Reshoring is a hot topic in the United States. Politically charged, the practice promises a growth in jobs for workers, profits for manufacturers and a rebirth of the ‘Made in the United States’ movement. Small- to medium-sized manufacturers can prepare for a manufacturing resurgence, driven by reshoring and regulatory changes.
 
Reshoring is the relocating of a business operation that was moved overseas, straight back to the country it originated in. In this case, United States manufacturers are bringing their services home from other manufacturing economies, such as Asia. But, what’s driving this change?
 
Impending regulation by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has mandated a reduction in fuel emissions, in a bid to minimize the environmental impact of ships. The regulation would be in effect January 2020 and is anticipated to instantly increase demand for higher quality fuels for shipment.
 
By improving the cost of shipping goods across seas, the regulation means it will become more cost effective for goods normally made in China (that’s 20 percent of the worlds manufacturing output) to be sourced from homegrown or near-shore manufacturing facilities. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
 
News headlines suggest that manufacturing is returning home. And yet, a renaissance of America’s industry was never likely to be so simple, specifically for small and medium sized manufacturers. Back in the 1970s, when the United States manufactured 18 percent of the world’s total goods, the industry looked a lot different to the sector we know today. While automation and robotics were present in some factories, the technology was certainly not commonplace. In fact, one of the arguments as to why Asia has stormed ahead in the global manufacturing race is because of the region’s aggressive deployment of automation.
 
China, for instance, is the world’s biggest market for industrial robotics, boasting sales near to the combined volume of Europe and both North and South America in 2016. The United States is actually not averse to automation, but its use has been limited to large-scale facilities. As the manufacturing renaissance begins, this will need to change.
 
Small- to medium-sized manufacturers have for sure heard of the smart factory movement. However, they would be forgiven for thinking investing is too expensive. Luckily for us, that's not the case. Investing doesn’t require a whole systems overhaul. Instead, industrial parts suppliers are enabling manufacturers to make small incremental changes to automate production.
 
Consider this as an example. A manufacturer of peripheral products for automotive production, for instance electrical control and security products, may already use a SCARA robot to assemble circuit boards. And yet, the facility may not have a suitable programmable logic controller (PLC) to cope with the robot and any associated automation, such as a conveyor, in the most effective manner.
 
By investing in new technology to complement automation, the manufacturer could reap extensive production rewards. In cases like this, the PLC system could enable complete synchronization of the conveyor and SCARA robot, enabling circuit boards to be assembled without pauses in production.
 
Should the IMO’s fuel emission regulation cause increased costs for offshore imports, improved productivity in U.S. facilities are likely to be extremely important. America cannot create entirely new production facilities to swap the huge amounts of manufactured goods we currently import from Asia. Still, manufacturers can prepare to increase their capacity by using automation.
 
When large organizations are hit with larger invoices by their overseas suppliers, America’s small and medium sized manufacturers need to become the go-to guys. For this to be successful, these businesses should have a chance to access technology that will allow them to manufacture as efficiently and quickly as their overseas predecessors.
 
This article is originally posted on tronserve.com