Manufacturing Talks Web Show and Podcast

The manufacturing talent shortage ain't going away, folks. But there are some superb solutions out there. It was intriguing to chat with Jeannine Kunz, incoming CEO at SME; Scott Slovell, President and CEO at SmithCo Side Dump Trailers; and Chris Kuntz, VP of Strategic Operations at Augmentir, to hear their perspectives on how manufacturers can get ahead in this critical area. Read all about it in my latest piece for Forbes.

I'm happy to announce that I've launched my Manufacturing Talks Substack, and I decided to get out of the gates in a big way. My first piece is, "It's Time to Abolish DEI." Here's the lowdown: I. Manufacturing is leading the way on a critical business correction: the destructive ideology of DEI has finally seen the sustained attack on its existence that it has forever deserved, and is now being dismantled at companies such as Boeing, Harley-Davidson, and John Deere. II. This is the problem: the fact is, we never should have adopted identity-driven workplace favoritism in the first place. DEI has been touted an a benign way to repair the lingering ills of past discrimination. In reality it rests on a foundation of active discrimination against innocent people, who are being punished simply for the immutable characteristics of their birth. III. Here is how I propose we fix it: the recent election represented a rejection by a majority of the US of failed “progressive” policies in America, which presents a moment of opportunity for everybody who long ago realized the immorality of DEI to band together and to summon the courage to tell our leaders that it’s unacceptable. We should use the leverage of those large companies that have led the way to push for a universal abandonment of DEI everywhere in the US. You can read the full article at the link in the comments section below. And please do hit that "Subscribe" button! #dei #diversity #equity #inclusion

The Colossal Deception of Solar and Wind: The Hard Truth in 4 Charts. When it comes to energy sources, there are two forms of insanity we are witnessing today. The first is sticking with polluting fossil fuels, which account for 82 percent of global energy, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy. The second insanity is believing that intermittent renewables such as solar and wind are the best alternative to change that, as shown below with data from Eurostat. The five European countries with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per unit of electricity generation are Norway, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Finland. They have all achieved this through nuclear, hydro, or both. By contrast, the five countries which have invested most in solar and wind – Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland – all have much higher emissions and energy prices. Why are dependable green sources so vastly superior to these intermittent pretenders? The answer is brutally simple: when darkness falls or winds die down, there is no magical battery technology capable of storing surplus energy at the massive scale needed to power an entire grid through extended dead periods. The inconvenient truth? These solar and wind-obsessed nations are forced to frantically fire up their natural gas or coal plants as a crutch, adding enormous hidden costs that promoters of renewables conveniently ignore. Here's the painful reality: Solar and wind require an entire parallel backup generation system – a monumentally expensive redundancy forcing hardworking citizens to pay double for what amounts to single-system reliability. Worse still, these backup gas or coal plants, operating in sporadic bursts with constant starting and stopping, run at pathetically low efficiency while burning nearly the same amount of fuel. The damning evidence? Look no further than California, the self-proclaimed green energy paradise, where emissions have actually crept upward since 2017 even as they've plastered the state with more and more solar panels, while helpless households crumble under the crushing weight of astronomical energy bills that would make even a Silicon Valley executive wince 👉 https://lnkd.in/gtnuMx57.

Francis Menton is simply brilliant, and the piece below is one of his most brilliant ones yet. Do read the whole thing. There are two enormous challenges for American manufacturing faces right now in its efforts to compete in the global market. The first is energy policy. America is currently on the same path as Germany, which is amply demonstrating that its policy is effectively national economic suicide. With the election and the coming retrenchment on energy policy, it's my fervent wish that most people will never realize the economic abyss the US just stepped back from. The other is all the other (hyper-) regulations. The new administration should pursue extremely radical deregulation for industry. It's a simple fact that overregulation is THE single biggest reason our otherwise brilliant and world-beating US manufacturers can't compete. Fixing these two problems is the only "industrial policy" America needs.

Here's a book anyone interested in revitalizing American industry should read. If nothing else, read what Henry Kaiser did for American shipbuilding. (How sad that his most public remaining legacy is the poisonous health care powerhouse Kaiser Permanente, which arose from his WWII-era innovation of giving his workers health benefits.) Here's a thought: among the many other public duties that it appears Elon Musk will be asked to undertake for the new administration, how about we also task him with rebuilding (from the almost nothing where it is now) the US capability to make ships once again?