Jim Smith

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Multinationals are using overseas subsidiaries to avoid paying billions in federal taxes. Is that a problem? How would you fix it? Should the federal government provide a tax break for repatriated corporate earnings?

Manufacturers often fail to recognize the ability of their employees to learn and think.

Several respondents to my original blog say the 787's battery problems are a minor blip that Boeing will correct quickly. My impression is that the battery is becoming aviation’s equivalent of the Ford Pinto.

Did cost-cutting strategy jeopardize the production of what should have been an engineering triumph?

Our guest blogger wonders whether Apple's recent decision to invest $100 million to manufacture iMacs in the United States is a token gesture or a sign of things to come.

Automation is wonderfully economical—except when it’s not. Time and again, I’ve seen smart engineers make dumb automation decisions, some of them ruinous.

The demise of telecom giant Nortel may have been caused by its contract manufacturer, Huawei.

Increasingly, China is losing its cost advantages. Workers are striking at Chinese factories. Chinese suppliers copy Western products to become competitors. Time to market is longer. And now we can add electronic espionage.

The federal government is not entirely to blame for the cost differential between U.S. and Chinese manufacturers.

Many products made in low-wage countries could, in fact, be produced here economically. There are three reasons why they are not.