Last month, I attended a Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) roundtable in San Francisco. The topic for the evening was “Where Do We Go Next? Domestic vs. International Manufacturing.” One of the speakers was Evelyn Chiang, VP of Supply Chain and IT for Tesla Motors.

Tesla is unique because its vehicles are all-electric and produce zero emissions. It is also the first and currently only company to commercially produce a federally compliant highway-capable electric vehicle. Its Roadster is also very fast and very sexy-not your typical electric car.

Ms. Chiang spoke candidly about Tesla’s early manufacturing strategy, which relied heavily on Asian suppliers, and about how much ‘hidden’ cost and time it contributed to the supply chain not to mention the design and engineering processes. It was an excellent supply chain case study on “what not to do” she laughed.

Tesla is now headquartered in Palo Alto, California. They also secured a 350,000 square-foot building in the Stanford Research Park where they will develop and manufacture electric vehicle components.

In addition to the Roadster, the company will make its new Model S sedan in California too.

California? Yes. And in the case of Environmental Packaging Technologies, a manufacturer of flexitanks, they chose to move production back to Michigan from China. You can read about their supply chain in this month’s cover story on page 18.

The trend is not only limited to goods manufacturers, the service industry too is finding that a lot of their forays into outsourcing haven’t been that successful. This is especially true for those companies in sectors like banking, medical, travel, and technical support, for instance, who had overseas representatives interacting with American consumers. I think we’ve all had those phone calls with an overseas call center that made us want to pull our hair out. 

Clearly, American manufacturing is coming back into vogue with offers of top talent, sophisticated automation, creative innovation, and more practical considerations like proximity to end-market, culture and time zones, and of course, transportation. In many cases, a company’s sustainability is also enhanced by moving the supply chain back to (or closer to) the U.S.

In addition to our coverage this month on American manufacturing, you’ll notice that we’ve added a new monthly column on green technology and how it ultimately saves money, Green = Green. It’s written by our long-time contributing writer Amy Zuckerman and is a perfect companion to our Green Matters column, which highlights news items related to sustainable supply chains. Amy also writes about the ongoing embrace of sustainable practices in the transportation industry on page 30.

In the meantime, we’ve started mobile tagging some of our content, such as the WT100 blog (see the ad on page 49). Check it out and add your comments about China’s lack of commitment to ‘clean up its act’ during the recent climate change conference in Copenhagen. 

Don’t get the wrong idea, we’re not out to bash China, we’re just reporting on a growing trend that illustrates yet again the dynamic nature of international trade.

We’re proud to bring you another issue of WT100, which by the way, was written and produced in the USA.

Enjoy the read.



Lara L. Sowinski, Editor

laras@worldtradewt100.com