cam, 421 words, 0 comments, Capitalism, China, Manufacturing, Naomi Klein, Rolling Stone

Naomi Klein makes a spray in rolling stone:

Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric.

It is rubbish. China is the current world's factories. For a while it was Mexico, but technologies like SPC (statistical process control) and TQM/TQC/6Sigma remove any connection between location and quality. China is what Detroit was at the beginning of the 20thC. (more)

cam, 195 words, 0 comments, Manufacturing, Australian Car Industry, Ford

Holden has transitioned to an engineering company, Mitsubishi has already closed shop and now Ford Australia has discovered that the engineering for a new RWD platform will be done in the US. Ford Australia can only survive in Australia as a manufacturing concern with government subsidies. It has no export market and the only niche vehicle it manufactures for the Australian market is having the engineering done in the US. (more)