Assignment 1-A
“China May Be on Course To Overtake U.S. Economy”
Wall Street Journal - pg. A1, col. 1

For China to surpass Japan’s economy in the near future and to tail our economy is potentially very dangerous and could quite possibly shift our position as the super nation of the world. The implied impact on U.S. companies would be that they are in grave danger of losing their future clientele and cause downsizing within the companies which hence forth would raise unemployment and poverty in America. If China were to have surpassed our economy, Chinese companies would render more business and accelerate both technologically and financially so rapidly that it would make it far more difficult for our economy to keep up. As for Operations and planning for the next ten to twenty years, revisions are imperative in order to keep up with the everyday challenges brought upon by the potential overcoming of our economy due to China. We need to purchase technology and resources from other countries in order to keep up with our competition rather than be left behind. Operations should come up with new ways to bring business to American companies rather than Chinese companies. Because labor and services are very cheap in China we must develop new incentives for clientele to do business with American companies. Furthermore, we must halt all outsourcing to foreign countries. Although the company may be saving roughly 60% in finances by outsourcing jobs to foreign companies such as China, in the long-run the bitterness of our future’s economy will override the sweetness of saving several dollars at the present moment. Even better, we would be putting money back into our economy and keeping the economy moving. The salary paid to an outsourced worker in China might benefit the American company because it saved some money, but that’s where it ends. If the job was given to an American worker, he/she then puts the money back into our economy which is then turned over and over again and can only strengthen our future’s economy so that by 2020 we will have a stronger and more stable standing. I find it despicable to see how China takes advantage of its overpopulated country’s problems by forcing its large number of poor to slave themselves for merely pennies just so that its economy would excel. This type of exploitation should have deterred American companies to do business with them to begin with, but it must end now otherwise we will only be aiding our competition. As for an Operations Executive, I believe this strategy should be followed through within the company’s business plan. It will be expected that somewhere along the lines one would need to “cut corners” in the companies budget in order to compensate for the jobs being paid to their own employees instead of outsourced foreign workers. What our Operations Executives are failing at what the Chinese Executives are excelling in, which is the outcome of the future. There should be as much emphasis in the future of our economy as there is in the present day. If China is to replace the United States-driven world order, the future could bear many unfavorable events. Operations Executives nationwide should network with one another in order to discuss what should be done in order to prevent this from ever happening. By doing so they would also be sharing strategies which can only improve performance and help our inflation-adjusted annual growth rate of 3% during the past 25 years as opposed to China’s 8%. If all American Companies followed this plan at the moment, the amount of money that would be deposited back into our economy and turned over numerous times throughout the next few decades will provide for a strong counterpart in preventing China from overtaking our economy. God bless America......forever.

Assignment 1-B
“Airlines, Facing Cost Pressure, Outsource Crucial Safety Tasks”
Wall Street Journal pg. A1, col. 4


When it comes to paying for services, the two main factors are the price of the task being performed and the quality of how well it was accomplished. Some are relentless to pay more for a quality performance simply because they cannot (or perhaps choose not to) afford the high price of keeping airplanes maintained to the highest utmost standards and repaired by our own American based workers. While airliners may be proudly outsourcing jobs to other countries such as El Salvador, Brazil, Malaysia and Hungary, they neglect to realize what they are doing is jeopardizing the lives of innocent people. If you recall, in the past Ford Motor Company made a vehicle where the gas tank was placed poorly in the vehicle making it vulnerable to explosions if struck at the rear. Ford realized this after the entire line of cars were already produced and ready for sale. They willingly put this car on the market knowing lives would be lost simply because it would cost too much to recall every car and make the proper adjustments. Instead they factored an expense to cover all future law suits that will result of the lives lost due to the company’s negligence. I feel that by outsourcing repairs and maintenance jobs to other countries simply to lower expenses is reminiscent of what Ford had done in the past. “Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board found that deficient maintenance by an outside vendor and lack of regulatory oversight contributed to a 2003 crash of a commuter flight in Charlotte, N.C., that killed 21 people.” If you take the number of people that had died on that plane and multiplied it by a mere $250,000 (which is conservatively low) for settlements in court due to their deaths being caused by possible negligence, you would realize that would amount to a financial loss of $5,250,000 as opposed to paying the estimated $2,000,000 difference in having domestic based airline technicians perform the job instead of outsourcing to other countries. It’s not even the financial aspect of it. Ethics must play a role with Operations Managers. One cannot jeopardize the lives of others simply to lower expenses. Furthermore, the reputation of the airline would be tarnished greatly if the media revealed that an outsourced service job was to blame for an airplane crashing and killing a large amount of people. The public would become aware of this and be deterred because they are afraid the same would happen to them the next time they fly, or because they just wouldn’t want to support an airliner company who would do such a thing like putting money before the lives of others. Another reason we shouldn’t outsource jobs would be to strengthen our own economy. Considering the number of unemployment we have in the U.S., one might think it would be best to offer the jobless to train and perform the jobs we are sending out to be done elsewhere. If you factor in the costs of shipping parts, overseas tax, or the fuel an airplane would have to consume to fly over there for maintenance it might be more cost efficient to do otherwise. Americans love to be patriotic and therefore love patriotic companies who care for the good of our country. If these airliners promote the fact that their customers can be worry free that the life threatening maintenance was performed under our own supervision and that they are benefiting the country, consumers would be more than happy to fly with that airliner. In essence, by spending more now on domestic maintenance on airliner airplanes, you are potentially better off in the future than to outsource to a foreign company and raise concerns about whether or not the maintenance job was performed according to our high standards.

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