Made in America Inside Stories of Success

Made in America is a book for everyone, not just business people or those looking to buy something Made in America. The author, Michael Shulman, takes the reader into each factory to dispel current myths about the decline of manufacturing in America. These factories - Red Wing Shoes, Airstream RVs, Trek Bicycles and the General Motors Flint pickup truck assembly plant - survived the Great Recession and are now thriving due to a focus on quality understood by every worker, every manager - and every customer. Traveling through the Rust Belt, from Minnesota to Ohio, the reader learns about how a bloody cow hide becomes the world's finest $400 work boot; meets one of the country's least known and most powerful female manufacturing bosses; walks through a factory operating on what its CEO calls "tribal knowledge" and a bicycle plant producing bike frames from carbon fiber strong enough to be used in airplane wings. This up front view of how things are Made in America is combined with anecdotal insights into the future of manufacturing from analysts at the Aspen Institute and the Boston Consulting Group. The bottom line: these factories, collectively employing more than five-thousand workers who begin life at these companies without any specialized skills, highlight what is happening in factories all across America.