The Very Serious People said… well we don’t do the manufacturing but we do the engineering and design. That’s the natural order of things, said the VSPs.
Untrue. Engineering and design goes where the manufacturing is. Which is why China is high tech… the U.S. is a net importer of advanced tech… and Apple doesn’t change that.
But now Foxconn, a potent symbol of the perks and perils of globalization, is taking a step that, not all that long ago, would have seemed unthinkable: it is contemplating life far, far beyond Apple.
Foxconn, which is based here but does most of its manufacturing in mainland China, wants to reduce its reliance on Apple. Its new strategy is a shift away from making products that other companies design, and toward developing products of its own, with an especially aggressive push into designing and manufacturing large, flat-screen televisions.
Engineering and design goes where the manufacturing is simply because manufacturing is the physical center of gravity and the entire cycle of development to customer is an iterative process or feedback loop. Busting up the process into stovepipes can only result in trouble not getting fixed.