Since the last recession of 2003, the topic “Made in the USA” has become a flash point for much heated discussions, and has intensified during the “Great Recession” of 2008. Unfortunately, engineers and industrial designers often avoid this topic, unless they can speak anonymously, for fear of possible repercussions. So I was glad to see topic discussed in the blog of Melanie Conklin (see here).

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Although this article may appear to be discussing some completely unrelated topics at first, they are all interconnected which I will try to explain. Most of you know that engineers design products, or analyze systems, such as finite-element analysis (FEA), computation fluid dynamics (CFD), etc. What you may not be aware of it that we frequently use 3-D CAD/CAE tools for our work with the possible exception of some architects who seem to be still relying on 2-D AutoCAD. And yes, engineers that use 3-D CAD tend to think of themselves as more sophisticated than their 2-D CAD counterparts. Oddly enough, it seems as though more job openings are available using 2-D than 3-D CAD at the moment.

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Because of my business as a product design consultant, I will occasionally received requests from clients looking for a domestic contract manufacturer that is able to contend with competitors in China.  I had read an article titled Battling China on Price in BusinessWeek magazine (May 13, 2009), and decided to look around at domestic manufacturers.  For this road trip, I was specifically looking for a plastic injection-molder.

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