.
The traffic jam and the growing economic rivalry between the United States and China, Don said, is causing American manufacturers to invest in factories here.
“Technology and better production systems are making American workers more competitive,” he said.
Don’s observation was recently corroborated in a conversation with Matt French, the senior vice president and general manager for the Advanced Motion Solutions Division of Ametek. Although located in Kent, Matt is frequently on the go checking on operations in Europe and China.
He said he too has noticed an increased interest in growing manufacturing in North America, particularly in Mexico where wages are globally competitive and NAFTA eliminates tariffs between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
A side benefit of better job opportunities in Mexico may be a reduction of illegal immigration from Mexico into to the United States, Matt speculated.
“If life gets better in Mexico, people may not feel the urgency to rush into America,” he said.
That is the plus message. If there is a negative one, it is inflation, which Matt said, is going to be with us for a while, “no matter if there is a Republican or Democrat in the White House.”
Like the inflation that immediately followed World War II when consumption had been long deferred, the worldwide pandemic, when so much business was shut down, has caused a big surge in demand. Add snarls in the supply chain and prices shoot up.
“Unfortunately, inflation will be with us for the foreseeable future,” Matt said.
Hey, Earl!
Years ago, at a retirement party to honor Earl Bormuth who worked more than four decades at the Record-Courier, the late Harry DeVault said the phrase “Hey, Earl!” amounted to short hand for asking the former Circulation Director’s help in fixing broken gadgets and making them work.
Because he could fix about anything, that phrase was recalled several times by family members at the recent graveside services in Ravenna’s beautiful Maple Grove Cemetery where Earl, 93 when he died, was laid to rest.
The Record-Courier has been lucky to have some wonderful people work for it. No one was any more popular or any more in demand than Earl Bormuth, who was so kind and patient with those of us less mechanically adept.
In retirement, Earl joked he had taken on the LOL detail. That stood for “little old ladies” who needed his help in keeping their homes in repair.
Janet and I sought Earl’s assistance too. In addition to tools, Earl loved his cars, preferring American-made Chevrolets even though he was a member of a Model T Club. He would stop by for coffee and whenever he bought or leased a new car, Earl would proudly show it off telling us of its virtues.
Both Earl and his older brother, Elmer, who unfortunately did not live as long as Earl, were good men. Elmer worked in composition at the Record-Courier. His wife, Doris, told me that with World War II heating up and a shortage of manpower, my father recruited Elmer to come home to Ravenna from Chicago to help run the Record-Courier presses. Dad found a gem in Elmer and then when Earl returned to the Record-Courier in the late 1940s after Army service, the Record-Courier’s good luck doubled.
David E. Dix is a former publisher of the Record-Courier.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Along the Way: A silver lining in shortages, supply chain snarls
