One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)

From an operational/supply-chain standpoint:

Manufacturing happens in the Pearl River Delta in China for two reasons: speed and cost. The cost is not so much a function of the cheap labour as the proximity to component suppliers and abundance of manufacturing expertise. It's easy to build electronics around Shenzhen for the same reason that it's easy to build a tech start-up in the Valley. Everything you need is around the corner.

For Apple, one must remember that everything they build is composed of components sourced in south-east China. As a result, US-based manufacturing would be ludicrously inefficient. Hugely increased costs, greater inventory stockpiles, completely needless carbon emissions, and lost flexibility. It's like proposing RAM on a USB stick. It's so inefficient as to be nonsensical.

Even if that were not the case, Apple specialize in what they're good at: implementing great software, and designing wonderful hardware to accompany it. It would be go entirely against the grain of Apple's culture of doing a small number of things well to start a huge manufacturing arm. If they wanted to increase the good they do for the US, there are vastly better ways they could go about it.

Next, even if Apple actually thought it was a good idea, they would be unable to pull it off without a lot of trial, error, and screw-ups. Foxconn is the Apple of manufacturing, and they're used by every major consumer electronics company for good reason. Apple are great at what they do after twenty years of experience, and appreciate the importance of truly knowing a problem-space. Manufacturing expertise is neither simple nor free.

Lastly, stepping aside from these operational concerns, the moral case is weak. Why do the inhabitants of Detroit deserve jobs more than those of the cities around Shenzhen? I've been to the Chinese factories that Apple uses. People like their jobs. The conditions are good. I've also seen the conditions that people who don't have jobs at Apple factories live in.

China is taking people out of poverty faster than any civilization ever has before. Is funding innovation centers in Detroit really a better moral cause? I don't want to turn this into a political discussion, but I believe that the goal of bringing manufacturing jobs to the US is at least not an obviously great one.

Do you know something about labour policies in, say, Taiwan, Japan or South Korea that I don't?

1. I'm not arguing for Apple moving their entire manufacturing base to the US. What I'm suggesting is a US facility to (as noted in the piece) produce limited run goods. Indeed, I explicitly suggest that it be a "technology incubator."

2. I don't mention China once in the piece, and there's a reason for that. This isn't about arguing against one place, just arguing for Apple (or another, similar manufacturer) giving a piece of the game to a US facility.

Maybe it's feasible, maybe it's not. My argument is only that it would be a win for Apple in terms of PR and brand image, and it would be a win for wherever they did it. I'm admittedly not coming at this from a pure tech/logistics angle.

As for the "wishful thinking" comment, I'll cop to that.

But like I said, thanks for the feedback. Good thoughts.

Neal

You know what? You're right. If you read my comment carefully you'll note that it was actually directed at just about everyone except you. But I exploited your exceptionally unfortunate choice of words to make a point, and that was wrong.

However I really do wish that people would stop telling themselves that they'd be helping people in the third world by depriving them of work in favour of people closer to home (people who probably have a much better safety net).