Blueprint for Outsourcing (The Wall Street Journal; B1)
Salt Lake Cityの新しい図書館建設では、”panelization” コンクリートのパネル2,000枚に落としこみ、メキシコ（メキシコシティ郊外）でパネルを生産し、それをアメリカに輸入して組み立てるという手法が取られているそうです。写真をお見せできればイメージがわきやすいと思うのですが、コロッセオかサンフランシスコ国際空港か、という感じの曲線を使ったデザインで、なかなかしゃれた図書館になるようです。
これは、まるで「墨俣の一夜城」ではないか…と思いましたが、それはさておき、やはり建設業界でも、海外アウトソーシングの理由は、熟練労働者の不足と、人件費が高いことだそうです。
アメリカの場合は、アウトソーシング先が隣合わせのメキシコで、おそらく道路や港湾のインフラも日本とは違うので、同じことが日本の建設業界に起こるかどうかは議論の余地がありますが、けっこう驚きました。
＃色々、過去ログに貴重なコメントを頂いているのに、「へぇ～」系エントリですみません。
I came here by tracking links from other blogs. I have heard of you but I believe we have never met before. Your blog is very intellectural and fun to read.
Oursourcing has been around in Construction Industry for a while. The best example is Structural Steel. Almost all structural steel here are coming from either Japan or Korea. As we all learned in Japan, Japan is extremely good at fabricating steel. It’s cheaper to buy it from Japan, too. It’s not because efficiency in fabrication but the cheap labor in Japan. What is getting really popular in these days is outsourcing drawings. Thanks to internet, now we are able to exchange CAD (computer aided drawings) freely. A lot of construction shopdrawings (fabrication drawings) have been done in Canada in these days. Drafters are much cheaper over there. Some architects send out their drawings to India to take an advantage of time difference. It’s like using extra drafters without overtime pay.
Regarding oursourcing FROM Japan, there are a lot of barriers. General Contractor + subcontractor relationship in Japan is very similar to “Keiretsu” in manufacturing. So GC oursourcing subcontracting to lower the construction cost is still a Taboo in Japan. Remember, construction cost in Japan is two to four times more expensive than that of USA, even though the labor rate is extremely cheaper in Japan. There’s something fishy going on.
Mozan-san,
Thank you for your compliment.
Although we’ve never talked to each other, I’ve read of you because I’m a subscriber of JTPA newsletter you’ve edited :)
It was very interesting to hear about what was going on in the construction industry.
There’re a similar hierarchy like “KEIRETSU” in our (system development/system integration) industry, albeit the strength of the relationship between one company and the other may be different.
I think Japanese people aren’t willing to take a risk. The national character may affect the power of so-called “middleman”.
コメントを残す