Regular readers know that we have a friendly (well, usually...) rivalry with the National Association of Manufacturers. NAM focuses on the regulatory, legal, and energy competitive burdens while we insist that the effect of these burdens is small compared to the opportunity presented by reducing internal waste at most companies.
Our recent tirade on a NAM study caught the eye of James Pethokoukis, a writer at U.S. News & World Report. After several email conversations between Pat Cleary at NAM and myself he wrote an article comparing our respective viewpoints. He was fairly accurate, however I wish he would have mentioned the Evolving Excellence blog as the real source instead of the Superfactory website. And successful domestic manufacturers aren't just large companies... in fact they are almost predominantly smaller and even private.
But we'll consider it a net positive that our viewpoint was given some press: that domestic manufacturers can compete globally by implementing lean manufacturing methods. And that the positive impact of these methods is considerably larger than the negative competitive burdens created by taxes, regulations, and energy costs.