Productivity's Role in the Future of Manufacturing

What key competitive ingredient has China sold to Corporate America? Infrastructure? Worker knowledge/skills? Logistics? Value added? State-of-the-Art technology? Quality?
How about CHEAP Labor, period!
What can the small to mid sized manufacturer do to remain competitive?
How about Automation?
The idea that automation is expensive, complicated and not ready for the small shop is a notion that keeps many shop owners from pursuing automated solutions. This is important because today’s competition for the small shop is not the guy down the street. Today, it’s the shop in another country, even across an ocean. When faced with problems with low-wage, global competitors, solutions can seem too expensive, too complicated and out of reach.
Ask yourself this, if you reduced your labor costs by 80%, what would that do for the next job you quote?
In the Business Week article below (web link), reference is made to what a 5% improvement in productivity here in the U.S. will get you… not much!
What would an affordable automated system get you? Throw in the people needed to get it designed, set-up and running?
It may be true that today, automation is not entirely viable for the little guy. We’d like to change that.
Dave
"The China Price"