A week ago I was presented with the blogging ranter's worst nightmare - a challenge to either do something about the problems plaguing manufacturing - or shut up. I have taken the challenge to heart, and the first step has been to pen an article encapsulating my stockpile of issues that I intend to send to quite a few people - 435 Congressmen and women, and 100 Senators, for starters. I will be rolling out a few other tricks after that with the goal of making as much noise as I can until we can get someone's attention concerning the seemingly insurmountable institutional obstacles to lean we all face.
I suffer from no illusions here. If you have never written to your Senator or Congressman you should just for the fun of it. You can write to him and tell him that his dog is ugly and his mother is a witch and you will receive a standard form letter in reply thanking you for your support, telling you how much he is doing to save your district, the nation and the world, and most important, where to send a campaign contribution.
But who knows, with 535 recipients, 99.8% of them can throw it in the trash and that still means one person actually read it. I have more to do after this, but the starting point seems to me to be to stake out my position - hence the article. Everything else can be built from that.
Where you come in is that I would appreciate all of the editorial comment I can get before it goes out. The readers of Evolving Excellence have never been shy - especially with constructive criticism. So please, let me have as much input as the spirit moves you to give. And feel free to share it with anyone you think might have a contribution to make to the cause.
You can read the article by clicking on THIS LINK, which will take you to my web site where you can download it. It is called The Hollow American Economy.
Give me your feedback by commenting here, sending me an email, or through my web site. I really do need the help. I am far from having all of the answers to our manufacturing decline and the challenges to becoming lean global leaders, but if what I know gets added to what all of you know, we have a lot of collective knowledge to bring to bear on the issues.
Thanks for the help - looking forward to the comments.