Two for Friday – Global Competition and Autonomous Cargo

So many of the conversations going on carry over from week to week with regards to North American Manufacturing. Specifically this week what stood out:

1. North America Now Very Globally Competitive
2. Are Unmanned Cargo Aircraft the Future of Economical Air Freight?

North America Now Considered Very Globally Competitive

North America (specifically the US and Mexico) have been selected by a margin of 4 to 1 as the top low-cost manufacturing locations. This according to a poll conducted by Mach Media completed earlier this year. What’s stunning about this is that 62% of the respondents were VP level or higher in their companies. So if you were on the fence on the question of re-shoring you can use this as strong evidence that it is indeed occurring and that awareness has continued to build as the financial realities come into play.

Are Unmanned Cargo Aircraft the Future of Economical Air Freight?

You might recall Amazon’s big media show on the eve of Black Friday 2013. Remember the one where they shared a vision of drones delivering goods directly to your home or office? Most people shrugged it off as a publicity stunt, but the approach seems so logical that after certain hurdles are cleared it could very well be a reality. Recently we discovered a video related to Platfrom for Unmanned Cargo Aircraft or PUCA. The PUCA was founded in 2011 and they are an advocacy group building awareness and seeking partners to help develop this emerging opportunity. Among the most compelling arguments for PUCA are economic in nature. Since the planes do not require a crew to travel with it the plane itself does not need life support systems. This also improves the fuel economy, lowering the cost of transporting goods. This could allow the expansion of air-freight into areas that would not been viable using traditional air freight. Here is the video (click here if you don’t see the video embedded):

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