Book Reviews

Made In America:
Regaining the Productive Edge

By Michael Dertouzos, Richard Lester, Robert Solow and The MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity

Reviewed by Steve Buchwald, CIRM

This book is a compilation of two years of detail probing into American manufacturing. Made in America is based on hundreds of interviews on three continents and additional detailed research into:

• The Automobile Industry
• The Chemical Industry
• The Commercial-Aircraft Industry
• The Consumer-Electronics Industry
• The Machine-Tool Industry
• The Semiconductor, Computer, and Copier Industries
• The Steel Industry.

The commission's charge from MIT President Paul Grey was to identify what happened to U.S. industrial performance and determine what they and others might do to help improve the situation.

One would suspect a study of this magnitude with this many people involved would create a mountain of information that would be impossible to sort through. However, the work they produced is quite readable and extremely enlightening. As they wrote in the preface, "What seemed an impossible messy undertaking at the beginning has acquired form and has revealed patterns." Made in America identifies theses patterns and has condensed the myriad of causes of the productivity problem that are typically cited into six key recurring weaknesses which they dedicate one chapter each to:

• Outdated Strategies
• Short Time Horizons
• Technological Weaknesses in Development and Production
• Neglect of Human Resources
• Failure of Cooperation
• Government and Industry at Cross-Purposes

The commission points out that there is certainly no cause for despair. In the course of their work they discovered many American firms that are thriving in the new economic climate and indeed are leading the way in international competition. The commission goes on to note that "the success of those firms suggests a vision of a new industrial America, a nation equipped to exploit the best ideas and innovations from abroad as well as its own strengths." Looking ahead, the commission believes this nation has every chance of entering the twenty-first century displaying the same dynamism and leadership that characterized its industrial performance throughout much of the present century. However, they state emphatically in their strategies for industry, labor, government, and education that major changes are needed in the way Americans learn, produce, work with one another, compete internationally, and provide for the future. They close with a suggestion inspired by their own experience. They call on interested groups to ask themselves what have been the recurring weaknesses and strengths of current industrial practice in the domains most familiar to them and to ask what they in turn might do to help improve the nation's productivity performance. Then they suggest that this book can be used as a guide for such efforts.

Made in America effectively deals with a complex subject. The book contains numerous appendices, including more detailed industry profiles for all the industries studied, for the more eager reader who wants to get a deeper treatment of the subject matter. Remember, as always, you can review this or many other books at our monthly chapter meetings. Until then, good reading.