What’s the Reasoning Behind Reshoring?

In an increasingly global economy, there is an interesting trend right now creating a lot of buzz – it’s called re-shoring.  This is essentially a reversal of off-shoring, a movement that many business and manufacturers have taken advantage of for several reasons – among them are cheaper labor costs, a global business presence, 24-hour customer service capability, etc. 

However, as global wages rise, the benefits of off-shoring are beginning to diminish, and many companies are singing the praises of re-shoring their work in order to achieve some of the same goals that were sought when offshoring.  Electronics manufacturing specifically has seen some interesting shifts in location, among other well publicized manufacturing shifts from China to the U.S. 

There are several advantages to having a business operate all under one roof: shorter lead times, eliminated waste, reduced intellectual property regulations, and fewer transport concerns, among other things.  However, the natural drawbacks for bigger companies are obvious – if your sales are global, it makes sense to have more than one location for your business.  This is essentially the same strategy that Jeff Bezos has with Amazon warehouses – go to where the customer is.  From this perspective, it may be desirable for a company with a global presence to continue to establish supply chain strength in places other than the original location of the business.

At Etratech, we’ve taken all of these thoughts and acted on them – with manufacturing bases both here in Burlington and (a recently expanded plant) in China, we can deliver to our customers exactly what they require, and from wherever they require.  At Etratech, the flexibility of having both options to choose from seemed to be the best way to cater to the requests of our customers, depending on their preferences.  It is this desire to better serve our customers that drives our business here at Etratech, and we’ll continue to make decisions based on that commitment. 

Want to weigh in?  Tweet @Etratech, or give us a call, we’d love to hear from you.