A lot of what you are suggesting is quite feasible today. I work for a company that does its PCBA's and final assembly here in North America. PCBA assembly is so automated that there is actually not much benefit to making them overseas and has a lot of added flexibility. Exactly the reason we are able to do that is because we are located close to a major shipping port.
Tool making is such a labourious process (even with all the CNC machines available) that I don't see it coming back to North America unless wages significantly increase in Asia. Other countries like Mexico or Malaysia definitely can or are providing competition with China on these fronts too.
Good point about the tool-making being labor intensive, I guess I really mean the tool design should happen in the USA so we learn that knowledge. Ideally a corporate campus could straddle the USA/Mex border and have some buildings on each side that are just a walk apart.
Comments
A lot of what you are suggesting is quite feasible today. I work for a company that does its PCBA's and final assembly here in North America. PCBA assembly is so automated that there is actually not much benefit to making them overseas and has a lot of added flexibility. Exactly the reason we are able to do that is because we are located close to a major shipping port.
Tool making is such a labourious process (even with all the CNC machines available) that I don't see it coming back to North America unless wages significantly increase in Asia. Other countries like Mexico or Malaysia definitely can or are providing competition with China on these fronts too.
Good point about the tool-making being labor intensive, I guess I really mean the tool design should happen in the USA so we learn that knowledge. Ideally a corporate campus could straddle the USA/Mex border and have some buildings on each side that are just a walk apart.