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Reshoring
human judgment; they supplement it, giving less experienced workers the information they need to work both safely and efficiently.
Making reshoring work
The current job losses in manufacturing don’ t mean reshoring is impossible. They mean we’ re approaching it with a narrow view of the challenge to be overcome. We can’ t create simplistic policy incentives in the form of tariffs and expect manufacturing to return automatically. We also need to solve the workforce development challenge, alongside other key aspects: investment in infrastructure, adoption of bleeding edge technologies, and finding ways to offset hidden costs that make the economics more feasible for American manufacturers.
This requires a fundamental shift in how we think about manufacturing investment. Companies considering reshoring need to budget not just for facilities and equipment, but for workforce augmentation technology that makes domestic production economically competitive despite higher base labor costs.
And it requires moving beyond the false dichotomy between humans and automation. The manufacturers that will successfully reshore are those that see technology as a way to amplify human capabilities alongside further investment into automation. We must make inexperienced workers effective much faster while helping experienced labor optimize their skills and training. ■
Vernon O’ Donnell www. voxelai. com
Vernon O’ Donnell is CEO at Voxel. Voxel transforms existing security cameras into AI-powered safety systems that detect unsafe behaviors in real-time across industrial environments like warehouses and manufacturing facilities, enabling supervisors to prevent workplace injuries before they happen rather than responding after incidents occur.
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