The Onshoring Project Aims to Reverse Offshoring

A consortium of North American innovators, practitioners and supply chain experts from across the manufacturing industry have launched a new endeavor that aims to reverse offshoring. The Onshoring Project will develop and share new metrics, tools and practices that will shift executive focus from piece-price calculations toward sourcing from lean-performing North American suppliers.

The Onshoring Project goals include better customer fill rate, lower finished goods on hand, less work in process and inventory in transit, reduced inspection, lower safety stock, lower risk, faster innovation and shorter lead times.

“The Onshoring Project’s mission is to facilitate a shift in OEM executive behavior when they select and evaluate supply chain partners,” says Douglas K. Woods, president of the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT). “Through sharing best practices, documented case studies and supply management techniques, the Onshoring Project will prove the positive business impacts of working with lean and agile suppliers.”

Initial members include AMT, IndustryWeek, American Industrial Acquisition Corp (AIAC), Helpful Engineering, the Reshoring Initiative and Gardner Business Media, under which MoldMaking Technology is situated. These organizations have signed the Onshoring Project’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) that outlines the goals of the consortium.

COVID-19 highlighted problems with overextended and inefficient offshore supply chains. The Onshoring Project intends to provide participants with a new playbook to create robust supply chains and better profitability.

“We have arrived at a pivotal moment as we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis and the associated supply chain disruptions,” says Ben Treuhaft, president and CEO of Helpful Engineering. “We see the potential for new business models, mutually beneficial ways of businesses interacting with each other and the potential for new technologies providing value — not just for Onshoring Project participants, but North American manufacturing at large.”

Harry Moser, founder and president of the Reshoring Initiative, says that the added strength to the Onshoring Project team will help double the rate of jobs being onshored, create new domestic jobs and reduce the trade deficit.

U.S. manufacturing has stabilized since 2010, with manufacturing employment reportedly being up by more than 600,000, despite the 2020 recession. The rate of manufacturing onshoring has increased from 6,000 jobs per year in 2010 to a peak of 190,000 in 2017. However, offshoring has continued, and the trade deficit has grown. The Onshoring Project claims that if all companies included total cost of ownership (TCO) and manufacturing critical-path time (MCT) in their sourcing and plant-siting decisions, U.S. manufacturing would increase by about 20%, or more than two million jobs.