International Business Module Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Solution 1

Manufacturing sector is the spine of any economy and plays a significant role in it if it is effectively managed. U.S manufacturing sector has suffered a serious loss due to the economic downturn in 2008 and various plants were closed during that time period. The other factor behind this downturn was a change in technology due to which a lot of jobs were cut down as there was more usage of the robotics and other machineries; this was one of the major causes of decline in jobs in the United States. Even though the economy was sustainable and growing in the last decade but various government policies were also affected badly by it. Assembly jobs also suffered from that technology practice due to the usage of artificial intelligence technology and computer-aided manufacturing. Other factors that were critical to the decline in the manufacturing sectors jobs was less educated people in engineering, chemical industry, lab technicians, quality control, production control, inventory managers, supply chain managers, distribution managers, research and development etc. Graduates from all over the industry were on the slower side and it was one of the main concerns for the United States as well. Another factor was the availability of cheap labor especially from China due to which a lot of jobs were shifted to China as a result of that factor.

Impact of Job loss in the U.S

United States was a firm believer of the Free Trade with the other countries and considered it as an opportunity in order to boost the trade and economy, but there were some drawbacks of it that were seen in the U.S like various jobs were transferred to the countries like China and Mexico due to the cheap availability of labor. There is no doubt that U.S was a stable economy on a consistent basis and had a potential to do lot better than what it was already doing, but due to the macroeconomic factors U.S suffered badly. There is no doubt that U.S adopted technology on priority basis as it was one the factor in contributing positively in the economy and more manufacturing jobs would be created, which did not happen in the U.S due to cheap availability of labor in other countries.

Solution 2

There are various macro economic factors that need to be organized in order to empower the U.S manufacturing sector. Some of them are as below:

  • Decreasing number of college graduates
  • Effective role of government
  • Effective usage of technology 

Decreasing Number of College Graduates           

            One of the concerns that U.S has over the last couple of years was a decrease in the number of university graduates in all fields including the manufacturing sector. This needs to be focused in order to introduce brilliant minds within the industry. American number of graduates is decreasing day by day, so they have to consider this issue otherwise U.S will face further problems similar to the past issues.

Effective Role of Government

            There should be an effective role of U.S government in order to grow the economy; government policies should be supportive for the manufacturing and other sectors so as to boost the job market. Taxation policy should be supportive to the industry as well as Free trade, it has one of the big causes of the job cut down in the U.S in the last decade, it should be designed according to the country’s jobless market as concerned. If cheap labor is available then it does not mean that U.S outsourced 100% from it, they should allocate the percentage of it like 50%-50%, 50% of labor should be best quality and other 50% should be selected internally within the country, this will provide sustainability in the job market in the long term.

Effective usage of technology           

            Effective usage of technology is also one of the key aspects and plays a major role in order to grow the manufacturing sector, for example if a machine has a capacity of producing 100 pieces per hour but due to the lack of knowledge of labor he is producing 50 per hour needs to be updated as per the capacity and offerings of the machine in order to get maximum output from it.

Solution 3

            Wham-O manufacturing promotes the product manufacturing and marketing in various countries, it is one of the ways to promote the product manufacturing at global level. Chinese usually were not preferred to take any assistance in manufacturing from the U.S but they were adopting Wham-O manufacturing in the last decade on regular basis. That deal with the Wham-O Inc. provided Chinese various benefits for example it boosted Chinese purchasing power. Previously, Americans outsourced their production and created joint ventures with Chinese companies in order to handle manufacturing and distribution efficiently and effectively. China actively participated in buying established businesses and running the business operations.

The purpose of China behind Wham-O manufacturing ..........................

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