Where is industry expanding? Why are location factors changing?

 As we watch the video, create a continuum/timeline that explains “the story of stuff”.  What is “planned obsolescence”?  What might happen if we stick to a “linear model”? 

 Since 1970’s, manufacturing has decreased in MDC’s and increased in LDC’s  MDC’s  factories are in periphery instead of city center  Located in less traditional regions  Right to work laws in the South > no unions

 Mexico and Brazil are leaders  1960’s to 1980’s: rules and oil shortages caused industry/foreign investment to decline.  1990’s-today: NAFTA encourages industry. Maquiladora’s.  What is “free trade” vs “protectionism”?  Video: “Free Trade”. Create a mind map as we watch. Think about pros and cons.

 Fall of communism brought foreign investment.  Attractive because of proximity to the north western European market AND less skilled/cheaper labor.  Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic are the big 3.

 China: leader in steel, textiles, and household products.  Low cost labor.  Large market.  1990’s gov’t policy opened China to foreign investment.  Has created large “wealth gaps” (have’s vs. have not’s) in China.  India’s move from Self Sufficiency to International Trade in the 1990’s has increased growth there as well.

 Labor is main site factor  To minimize labor costs, some manufacturers are locating I places where wage rates are lower than traditional industrial regions  Textile and Apparel Industry  shift locations within a country or to another country  U.S: started in Northeast early 1900s (why?)…moved to Southeast (why?) Fig : Hosiery manufacturers usually locate near a low-cost labor force, such as found in the southeastern U.S.

Outsourcing – moving individual steps in the production process (of a good or a service) to a supplier, who focuses their production and offers a cost savings. Offshore – Outsourced work that is located outside of the country. New International Division of Labor– Selective transfer of some jobs to LDC’s

Labor cost per hour in clothing manufacturing

 Why would industries remain in traditional regions when there is the lure of low-cost labor elsewhere?  Availability of skilled labor and rapid delivery to market  Henry Ford  Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and developed the assembly line technique of mass production

Fordist – Fordist – dominant mode of mass production during the twentieth century, production of consumer goods at a single site. Post-Fordist Post-Fordist – current mode of production with a more flexible set of production practices in which goods are not mass produced. Production is accelerated and dispersed around the globe by multinational companies that shift production, outsourcing it around the world. Post-Fordist company: Toyota

Time-Space Compression Through improvements in transportation and communications technologies, many places in the world are more connected than ever before.

 Just-in-time delivery rather than keeping a large inventory of components or products, companies keep just what they need for short-term production and new parts are shipped quickly when needed. Global division of labor corporations can draw from labor around the globe for different components of production.