Product Diary Nidl L. Jones

Product Diary NIDL

L. Jones

When my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I normally think of little else than how quickly I can push the "snooze" button. However, today, one of the first things that crossed my mind, given the assignment of the day to track the origins of the products and resources I use, is just where that alarm clock came from.

Interestingly, whereas, in the old "International Division of Labor," where raw materials may have been imported to make the products I use on a daily basis "in country," or, perhaps an entire "low skill" or characteristically cheap product may have been made overseas, today many of the higher technological products (and even some rather basic ones), may be made piecemeal from components manufactured in low labor cost nations only to be shipped back for the assembly or fabrication phase of the final product.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult to gauge just where such products come from. After all, although it is possible to come across some precuts with the hallmark "made in USA of components assembled in Mexico," for example, such indications are still quite rare. Take, for example, my alarm clock. It is a Phillips Radio/CD Alarm model, which states on its underside "made in Singapore." However, the company actually employs a management contracting service that contracts the manufacture of components for its products in no less than eight countries.

As I rolled out of bed and searched for clean clothes to wear, I noticed a new package of Hanes underwear, and noted that it is often more clear where clothing in particular originates in manufacture. In this case, the tag read "made in Burma." Burma! I also noticed that my shirt read "Made in SAR." Now, I had no idea of just where the SAR was until I looked it up later and found out that SAR stands for the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong under the Peoples Republic of China. I guess I can say goodbye to the old standby "Made in Hong Kong."

Of course, my first task of the day is to get my morning cup of coffee from Starbucks. Interestingly, although I now pay in excess of three dollars for my daily dose of caffeine, the actual cost of the coffee as passed on to the growers that grow my particular roast (in Guatemala), averages about 2 cents a cup! (Hyken, 2004).

After I got my coffee, I decided to pop into the bookstore to check on a graphing calculator I have my eye on made by Texas Instruments. Again, although the box says it is made in China, a little research shows me that the company uses "ODM's" or Original Design Manufacturers in different countries throughout Asia "in order to keep costs down (Texas Instruments, 2004)."

Once I got to class, I unzipped my backpack, a Timberland, and noted that it was made in the U.S.A., like a handful of homey-outdoorsy products out there. I also noted that on web sites advertising the product, they would often proudly cite this fact whereas with the other bags they would hardly announce "Made in China!"

After school, I returned home and ate a bowl of canned soup that was a product of Mexico, nuked in my microwave that was made in Japan, again, of who knows how many components made in still additional countries. I watched some TV on my Sony, yet another Japanese made (or designed at least) product. I then considered doing some homework -- quickly reconsidered, and jumped into bed under my new Wamsutta bedspread, which says on the label it is made in USA. Wonder of wonders.

Unfortunately, after conducting this experiment (and looking up many of the products I used for the day out of sheer curiosity), I found that I normally know next to nothing about the origins, manufacturers, or even the people that make the products that I use every day.

What I did notice is that there is a definite trend toward the NIDL, especially in the products that demand high technology coupled with rather unskilled fabrication steps. I also noted that much of this work is being done throughout Asia, but more and more in formerly "unknown" countries (as far as large scale manufacturing goes) -- Burma, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. This seems to be due to the push to offer these products at the lowest possible prices. Because of this, these companies can "farm out" the more unskilled portions of a product's manufacturing process to countries that offer the cheapest labor -- often at the expense of worker's rights.