When President Barack Obama met the late Steve Jobs in 2011, he asked him what it would take for Apple to begin manufacturing the iPhone in the USA. Jobs’ blunt response: “those jobs are not coming back.” Apple’s executives explained that Chinese manufacturing firms had moved so far ahead in terms of scale and speed that US companies were no longer competitive. According to a recent study, there are 48 million “highly skilled” workers in China 59 of them have been recognized as “industrial pioneers.” In many cities and towns, apprentices are taught by the industry’s most highly-skilled exponents. In China, skilled technicians and workers are feted, alongside theoretical scientists, technology specialists, and entrepreneurs as a “highly-talented” group. In contrast, many of the American workers have little or no experience in glass production. Wong, started working in Fuyao’s Chinese factory at age 18 and had 20 years of experience by the time he arrived to supervise American workers in Fuyao’s Dayton factory. Their skills have been honed through years of training and experience. They work longer (12 hour shifts, 6 days a week), faster, and more effectively. On the 3 dimensions of productivity that matter, effectiveness (producing at desired quality), efficiency (producing at a competitive unit cost) and speed, the Chinese workers at Fuyao are far ahead of their American counterparts. The film answers three questions of academic and practical interest: (1) how does one raise productivity? (2) what types of management practices are associated with high productivity? (3) which aspects of culture are associated with greater productivity? Employee Skill In American Factory, a documentary film recently released on Netflix, the directors provide reality-TV like footage of everyday moments from Fuyao’s American and Chinese factories.
#American factory upgrade
Fuyao’s plan was simple: inject capital to upgrade infrastructure, and combine Chinese supervisors and management methods with American workers to produce glass for the US automobile industry.
In 2014, the Fuyao Group, a Chinese manufacturer of automobile and construction glass, bought a defunct GM automobile factory in Dayton, Ohio for $500 million.
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