Every time a missile misses its target, a train derails, or a faulty airbag fails to save a life, we wonder whether these failures, which can sometimes reach catastrophic proportions, are caused by a counterfeit part that may have infiltrated the supply chain.
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Every time we buy a fake Rolex watch or Gucci purse, do we think about the reasons behind the “affordable” price? Are we contributing to the unprecedented increase of counterfeit parts and products without even knowing it?
A newly released study by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicated that counterfeiting of technology and goods quadrupled from 2009 to 2011. The Department of Homeland Security said that consumer electronic counterfeits topped the pirated goods list last year, beating out counterfeit shoes for the top spot. A few years ago, the FBI seized more than $70 million counterfeit CISCO routers, which are commonly used both at home and at work for accessing the Internet.
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Comments
I hope this works
I am typically skeptical of registration schemes because they in no way guarantee excellence. Perhaps you can summarize the key points of the standards you listed? Nowhere in your article did you explain why that company thought it was a good idea to buy non-traceable components from an Asian country (yes I know that sounds bigoted) nor why anyone sends e-waste to China. Stupid is as stupid does.
There's more to counterfeit lethality
Let's think of generic drugs, of high volume foodstuff, of garments and detergents, for a start. When Economy goes slack, it's only normal to look for lok cost items and services. But - please - I simply cannot think as reasonable a 10 USD price for a 500 miles flight when driving from home to the airport costs ten times as much. In the US, I bought at a very cheap price a 500 pills box Paracetamol - it's the only analgesic I'm not allergic to: the pills didn't kill me but they didn't sweep my headache away. A few months later I bought even cheaper Paracetamol pills in Belgrade, and they were effective, indeed. In the generic drugs business we have to be very careful with eccipients, and with the trace substances left in active ingredients by the synthesis process. This holds true for foodstuff, too: water is not the same all the world, its cleaning processess, too. In the food business, may be in good faith, organic food is priced and sold as organic, which very seldom is, despite any registration or recognition. If an airplane crash can kill hundreds, food or drugs pandemies can kill tens of thousand.
Reshoring Can Help counterfeit, low quality parts
Reshoring domestic manufacturing can solve this problem and the dangers associated with counterfeit, low quality parts.
A declining U.S. manufacturing base poses risks for the entire nation, making the U.S. vulnerable on many fronts. The most obvious of the problems is that the U.S. is dependent on other nations for vital products and parts.
Reshoring U.S. manufacturing also encourages technology, innovation and know-how because as research shows, they follow production. As manufacturing is outsourced to other countries, the key technologies, many of them crucial to national security, go with them.
Reshoring U.S. Manufacturing also plays a critical role in the U.S. economy:
Much of the offshoring occurred because companies looked only at wages or prices and not total cost. The not-for-profit Reshoring Initiative’s free Total Cost of Ownership software helps corporations calculate the real P&L impact of reshoring or offshoring. http://www.reshorenow.com/TCO_Estimator.cfm
Current research shows many companies can reshore about 25% of what they have offshored and improve their profitability. Reshoring is far from the whole solution to the trade deficit problem, but it is one important and growing part.
You can reach Harry Moser, founder/president of The Reshoring Initiative, at harry.moser@reshorenow.org
www.reshorenow.org
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