Some time ago the wisest among the wise predicted that the next great war would be only economic . These wise men (obviously philosophers rather than economists) ignored what would happen in the United States : the most hopeful president of all time (Barack Obama, the dream of Martin Luther King materialized) would happen in the White House the most reckless president ( Donald Trump ), who has made that forecast good, as evidenced by the commercial battle that rages furiously against China.

This is a volatile context that capitalizes on capital. In the almanacs the quarters of the recession are already marked, the evolution of the GDP is seen with a magnifying glass and in countries like Spain, where the possibility of a government sounds more like Tolkien than Rousseau , the shadow of another crisis would sink even more into a population that still recovers from the wounds of the financial bubble.

Two leaders can twist the course of events today because the economy is really one, just like oxygen. This certainty explains perhaps the opportunity of the study prepared by Marcelo Leporati, director of the Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation area at EAE Business School under the following title: Made in Spain .

Again? With the help of two international databases (the European Reshoring Monitor and the Reshoring Initiative Report), Leporati delves into a concept that antagonizes another of our great recent enemies: facing relocation , relocation , that is, rescue of the productive process of a company or, more easily said, the return to the sweet home . A phenomenon that, according to the data collected, is far from massive: 208 cases in the European Union and only nine registered in Spain, where the names that stand out are those of Mango and the Orbea bicycle shop.

SOCK

Behind all the stories of relocation a similar narrative throbs: American and European companies that once moved their factories to China due to the lower cost of labor now travel the reverse way thanks to the emergence of industry 4.0 , characterized by a more sophisticated image than Fordist production chains, where the operator still played a decisive role that robots absorb today. The human being is called to be more cerebral than ever, because the idea, the concept and the margins on which artificial intelligence has to move depend on him. This means training, research and development, programming, high-flying engineering. Just the areas where the West can stand up to the yellow dragon.

Before delving into the secrets of reshoring , Leporati reviews in his report the reasons that once fed the relocating ogre. "Generally companies in developed countries have made the decision to perform offshoring for reasons based on costs. That is, labor costs, raw materials or lower resources in order to increase the margin and improve productivity . Other reasons important [...] have been the tax advantages of some countries or access to conditions of available skills or technology, such as Southeast Asia as an ecosystem for the electronics industry. These ecosystems are commonly known as clusters . "

The cost argument can be turned around like a sock for a simple matter of progress: as the less rich countries evolve (and this is very clearly the case of China, which already has a huge and sui generis middle class ) , the working conditions are updated and the song of good, beautiful and cheap gives way to an invoice sometimes difficult to justify. "There is a varied bibliography regarding the reasons for reshoring or nearshoring [the decision to produce near the country where the parent company is located].

The causes of reshoring , as in the case of offshoring , are based on costs, that is, on a progressive increase in those costs in the country where the offshoring was carried out and that no longer make it so attractive to produce a great distance from the consumer market or by reducing the risk in the supply chain [...]. There is also a disconnect between the reasons for relocation and relocation . While cost was the main reason for relocation, in the case of relocation value creation is the main generator of the decision to relocate production . There is also a great relationship between relocation and the different forms of technological innovation in manufacturing, known as industry 4.0. Companies that choose to relocate have a greater degree of technological innovation compared to companies that carry out relocations and the same applies to those that maintain local production, "describes the study.

EXCEPTIONS

The United Kingdom, France, Italy and Denmark are the countries that are more inclined to return home. Nearshoring barely represents 5% of total migrations and is usually set in Romania, Poland, Spain and Portugal . Our problem, according to Leporati, is that no government has clearly embraced "the comprehensive innovation strategy , as it does, for example, in Finland or France, where the entire regulatory framework is designed to attract those companies that left ". It is not, even in these paradigmatic nations, simple decisions, since the average between relocation and relocation is, according to the study, at 12.6 years. "This relocating current began at the end of the 90s and gains some strength in Europe from 2014. They are never decisions taken overnight, the process of going outside, seeing the problems and challenges, correcting them and finally understand that you can be more competitive in your country of origin moves very large amounts of capital, "says the professor, who stops a few moments in the example of Mango, textile that" has followed the steps of Inditex ", because" if you produce 10,000 kilometers away you will encounter difficulties such as the complexity of the supply chain, the quality of the workforce or the risk of using children in manufacturing. Producing nearby makes all the sense here. "

This game of pimpon admits some exceptions. The most notable affects the technology industry, with special mention to the smartphone, that gadget devised by Steve Jobs allegedly to improve human relations. Here China has played its cards with such mastery that it is only possible to take off the hat. Although Apple herself wanted to withdraw from Asia (and does not want to), she could never emulate the jellyfish in Shenzhen: if ideas (some ideas) ferment in Silicon Valley, products (almost all products) come alive in this exaldea of ​​fishermen which today exceeds 12 million inhabitants without disheveled, including numerous half-planet hustlers. "Southeast Asia was first attractive for its pricing policy, but then it was able to create a cluster that covers the entire production process [something that Europe has also done with the aerospace industry]. Leaving from there is impossible," ditch Leporati, who He cites in parallel the opposite case of the motor industry, "where large groups are widely dispersed throughout the world in part by the volume of the final product." Another exception, or rather an antidote, is marketing, again the narrative of the singular, the exclusive or the artisan, which is what happens when one thinks of Mini cars or Brompton folding bicycles, jewelry made in England. A similar mechanism operates in the peculiar photographic community: Fujifilm manufactures most of its objectives in Japan and this generates a consensus of excellence. Swiss watches, on the other hand, are still recreated in their motto (Swiss made) although there are not a few who cheat.

THE WORK FACTOR

The study estimates that only 10% of the total jobs lost in manufacturing in the European Union between 2003 and 2016 have been as a result of relocation. Europe has generated 9,267 jobs thanks to relocations , while in the United States the figure amounts to 19,581. Only 1% of the jobs generated by reshoring in the EU come from Spain (90 jobs!). Yes, the romanticism inherent in the concept is pure fantasy . Leporati illustrates: " If you have a factory in Albacete with 100 employees and you go to China, you load 100 jobs in Spain . Then, if one day I come back, you will not hire another hundred professionals by far because your factory will be a lot more automated.Maybe you hire five, maybe 10 , but the balance will always be deficient.However , I would advise seeing the other side of the coin as well.The relocation has a very positive impact on the environment.How much CO2 you stop issuing when there is no need to bring things from such a distant place? "

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  • Spain
  • China
  • European Union
  • France
  • Europe
  • U.S
  • Mango
  • Portugal
  • Poland
  • GDP
  • Italy
  • United Kingdom
  • Denmark
  • Asia
  • Barack Obama
  • Donald Trump
  • Inditex Group
  • Japan

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