Negative responses to overseas production are missing the point
New Zealand manufacturing is thriving. Just ask the Mexican workers about to clock in at F&P Healthcare's new $20 million plant in Tijuana.
Or the Dutch factory workers making resins for Nuplex, or Fonterra workers on the shop floor in 45 different countries.
The closure of factories in New Zealand has grabbed a lot of headlines in the past year and driven concerns that manufacturing is at risk of dying in this country.
But those concerns are often founded on an outmoded idea that manufacturing is all about assembly lines and nuts and bolts.
The reality is that researching, developing, designing and marketing stuff is where the money is.
That's good because that's also where the most interesting jobs are - the kind of jobs our young people can aspire to.
These are the kind of jobs that our premier manufacturing companies can provide if they successfully expand in to the global market.
That process is hair-raisingly difficult to manage as both F&P Appliances and Nuplex discovered last year.
Move too slow and your competitors will eat you alive.
Move too fast and you risk being swallowed by debt if conditions turn against you.
The global financial crisis was so extreme that anyone in expansion mode was exposed. Thankfully both Appliances and Nuplex survived and appear to be recovering well.
New Zealand at its best is an ideas factory. Our education system and open, creative culture breed workers with the ability to think for themselves.
Unfortunately we continue to export many of our smartest and most innovative workers because not enough of our companies can afford to compete with the salaries offered overseas.
Matching those salaries isn't an easy proposition. But it is infinitely more desirable than the alternative - matching salaries with the countries where low-skilled assembly work is thriving.
Building an economy on low paid factory jobs is not a pleasant option from a first world perspective. But it is an option than many third world nations are embracing because their recent history is one of extreme poverty. That's not our history.
On the shop floor of our factories and production plants it is not unusual to find blue collar workers with a good grasp of company strategy and plenty of advice for the chief executive.
The goal for companies migrating low-skilled jobs offshore should be to grab that kind of talent, upskill and redeploy it.
When successful companies head offshore they are able to do that and avoid the kind of skill shortages that can hurt them further down the line.
Right now Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is providing an exemplary example. It is expanding in Mexico and in East Tamaki.
It is in control of the process. Generally it is when distressed companies are forced to move overseas in a hurry that the damage is done to workers and communities.
In those cases anger about factory closures is inevitable. But the broader, negative responses that pour forth every time a New Zealand company invests in offshore production are missing the point.
When the workers in Tijuana get their first pay-cheque they'll no doubt be thankful that a manufacturing company from an obscure country on the far side of the world decided to set up in their town.
Back in East Tamaki there will also be new staff clocking in for the first time. Graduate engineers and designers who can also be thankful they have a company that is not afraid to spread itself across the globe.
www.twitter.com/liamdann
