Take Back Manufacturing And Reshoring Initiatives – Interview With Nigel Southway
- Jul 26, 2023
- 5 min read
Nigel Southway is based in Toronto Canada and is an independent business consultant and recently authored the advocacy book Take Back Manufacturing.
He is also the author of Cycle Time Management: The Fast Track to Time-Based Productivity Improvement, an early textbook on the concept of LEAN thinking and Six Sigma, and how to implement it.
He consults and educates worldwide on Business Productivity Improvement, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Industry 4.0, National Sustainability & Prosperity, Global technology transfer projects and joint ventures and more.
He has gained experience assisting clients across a wide range of business sectors and industries and helps clients develop a strategy and a vision to attack waste, capture productivity improvements, increase profits, and become more competitive in the global market.
He is a past chair of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the leading advocate and spokesperson for the Take Back Manufacturing (TBM) Forum, and the North American Reshoring initiative in Canada.
Nigel Southway, Take Back Manufacturing Author
What is the TBM book about?
My new book Take Back Manufacturing An Imperative for Western Economies provides a justification and detailed guide for the reshoring of our Western industries. It has been written for all Western citizens, industry leaders and their governments to understand that Take Back Manufacturing is an imperative for the Western economies to ensure future productivity and prosperity.
Using my many years of manufacturing and business experience, including working in Mexico and China, and a decade of work with the TBM advocacy group, I take the reader through the history of manufacturing and explain in detail with a lot of facts, graphs, and diagrams how the globalized manufacturing approach, with its efficient supply chains supported by liberalized free-trade agreements, has been the business norm for the last four decades, and has been the prime reason for the hollowing out of the Western nations industrial base with the loss of national productivity and prosperity for its citizens.
In many western economies manufacturing has been neglected, with indifferent industrial policies, under-capitalization, and poor development funding. A significant trade imbalance has eradicated many jobs and small enterprises, with most of the production-capacity investment and technological development being relocated offshore to foreign factories. Not only have the western nations lost manufacturing capacity, but also the infrastructure to support the capability for new product development.
Currently, reshoring business models are demonstrating that current and future supply chain total costs have reached the tipping point offering reshoring back to localized factories as a competitive advantage across most industrial sectors.
And recently, the Covid supply chain disruption has sensitized everyone to the real and increasing cost, inherent waste, and instability of long supply chains.
Also, recent geo-politics with China and Russia has underscored how the dependence on globalized trade will become an economic security risk for the Western world. This realization is now encouraging Western economies to move back to more localized trade blocs, and why for most Western citizens it's time to "Take Back Manufacturing” to gain back lost prosperity.
This book discusses all the political, social, economic, and technological factors that must be considered for Western nations to take back manufacturing, including the investment in education, and technology, and how there will need to be a strong political review of social priorities, immigration strategy, and climate change action, as well as a clear national level recovery plan that will demand a strong political will.
I did not call the book “Welcome Back Manufacturing.” because for most Western economies manufacturing must be taken back with a focused and coordinated national level TBM roadmap. This must be embraced and followed by all involved: the political leadership, the industries, the education system, and society as a whole.
Why did you become an advocate for manufacturing and write the book?
It’s about paying back … Manufacturing has been good to me. I have had a long and prosperous career and it’s been almost 58 years since I started my British Engineering Apprenticeship at 16 years old in the Aerospace Industry. I want the youth of today to enjoy the prosperity that I got from manufacturing, and we must get our Western economies to benefit from a strong manufacturing base… again!
The concept of TBM started in 2011… I returned after five years in China as a joint venture coordinator responsible for setting up Chinese manufacturers to offshore products. I was horrified with how I had assisted in hollowing out our local industries.
We discussed the decline of our local manufacturing at the Society of Manufacturing Engineer’s (SME) Toronto chapter, and in a moment of jest I said … let’s take it back… and the concept took off from there, and it became an advocacy group for the recovery of our manufacturing sectors.
The TBM advocacy has been well supported by many other associations and societies, and we have introduced TBM at trade shows and delivered many presentations and many newspaper and magazine articles, including some presentations to local and federal governments, and we sat on several planning committees.
But by about 2016 it was clear that the current Canadian government, especially the federal government, had zero political will to undertake a manufacturing renaissance, and they even struggled with supporting the Canadian resource industries, and struggled with how to embrace the USMCA trade agreement.
What made you publish the book now?
The glimmer of hope was Trump’s presidency and his “localize trade” policies.
Also, the more recent geopolitical situation with China and Russia and the Covid supply chain disruption has sensitized everyone to what we were advocating with TBM, which is that globalization is not working for the Western world. For many it's now clear we need a total reshoring of our manufacturing so we can get back our prosperity and our economic security.
What is required to make TBM happen?
My book defines in detail three parallel initiatives we must follow…
Our North American Governments must act in coalition to setup the critical positioning of local trade and industrial policies, as well as changes in the approach for immigration, our educational system, industry 4.0, and climate change management, and the need to focus much more on total national sustainability in all forms.
The educational organizations must better integrate their efforts with industry with far more coordination by the government to achieve an Integrated Industrial Learning System.
Our Industries must accelerate the use of Productivity improvement concepts such as LEAN & Six Sigma and embrace new technologies such as INDUSTRY 4.0 as well as understand and explore the reshoring options much more.
What are the issues and roadblocks to TBM?
Clearly the need for strong political will to ensure we undertake the three parallel initiatives already mentioned, and the huge distraction being created by the unrealistic Climate NetZero policies that need much more review.
What’s next?
The next cycle of political elections both in the US and Canada will define the direction and level of opportunity for TBM in North America.
Although some action is being taken, we still lack political will and leadership in most Western nations to stand up to the many challenges to support reshoring, so I hope all Western governments and business leadership read this book!
Also, I am hoping our citizens realize just how much of our future prosperity depends on strong and local industrial sectors as they vote in the next elections.
To learn more about the new book Take Back Manufacturing and the Author, click here.
