Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Reshoring Updates

1. Chicago Tribune -- "In a corner of a manufacturing plant in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles, a dozen workers steadily assembled electric motors that until December were produced in China. The Bison Gear & Engineering Corp. workers inserted copper wires, tested the assembly and then readied them for the next step, the addition of a gearbox. The end products, gear motors, are used in everything from ice machines to solar panels. At one time it made sense for Bison to import motors from China, but no longer."

2.  "Saunders Manufacturing Co. is reshoring plastics manufacturing jobs as part of a pledge to bring jobs back to the United States. The Readfield, Maine-based manufacturer of aluminum clipboards, forms holders and plastic storage clipboards will relocate jobs from China to LC Industries in Jackson, Miss."

3. "Whirlpool Corp.’s KitchenAid brand is bringing production of its hand mixers back to the U.S. from China. That shift will mean new business for suppliers of the mixers injection molded parts, said Larry Simpson, global business development manager for KitchenAid Small Appliances. The company is in the process of moving production now to Greenville, Ohio, which is already home to KitchenAid’s larger stand mixers. Motors will still be made by key suppliers for St. Joseph, Mich.-based KitchenAid in Asia, but the bulk of other components will move to local sources."