- 2015-03-19March
Globalization and Free Trade Agreements
I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal that analyzed capital investments by multi-national car manufacturers in North America. These multi-billion dollar investments in car manufacturing facilities both completed and planned covered the period from 2005 through 2020. The time line of investments completed and planned during this period shows four (4) in […]
- 2012-11-09November
Rapid Prototyping using 3-D Printers
I have read several articles recently on three dimensional printing. The concept is to “print†plastic or metal, layer by layer forming three dimensional objects. Each layer is approximately 20 to 30 microns (0.02 to 0.03mm) thick. Coordinated by a three dimensional computer automated design (CAD) software, the designed object is sliced into thin layers, […]
- 2010-09-05September
Mathematics of Globalization
I recently read an article in The New York Times – “Exchange Rate Hurts Toyota, giving Rivals a Chance to Leapfrog It” (September3, 2010). The gist of the article is that because of the strengthening Yen against the US Dollar and the fact that Toyota imports 35% of the autos it sells in the US, […]
- 2010-06-10June
A More Complete Globalization Analysis
Any discussion of globalization tends to be sharply focused on the lost of traditional manufacturing jobs. The conversation begins with the fact that this manufacturing facility closed and the production was moved to “you name the low wage country“. I read an article which quoted an analysis performed by the Personal Computing Industry Center at […]
- 2009-03-17March
Time to Market
I am of the opinion that one of the advantages of globalization is shorter time to market. Why is “short time to market” important? Basically, I do not believe that anyone can predict the future with any level of accuracy. General trends can be predicted, but it is impossible to consistently predict actionable specifics that […]
- 2009-03-14March
Globalization – What is it?
Globalization has been used in context of nation to nation trade. In a more general sense the word can be interpreted as an entity incorporating the products and services of others in the development, sale and distribution of their products and services. We typically think of manufactured products and services, though one could make the […]
- 2009-03-03March
Globalization & Collaboration
There is an article in the March 3rd, 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal (“Intel Turns To Taiwan For Its Push Beyond PCs”) which I believe illustrates the competitive advantage of globalization. Intel has agreed to share its microprocessor technology with a Taiwan based IC contract manufacturer (TSMC) in the development of new integrated […]
- 2009-02-24February
Service Based Economy
The trend in the United States is to an economy based more upon services and less upon manufacturing. Many blame this trend upon globalization or the movement of manufacturing to “low wage” parts of the world. Certainly to a certain extent this is true. However, another factor is the significant improvement in manufacturing productivity and […]
- 2009-02-17February
Efficient Resource
Globalization has been defined as requirements seeking the most efficient resource. We tend to conceptualize this as a nation to nation exchange or in terms of monetary measurement. I suggest that every time baseball players are brought in from the Dominican Republic, an orchestra conductor from Venezuela (Gustavo Dudamel will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic), […]
- 2009-02-09February
Globalization – Not necessarily just cheap labor
In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is an article about the new version of the Amazon Kindle. This very popular e-book product incorporates a unique display technology which is supplied by a company based in Taiwan. In this case, global sourcing was necessary to obtain the technology and volume manufacturing capacity for a very critical […]
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