HYBRID MOTORCYCLE U.S. MADE

Two wheel vehicle resists flipping over in case of an accident

For those of us who never considered the motorcycle as a budget alternative due to its unique characteristic of not being very “accident-friendly,” the day may have come where we can enjoy an efficient, two-wheel vehicle while still feeling safe.

Lit Motors, located in the Bay Area, is billing their motorcycle-car hybrid- the C-1- as a “rolling smartphone”, not only because of its innovative navigation systems, but also because it has a built-in gyroscopic stabilizing system designed to prevent the C-1 from tipping over, even in some collisions.

 

In addition to gyroscopic sensors, the C-1 is also equipped with all the latest “smartphone” software now being integrated into automotive vehicles like GPS traffic updates, real-time weather tracking, as well as H2V, H2C, and V2V connectivity. V2V especially gives the C-1 the ability to predict if a road situation may lead to an accident, and how the driver can avoid it.  And those sweet glowing hubs?  Not just for show, they’re the vehicle’s power source; in-wheel electric motors.

Although finally making the jump from preliminary design to prototype, Lit Motors is keeping further details of the C-1 under wraps until it makes its showroom debut in 2014.  You can catch a sneak peak of the C-1 in action, however, on a released promo ad here.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

ROTOR CLIP CHINA: WINDOW ON AN EMERGING ECONOMY

There has been a lot written about China’s emergence as a world economic power. But it is difficult to fathom in mere words the scope of what is actually taking place on the ground there.

 RotorClip recently opened a sales office, just west of Shanghai. We will be exporting our retaining rings, wave springs and hose clamps to the many manufacturing operations that have sprung up there. Our office is located on the 15^th floor of a high rise building in JH Plaza on Huqingping road, a busy street in this part of town. There are two views from our office windows that really tell the story of growth in China.

The first is a view (above) looking out to the right of our office window from the 15^th floor. It shows fields in the back that were once farmland; the two story structures in the foreground were small attached shops with living quarters on top. The government has bought out the owners of the land and the shops and relocated them to other areas (usually in high rise apartments). They are now in the process of tearing down the structures.

The second (above) is a view looking out to the left of our office window. It shows the kind of building that is taking place on these vacated properties. They are putting up structures like these that will serve as apartment buildings, office buildings and factories.

Not sure how long they can keep this up, but it is certainly happening just about everywhere you go in Shanghai. It’s a city full of energy and enthusiasm, and we are happy to be a part of it.

Joe Cappello is Director of Global Marketing for Rotor Clip Company.

THE TIPPING POINT



The year 2015 will mark the beginning of a “tipping point” where bringing the supply

chain closer to home will outweigh the previous cost advantages of producing

in China.

Building on their previous work last year, Boston Consulting Group released its most recent report confirming outsourcing losing its cost advantage for American companies.  Last August, BCG gave its first release of findings that wages in China- the chief motivator of off-shoring- were increasing by 15 to 20 percent annually.  At that rate, the labor-deficit in cost would shrink to 39 percent of an advantage for China by 2015; not a number most companies would bite on as a savvy move:

“Wage and benefit increases of 15 to 20 percent per year at the average Chinese factory will slash China’s labor-cost advantage over low-cost states in the U.S., from 55 percent today to 39 percent in 2015, when adjusted for the higher productivity of U.S. workers. Because labor accounts for a small portion of a product’s manufacturing costs, the savings gained from outsourcing to China will drop to single digits for many products.”

The previous report in October added to this with a more specific analysis of exactly what types of industry would be relocating jobs and business back stateside:

“In addition to transportation goods, electrical equipment/appliances, and furniture, the sectors most likely to return are plastics and rubber products, machinery, fabricated metal products, and computers/electronics.  Together, these seven industry groups could add $100 billion in output to the U.S. economy and lower the U.S. non-oil trade deficit by 20 to 35 percent, according to BCG.” –

A recent article in The Economist lists a study that confirms the rising wages of Chinese labor dating from even two years ago:

“China has the world’s largest manufacturing workforce: more than 112m people at the end of 2006, according to Erin Lett, formerly of America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics, and Judith Banister of the Conference Board, who include enterprises in China’s towns and villages…But it is not as cheap as it was. Workers’ compensation rose by more than 9% a year in dollar terms from 2002 to 2006, according to Ms Lett and Ms Banister, and by over 11% in the cities. A new study by Dennis Tao Yang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Vivian Chen of the Conference Board and Ryan Monarch of the University of Michigan suggests that Chinese workers, in the cities at least, are now as expensive as their Thai or Filipino peers.” –The next China, The Economist, July 29^th, 2010

The resulting numbers prompt BCG to predict that the year 2015 will mark the beginning of a “tipping point” where cost advantages doing business in China will slow to the point that American companies will begin to reel supply chains back closer to home.

It’s probably wise to emphasize that this is what BCG projects could happen within the next few years.  The release is a cheery read and gives a good summary of not just the numbers but also to a general feeling that companies who have outsourced for the past couple decades now have a lengthy body of long-term data to review, and the overall profit margin for most of them isn’t as impressive as it was supposed to be.   There are two tracks of thought here: one is that cheap labor is worth spreading out your operations, the other is that immediacy of communication among the chain is paramount to your overall bottom line.  I suppose the former works when labor is so dirt cheap you can get people to build your product for a cot and a biscuit a day (I don’t know how your conscience holds up in that scenario, but that appears to be a moot point to everyone these days).  However, it’s my opinion that the latter has more sneaky value because of the overall cost efficiency of your whole business; geography counts for a whole lot when your entire mission is to assemble parts from various locations as well as possible.  That’s just an obvious bonus on every level of your business. 

You could also make a solid argument that the expense going overseas has always been there, and that it took the Recession for American manufacturing to really look at the actual numbers involved in how much a stretched supply chain actually costs.

All in all, the numbers could be heralded as good news to those who believe rising wages in China translate directly to a flood of jobs back to the States.  It is important to note, however, that off-shoring was a trend exacerbated from globalization and the global economy isn’t going away here.  China may have lost its luster from a labor perspective, but that does not at all in any way mean it is not a major player here to stay.  China’s heavy dependence on exports and sheer volume of available labor all but guarantees its position as a chief importer, to say nothing of the Chinese government’s manipulation of its currency.  Even if jobs do leave, they’re likely to end up in Mexico or Korea before coming back here.  The US is doing its best to stay competitive for the work, but if we want more domestic jobs, a strategy to create new work will be more realistically viable than trying to lure old ones back.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

SME Education Foundation’s Excellent Example



SME provides "cool" manufacturing site for elementary students.

I’ve posted on here before lamenting the missed opportunities we’ve had the previous few decades to incorporate more incentives to educate a whole new generation of manufacturers.  There are certainly a lot of outside uncontrollable factors that went into the shifting global landscape.  Labor advantages, third-world modernization, take your pick; life does not happen in a vacuum, and that goes for the U.S. manufacturing industry as well.

 However, there are those of us who still believe that we wouldn’t be having the issues of unemployment and brain drain we have today (or at least as large a problem as they are today) had we not invested more in educating our youth the past twenty years. That’s why it’s rather refreshing for me to see the Science, Math, and Engineering Education Foundation, or SMEEF,  spread awareness to students at the elementary level about subjects relating to manufacturing, and doing it through their chief medium of communication nowadays:

 SME recently updated their website, Manufacturing Is Cool, a wonderfully interactive site targeting young students by featuring examples of science and engineering in their everyday life.  It’s broken down into categories like technology, food, entertainment and mechanics.  Each category not only explains how certain products are made, providing YouTube links to illustrate the factory process, but they also allow for students to explore the engineering process itself.

The language is a tad precious (the designers make the classic mistake of assuming hip kid lingo amounts to a lot of alliterations like “snacking solutions, distracting diversions, chatting contraptions”, etc.)  but the site’s concept is a brilliant example of how the internet should be used:  bridging areas of life and industry that on the surface look completely unrelated.  Students can learn how cell phone technology works, then jump with one click to a press release about NASA’s next Mars probe.

There’s a feature on Xerox’s history, as well as how Xerox’s digital printing process translates into successful mass publishing; a genius way to lure more literature-minded students to manufacturing (if this site had been around when I was in elementary school, my career choices might have turned out differently.  Of course the internet wasn’t a “thing” back then, so I probably would’ve just gone back into the living room and watched TV.  Ah, the ambitions of a suburban pre-teen in the 90’s…).  Additionally, the site features social media links, scholarship information, and sponsor links as well.

The site’s subtitle: “Be An Original Thinker!”  summarizes the forward-thinking approach of its designers.  Nowhere here are students lectured on what jobs they should do, or what careers they should be preparing for, or even that they should necessarily be preparing right now anyway.  Instead, SME’s site just tries to reveal the hidden connections in the everyday world, get students to see beyond the colorful shell of a smartphone and be aware of the different kinds of jobs and sectors that converge in order to make that smartphone function.  This way, students are introduced to knowledge concepts through the world around them, and as someone whose taught students before, trust me when I say this kind of approach is phenomenally more successful in results than pushing information on them in the form of traditional subjects, like “study this math lesson or you won’t pass this test we use to say whether you’re smart or not.”

So as the kids say, “Big Ups” to the SME Foundation for meeting students on their playing field with an original and clever educational site.  I encourage  everyone reading to hop onto the link provided (here it is again, in case you missed it, and you just don’t feel like going two paragraphs all the way back, poor thing) and lend them your attention.  You’ll be helping out a terrific educational effort.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

What Can Cash Mobs Teach Us?

I was recently introduced by a friend to a small store in Los Angeles that’s part of the Downtown Women’s Center.  Made By DWC is a boutique store that sells goods and products made by low-income women.  While I really want to root for a store with that kind of a mission, I made a passing comment lamenting how long before it probably goes out of business.  “Well they just got cash mobbed, so they’re doing pretty well this month,” my friend said.  I thought of a few comebacks but ultimately settled with “What the hell is a cash mob?”

“Cash Mobs” have quickly become a new phenomenon born out of the internet’s “social media” phase.  The idea, widely credited to Chris Smith of Buffalo, is that small businesses get a boost from an organized “mob” of customers who meet and coordinate through online networking.   The concept has so far been put to use in various areas around the country and met much success.  Made By DWC had 35 people from LA Cash Mobs purchase a total of $1200 in a couple of hours.  More interestingly, thanks to a self-imposed rule that cash mobs have to buy everything at the offered price, the practice is more profitable for businesses than turning to the recent Groupon craze that enables customers to buy as much as they can for as little as possible, usually resulting in the business never able to make up the money lost to discounts.  Unlike the Groupon fad, cash mobs have a few things going for them to be attractive to a small business struggling in a small market; no discounts needed, traffic guaranteed to purchase, and online marketability. 

That marketability can’t be overstated; instead of a crowd of people stomping into your store to get a deal, unaware and probably uncaring of who you are and why you chose to open this business, cash mobs are people flooding your store with the intent to improve their local business community, and therefore want to know more about you.  Smith elaborated this in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition:

"What you get with a Groupon or a Living Social deal is a one-time injection. And it's not necessarily a profitable injection," Smith says. "You're having to cut your prices so significantly. I think with this, because we ask people to come and spend a little time in the store, we encourage the entrepreneur to spend some time with each of the shoppers and introduce themselves, talk about the products they have. It builds a relationship that you don't get with a coupon." – Chris Smith to Daniel Robinson, March 29^th, 2012; WBFO.

So what does this have to do with manufacturing?  This kind of community-support sentiment is prominent and very powerful all over the U.S. right now, born out of a general awareness as to the damage the Recession did to American enterprise.  Advocates are realizing the never-ending possibilities of the internet when it comes to organizing events, and it’s these kinds of efforts that are not only giving local retailers a financial boost, but also giving them a chip in the social media PR game. 

I wonder what the manufacturing landscape would look like if it had its own brand of cash mobs.  I realize it’s a bit crude to try to fit the concept of customers gathering together and attempt to support their local glass factory  by buying from it directly.  However, consumers could certainly help manufacturing businesses that may suffer from the kind of brand obscurity that comes with, well, being a manufacturing business.  Tweeter, Facebook, and all the rest of the bells and whistles on the ol’ computer box have taught us that the individual web-surfer can now double as a bona-fide marketing firm.  Cash mobs directly giving their business to manufacturing may not be feasible, but online groups “mobbing” a business to profile it most definitely has a positive impact on its brand awareness. 

Hey, even an indirect cash mob could work.  What’s to stop cash mobs from inundating a store with their foot traffic with the intent of buying a product specifically because it’s made with a part or parts from a local manufacturing business?  I like this idea because it hinges on customers’ growing consciousness of how their products are assembled, as well as an improved line of communication between manufacturing and the end customer, something severely lacking and, in my opinion, contributing to people not knowing more about job opportunities in the industry.

So while the internet is indeed producing its fair share of failed experiments, the cash mob movement may be one that hasn’t even begun to show its true promise yet.  Its very popularity proves that there’s momentum out there for pro-business advocacy on the grassroots level.  Instead of just letting the software and retail score another point in the PR game, manufacturers should stop following their lead and meet the consumer base directly on this one.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

*Stuff* We Should Make Special Edition: Flying Cars Vs. Flying Pigs

 Oh, silly people from the 1950’s and your wacky forward-thinking concepts and ideas...  

Seriously, what happened to the flying car thing?  Was all that just the product of some post-WWII affluent-lifestyle-thinking?  Were we all just so mesmerized by DuPont plastics and Avon and Cadillac and everyone else in the realm of making things that looked so shiny and new, we were convinced we had reached the future a little farther down the road than we really had?  Did the atom bomb, which was supposed to spur the imaginations of the masses in developing technology and products beyond our wildest dreams, wind up stunting us as creative in only weapons of warfare and clever budget tricks? 

Or were we just not smart enough to become a nation of pilots (which is a shame, because I rock the Aviators almost as hard as Beckham.)?

If it only came down to the latter, that may be an issue in the makings of being resolved.  Terrafugia, based just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, is a firm made up of aeronautic engineers, business majors, but all of them private pilots.  Their “About Us” portion of the website introducing the staff shows how passionate they are about their work. CEO/CTO and founder Carl Dietrich received his private pilot license when he was seventeen.  Even the VP of Sales, Cliff Allen, characterizes himself in his online bio as an “aviation nut” who “owns a 1949 Piper Clipper, which he is restoring.”  (I have no idea what the significance is either, but it is a pretty sweet little plane). 

The point being, these guys understand the intricate nuances of flying, most importantly that they’re waaay more difficult than doing a K-Turn in your Chevy Tahoe.  This is why their prototype- the Transition- a plane valued at $279,000 with fold-up wings that enable it to legally drive on roads, might be one of the best models out there of a flying car with some semblance of a chance to be mass-marketed.  In a profile of the Transition from the Economist, Dietrich himself explains how modern navigation systems have resolved much of the issue of common knowledge:

 

“Whereas once a pilot needed to know how to triangulate his position using ground-based radio beacons, portable GPS units and altimeters can now do the job. ‘There are now off-the-shelf systems that can give you the same kind of instrumentation capabilities as an airliner,’ says Mr Dietrich. As a result, although there are restrictions on flying at night or through bad weather, it is possible for someone to get a Lite-Sport licence with just 20 hours’ flying experience—less time than many people spend learning to drive.” – The Economist, Technology Quarterly: What Happened To the Flying Car?

That “Lite-Sport” phrase refers to the latest category created by the FAA 8 years ago to include small private aircraft; a move that actually resulted in an easier path for individuals obtaining pilot licenses.  This, in turn, has created a new market for small plane manufacturing, and since many pilots flying this specific craft tend to have to land it at airfields farther away from areas with easy access to public transportation, the idea of a plane being able to take you up in the air, down on the ground and straight to your driveway/hotel room/underground silo-converted-lair-where-you-do-God-knows-what, really appeals to this demographic.  

Of course, no matter how great the idea sounds, business-minded individuals who spend a ridiculous amount of money to fly by their own means tend to be a bit more practical when it comes to purchasing their next/only plane.  And though the Transition has been proven to work in flight tests,  that doesn’t necessarily mean its potential customer base believes the flying car is an actual next step in the evolution of mass transportation.  

Take Loren Gallagher of Hemet, California, for example. Mr. Gallagher has been flying private planes ever since he got his pilot license at El Monte Airport in 1969. An aviator at heart, Mr. Gallagher found a way to use his hobby to his advantage in the resort management business. He flies for business as well as recreation and has flown to airports as far south as Baja California (that’s Mexico for all you Eastern Seaboarders) and as far north as Anchorage (That’s Alaska for all you Lower 48-ers). When I interviewed Loren about bringing back the ol’ flying cars’ “Manifest Destiny”, he was kind enough to bring me back down to Earth a bit (pun so very much intended):



“I have mixed feelings about mixing "road" and "sky" vehicles into one package. If something happens mechanically to my car, it rolls to stop and I can step out. If something happens to my airplane while flying, the outcome might not be as benign. I remain somewhat skeptical about the constant transformation from car to aircraft to car. Sooner or later, those moving parts will be compromised, not handled properly, damaged by another auto, and you may not understand the consequences until airborne when problems have bigger potential consequences. “



You’ll notice, Loren’s concerns revolve not around the difference between navigation in the air versus on the ground, but rather, how operational changes in the plane’s make-up are going to affect the actual flying-in-the-air part. With all the new innovations in development, for the customer, it still comes down to that timeless nugget of truth: “I’m thousands of feet up in the air and I don’t want to die in this thing.” His concern of the hybrid vehicle being damaged by other cars on the road is totally valid as well, and not an opinion lost on the companies investing in the concept. Rob Bulaga, president of Trek Aerospace of Folsom, California- which has designed its own flying car model- tells the Economist in the above interview, “I don’t want to see this [prototype] in the hands of everybody, because I have seen what everybody drives like.” Yup, so have I. Can you imagine a million of these guys a mile above you every day?



Back to Loren:



“I've been watching the Terrafugia[‘s product] with interest. It strikes me as a novelty and not able to complete with ‘real’ airplanes…An hour or two roaming the pages of Trade-A-Plane and you can fund hundreds of airplanes that will do far more than the Terrafugia at a fraction of the price. I'm still not convinced that the ability to park it in your home garage is a sufficiently large selling point. I could be wrong and, candidly, I hope I'm wrong. I love innovation in aviation and have been a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association for many years. The experimental aviation enthusiasts are directly responsible for most of the truly great changes in aviation design and technology that we've witnessed over the last decade.”



So while Loren’s gracious and understanding in the necessity of pushing design and technology, he’s right; there’s a lot of work to do here before manufacturing even thinks of stepping in. Aviation enthusiasts and vets like Loren are pretty stone-set in why they like to fly and how they view it in their life. It usually comes down to one key thing: solace. Every pilot I ever met enjoys private flying for that very reason; its element of privacy, of being away from the world. Creating an infrastructure in the sky that’s similar to what we already have on the ground? That’s kind of exactly the opposite of what aviation nuts want (hell, I drive on the freeways of Los Angeles daily, it’s the opposite of what I want too). Still, there are those out there who have devoted their entire lives to this version of the future. Dr. Paul Moller, of Moller Enterprises, has been designing, refining, and redefining his Skycar since he first got one to fly in 1989. MARCO Industries in Huntsville, Alabama has been designing a car called the SkyRider X2R. It’s designed to take off vertically, meaning it also uses propellers and nacelles. However, it also takes into account the need to divorce the pilot from the burden of delicate maneuvering by coming with a navigation system based on GPS satellites similar to the Transition’s.



Listen, change makes us all apprehensive. Change can be scary. Change is always messy. But with the world’s populations skyrocketing like never before, change is obviously necessary. We need serious new thinking to address serious issues, and in the grand scheme of things, maybe the air above us hasn’t been utilized as properly as it could. Daring to imagine made the US stand out as a nation; why stop now?
 

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Manufacturing the Manufacturing Jobs

Keeping with the “job creation” narrative that’s all the rage (in every sense of the word) these days, The Urban Institute recently released a poll study of the top 100 Metropolitan Areas responsible for job creation in America up to the month of October 2011.  Data is organized per sector, and the interactive report, which you can check out here,  shows the manufacturing industry doing particularly well, creating jobs in almost two-thirds of the cities and urban areas polled. 

What stands out to me is not so much the progress in manufacturing (I and everyone with knowledge have been firing blog posts all over the internet for a year now trying to get the general public to see how well US manufacturing has been doing-welcome to the party, Time) as where it is progressing.  The national perception of the Midwest, namely Michigan, lagging in job creation clearly gets a shotgun-sized hole blown through it according to this study.  Detroit-Warren-Livonia is particularly encouraging.  Though the region has a five year loss of 23 percent, the past year it gained almost four, and in the month of October alone manufacturing jobs grew by .6 percent.  Even if that rate grows at half that speed from now on, that will take Detroit’s manufacturing job loss into the 19 percent area by 2013, a drastic improvement from ‘09. 

That’s not even the best news out of Michigan; Lansing-East Lansing has gained in manufacturing jobs by 23 percent since ’09 and a 2.2 percent gain over the past year, making it the clear frontrunner for the nation in manufacturing jobs, prompting Lansing Mayor Bernero’s office to blitz the AP with lengthy proclamations such as this (although I wouldn’t speak so soon if I was Mayor Bernero, being as the volatility of the region speaks to a 1 percent decline shown in the month of October.) 

What’s the real reason Michigan is doing so well?  Bob Sherer, executive director  of the Capital Area Manufacturing Council makes a few observations in Lansing Business Monthly:

“Our fortunes are tied to the auto industry of course, and the rebound is predominantly in this sector, especially at GM’s Lansing Delta Township plant. The higher volume Chevrolet Traverse is now made here and has replaced the Saturn Outlook. Some of the job additions include workers transferring from Spring Hill, Tenn.—and the plant is operating on three shifts while Lansing Grand River remains on one shift. Jobs at supplier plants have responded to this increased production by adding jobs.

Unlike GM employment growth, which consists solely of recall and transfers, many of the suppliers have added true new hires. And since manufacturers use employment agencies extensively to help staff their plants, some of the job gain at local plants shows up in “business services,” and a good portion of this industry’s gain of 1,000 from a year ago is actually linked to manufacturing.”

All good news in the long run: stable jobs running multiple shifts to keep up with high-volume production.  Music to my ears.

It’s not all rosy, of course, as the region once had about 50,000 workers in the auto industry alone.  Numbers like that may not be seen for quite awhile.  Not to mention, the newest local product investment- lithium batteries- have dropped in demand this year to the point where Livonia’s A123 Systems laid off 125 employees back in November despite a $242 million grant from the Department of Energy given NOT to lay off people.  The lay-offs have more to do with delays in the newest hybrid vehicles more than the lithium industry, however, and A123’s partner in battery pack production, GM, doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

All in all, the Urban Institute’s report shows steady, if unimpressive, improvement in the sector’s growth and permanence. Of course, I’ll take steady and unimpressive over rapid and unstable any day of the week, particularly when the country’s economic future is at stake.  But that’s just me.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.