Walmart lays out “roadmap” to reshore U.S. manufacturing jobs

A Boston Consulting Group study commissioned by the retail giant estimates 1.5 million American jobs could be indirectly created by deregulating domestic manufacturing and eliminating the skills gap.

By Matt Parke

August 1, 2017

America’s largest retailer, Walmart, says that the United States could miss out on nearly $300 billion in increased domestic manufacturing spending if steps are not taken to eliminate the skills gap and make manufacturing more competitive on the world stage.

The country also stands to lose an estimated 1.5 million jobs which would indirectly be created through “reshoring” of domestic goods production, according to Walmart from a commissioned study from the Boston Consulting Group.

Walmart, with data points supplied by the BCG study, unveiled its “Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing” to a “broad group” of manufacturers and policymakers last week. Walmart said the study is the result of its recent push to increase employee wages and sourcing of American-made products.

“As we’ve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal to source and additional $250 billion in products that support American jobs, we’ve learned a great deal about the challenges our suppliers face in domestic manufacturing, Walmart’s vice president for U.S. sourcing and manufacturing Cindi Marsiglio said in a company-released statement.

The roadmap identified four key areas which is limiting our manufacturing power, including a “lack of an available and qualified workforce;” gaps in the supply and finance chains; burdensome regulatory and compliance costs and an outdated tax system.

By not addressing workforce training issues, Walmart said that nearly 2 million new manufacturing jobs could go unfulfilled because of the skills gap. This could stifle the sector further despite an increasing competitiveness on the macroeconomic scale, the study said.

Our manufacturing sector, while in decline due to offshoring of jobs to low-wage foreign workers, is becoming more attractive because of decreased overhead costs brought on by cheap energy and shortened supply chain, according to BCG.

Walmart said that all levels of government should pursue more workforce training with curricula aligned with the needs of industries to overcome gaps in high demand skills. They also recommended a push for more vocational schools and apprenticeships to reduce the financial burden of training and re-skilling workers placed upon manufacturers.

The policy roadmap suggested that there should be more recruitment of “non-traditional labor pools” like displaced workers, minorities and veterans, to upskill and retain these workers and creating a more diverse workforce. Making the manufacturing industry more appealing to young people through investment in youth programs and supporting advanced manufacturing training will also help attract a new generation to take on this type of work, Walmart said.

“The purpose of [the policy roadmap] is to provide a framework for collaboration among key stakeholders and highlight 10 actionable policy levers, that, taken together can help strengthen U.S. manufacturing and significantly reduce long-term unemployment,” BCG’s Dustin Burke said.

To read the entire report, click here.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.