I think I will...

[MgicTwnger]

I'm kinda used to getting 'layed off' because I'm a contractor.. no holidays and usually only hang around each client for 6-12 months.. but you get more per day on average. Maybe you can try this route?

I did that for seven years. Two years ago I was let go by a state agency, and it took me a year and a half of short-term gigs and unemployment to finally find a real, permanent job (which I hate, but that's another story). Perot's sucking sound sucks up all kinds of jobs.

 

[DennisW]

Well it doesn't help that so many of our companies are run by 30 year old MBA's who haven't ever worked a project from start to finish in their life.

Mike,

You are also right about that. I was a Program Manager for a long time (yes, I have an MBA) and I worked hard and helped my engineers and manufacturing people complete projects. I was told by a Director of Programs once during my annual review that I would never get very far in the company. Why? Because I was not an A$%hole. I told him if it took being one to get anywhere, then I didn't want to go.

Now I are an Engineer again and I'm loving it.

 

[Mako Mark]

armpit land????!!??!!??!!??!!?:11:

that hurts.....

 

[MikeFerrara]

armpit land????!!??!!??!!??!!?:11:

that hurts.....

I was refering to the border towns where these plants are typically located. Not nice places.

 

[Warren_L]

No. I don't work for Kodak. To be honest, I don't know who I work for. When I started there 5 years ago it was Siemens. then we were sold to an overseas investment group by the name of KKR (best known for raiding pension funds from what I hear) and they went back to using the Landis and Gyr name (it was L&G before it was purchased by Siemens). We were recently purchased by some other outfit who's name scapes me. They come and go so fast, who could keep track?

KKR is known for buying up businesses and then prettying them up for sale. So when KKR gets involved, you know things are going to be changing soon....

 

[Mako Mark]

My reaction was more from the fact that you dont exactly live on BoraBora yourself Mike....lol

dude, you need to take the redundancy package, sell the house, buy a campervan or RV drive it to Akumal and get away from all those naff quarries and into the underground wonderland.

Think about it, about a billion feet of explored passages already and we have only just scratched the surface, sunshine 320 days per year, sopita de camaron, white sand beaches and and the largest "plants" you will find are coconut palms.

 

[ShakaZulu]

This whole outsourcing thing will eventually equalize when the offshore production costs increase, decrease over here and people get tired of the incompetence. It's actually a good thing, just hold on..........work smarter and present better quality/service.

 

[Mako Mark]

This whole outsourcing thing will eventually equalize when the offshore production costs increase, decrease over here and people get tired of the incompetence. It's actually a good thing, just hold on..........work smarter and present better quality/service.

Codswallop Shaka, offshore outsourcing is a model that has been viable for decades. The North American manufacturing sector has been increasing in its sofistication which is all that has kept it afloat. As global transportation costs decrease there is no economic reason to pay the high labour costs of a first world labour force.

So there are only three options: Export the manufacturing process to a location that provides a cheaper source of labour, import cheap labour in the form of immigrants, or pass the higher costs of North American manufacturing costs on to the consumer.

My guess is that most people would go with door number one and build a new plant the other side of the Rio Grande, which seems to be Mike's case.

If a countries resources are unskilled labour, then it will inevitably draw industry that needs cheap unskilled labour. If a countries unskilled labour force is diminishing due to increasing education, then the type of manufacturing in that country will inevitably shift towards products that utilize that skilled labour. This is what is happening in North America today.

This doesnt make it any easier to those directly involved, but it is no different from when I hear fishermen and loggers complaining about the creation of national parks and their loss of income. the short sighted view is that they will be unemployed, the reality is that they get employment as park rangers and tour guides. This is just a different more sustainable form of extraction of the same resource.

Sorry to rant Mike, but this is what I think about during deco stops and long cave dives.

 

[AevnsGrandpa]

My sister worked in the head office of a major vacuum manufactor which slowly over the last 2 decades moved eveything to Mexico also (Eureka Co. !)

She fortunately made it through all the factory moving and then inventory moving, but they finally got to her area, service and now after 30+ years, bye bye. She also had the wonderful task of training the outsource company who took over her areas jobs before she left!

Will certainly pray for those whos lives will be effected.

Jeff

 

[MikeFerrara]

So there are only three options: Export the manufacturing process to a location that provides a cheaper source of labour, import cheap labour in the form of immigrants, or pass the higher costs of North American manufacturing costs on to the consumer.

There are other options. More efficient, cost effective designs and manufacturing for one. Not only that but he methods that lead to more cost effective manufacturing also yield better quality. We know how to do it. The problem is it requires an up front investment, discipline, organization, a little skill and sometimes some imagination.

These are all things that our current crop of managers just can't grasp. The curent crop of management is making the same mistakes over and over and they're mistakes that real manufacturing people learned to avoid many years ago. They botch things up, get in a bind and the easy way to make the financial report look good in the short term is to take out labor cost, which as I pointed out earlier, is already the smallest portion of the total manufacturing cost.

An example is that at this company they shipped some of the highest volume product lines down to Mexico before I ever went to work there. With good designs, high volume stuff can often be at least partially automated and manufactured very cheap. In this case they shipped already automated lines to Mexico and left low volume more labor intensive lines behind which makes no sense at all because in short order the automation breaks down and they replace it with oceans of people.

The last company I worked for did the same. We automated or semi automated a plant and then they moved it all to Mexico. BTW we used the automation primarily to increase productivity rather than to reduce the size of the work force. We did that by training the oporators and maintainance people we had to work with the automation so we were able to bring new products in without having to hire more people rather than send people out the door. Of course this also took the involvement of our design people because if the design sucks no one will be able to build it. In the three years I worked there the place went from being in the red to solidly in the black.

Shortly after the move the whole devision was sold off.

Sorry to rant Mike, but this is what I think about during deco stops and long cave dives.

No deco for me for a while.