There are more than a few problems getting stuff done in Asia, especially China, where what we consider unethical practices are common. The most basic one though is the long logistics tail (14 weeks min on most consumer goods) and poor education of their work force. Technical training in China is abysmal and the degrees granted by most of their schools mean almost nothing in terms of real acwuired skills and knowledge. Potential buyers who are naive about that have supply and quality problems big time. The labor is cheap and diligent though so if the buyer supplies enough oversight and can handle the logisitics well, decent results can be obtained in most cases.
Gerbings had a rash of issues in China from bad quality to major backlogs of items to poor sizing control. Whether they really got them fixed there I don't know but they sure won't do any worse with US staff. There is plenty of skilled, low wage by US std textile workers still around in NC so they should have no difficulty finding them. If they treat their folks decently they won't bail. The first sign of poor plant managment in NC is when all the native locals bail and are replaced with illegals- the cause of this isn't wages but working conditions around things like mandatory odd and long hours to make up for managment failures to plan and then making that a constant work condition.(One plant I know where this happened ran 7 days, 21 hours when actually understaffed for full production at 5 days, 16 hours. That pretty much destroys families for workers) . A reason we need criminal penalities for employers hiring those without the legal right to be here.
So to my friend Jerry for when that tour happens- ask if they use the INS database systems to screen employees. Its basically a check for a valid SSID and most firms allow folks 90 days to correct any lack of that or be replaced. If Gerbings doesn't use the system, their presence in the US means little.
Gerbings had a rash of issues in China from bad quality to major backlogs of items to poor sizing control. Whether they really got them fixed there I don't know but they sure won't do any worse with US staff. There is plenty of skilled, low wage by US std textile workers still around in NC so they should have no difficulty finding them. If they treat their folks decently they won't bail. The first sign of poor plant managment in NC is when all the native locals bail and are replaced with illegals- the cause of this isn't wages but working conditions around things like mandatory odd and long hours to make up for managment failures to plan and then making that a constant work condition.(One plant I know where this happened ran 7 days, 21 hours when actually understaffed for full production at 5 days, 16 hours. That pretty much destroys families for workers) . A reason we need criminal penalities for employers hiring those without the legal right to be here.
So to my friend Jerry for when that tour happens- ask if they use the INS database systems to screen employees. Its basically a check for a valid SSID and most firms allow folks 90 days to correct any lack of that or be replaced. If Gerbings doesn't use the system, their presence in the US means little.
