Viking Range Corporation, Bobcat, Schantz Organ Company and DePuy Inc. all have similiar qualities, which enable them to avoid out-sourcing or off-shoring their manufacturing. Time, product specialization, product quality, profit margins and location are the five major factors that determine the success of domestic manufacturing.

Examples:

Bobcat: “the company usually can deliver any of the hundreds of attachments it sells for its machines to a customer within four days, a feat almost impossible and certainly costly for any company with long supply lines stretching overseas.” Time and Location

Viking Range Corporation: “Beyond the upscale mystique, a big reason Viking can afford to keep expanding its U.S. manufacturing is the way it produces its products. Every stove and other major appliance made inGreenwood is made to order, which means the factories don’t produce it unless there is a customer for it.” High profit Margins and High Quality.

Schantz Organ Company: “The organ maker’s secret rests in its highly skilled work force. Nearly half the company’s 92 employees were raised on farms, including two former Amish. That background gives them exposure to woodworking and other mechanical skills needed in organ building, not to mention deep community roots, which tend to reduce turnover.” Oversea manufacturers lack necessary skills.

Schantz Organ Company: “But even then, workers spend years becoming proficient at their jobs, many of which are unique to this tiny industry. It takes four to five years to become a good pipe maker, for instance, while the company’s seven “voicers” each spend up to seven years as an apprentice learning how to tune each pipe by hand.” Quality and Skill

DePuy Inc: “While major orthopedics companies are looking overseas for cheaper places to produce items such as basic bone screws and metal plates, the U.S. retains a firm grip on the industry.” Profit Margins

QualityDePuy Inc: “‘The reason this business is in Warsaw and not Mexico is because margins are 70% or better,’ says Ron Clark, an orthopedic surgeon who founded his own company in
Fort Wayne.” Profit Margins

Another major similarity between these businesses, is their importance in towns.

Examples:

“Viking is by far Greenwood’s largest employer, with 1,300 local employees. An additional 100 employees work elsewhere. About 65% of the company’s work force is African-American, reflecting Greenwood’s population.”

“Today, about 60% of the workers who live within seven miles of Warsaw are directly or indirectly engaged in orthopedics manufacturing,”

“Literally, half the residents here work for Bobcat, the maker of the machines.”