So many companies recently have attempted either to relaunch manufacturing lines or to launch new ones, unsuccessfully, in the energy sector, that it makes us wonder if manufacturing of new technology is too risky for America.
This article is a great illustration of the risks involved in too much distance from a manufacturing infrastructure. It can lead companies (such as Solyndra and Evergreen) to look dynamic and innovative, when in fact the support for their new technologies is simply not there. There will be far more failures than successes in a “go it alone” philosophy.
Sunlogics attempt to restart old manufacturing processes, under the philosophy that it could go alone simply because it had a captive client, proved false. The reality is that the market shifted on it, yet this was all happening before they closed their agreements. While plans plowed forward as if the rest of the market is unimportant, the fact is that others (GE) were announcing huge plans in technologies far superior.
So companies like Sunlogics and Solyndra are basically doomed to failure if they don’t participate in a “group cluster” of support for production of technologies which face asian cost challenges. This brings to mind how the Japanese government basically dictates direction to its small cluster of major companies and then they all get “with the program” and begin work together and separately on their individual visions of how to achieve what the government directs them to do. Its a more “central government” directed method which has proven itself successful for the japanese and now the chinese.
As the article says, innovation in manufacturing is possible in the USA, however it requires that groups work together rather than apart, and that is a big challenge for companies which are so used to shunning “not made here” innovation.