Amazon’s Kindle 2 couldn’t be made in the U.S., even if Amazon wanted to
--The flex circuit connectors are made in China
--The electrophoretic display is made in Taiwan
--The wireless card is made in South Korea...(There's more.)
Apple, by the way, is an exception.
Further down:
...Once manufacturing is outsourced, process-engineering expertise can’t be maintained, since it depends on daily interactions with manufacturing. Without process-engineering capabilities, companies find it increasingly difficult to conduct advanced research on next-generation process technologies. Without the ability to develop such new processes, they find they can no longer develop new products. In the long term, then, an economy that lacks an infrastructure for advanced process engineering and manufacturing will lose its ability to innovate.”
That conclusion applies to goods which are relatively unaffected by shipping costs or J-I-T considerations.
HT: Monty/AOSHQ
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