美国国家公共电台 NPR How Germany Wins At Manufacturing — For Now

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Germany's economy is strong. Its manufacturing sector¹ is really strong. But that's not so in the U.S. where manufacturing jobs have crept back up only slightly after a steady decline over the past quarter century. So how does Germany pull this off? NPR's John Ydstie visited the country recently and joined us for the first of a series of reports on this issue. Hey, John.

JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE²: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: So how much better is German manufacturing doing than American manufacturing?

YDSTIE: Well, here's a data point. Manufacturing is nearly a quarter of the German economy. That's twice the share in the U.S.

CHANG: Twice? That's huge.

YDSTIE: Twice.

CHANG: Why is there such a big difference?

YDSTIE: Well, one big difference is the strength of the small and mid-sized German companies called the Mittelstand. The U.S. has lost a lot of these kinds of companies in past decades as firms have moved overseas looking for cheap labor³. When I was in Germany, I visited several of these Mittelstand firms to find out what makes them so successful. And Schmittenberg Metal Works was one of them. I got a tour of their factory in Wuppertal where their machines stamp out millions of small metal parts mostly for the auto⁴ industry.

CHRISTIAN⁵ RIEDER: On the left side, you get the coil in. And step by step, it runs through the tool and the good part on the other side.

YDSTIE: That's Christian Reider, head of sales for Schmittenberg. And here's Yvonne Schmittenberg, the boss.

YVONNE SCHMITTENBERG: They put it into a machine that softens⁶ a bit the edges.

YDSTIE: Schmittenberg is the third generation of her family to run this company.

SCHMITTENBERG: My grandfather was an engineer and toolmaker, and he had the technologic know-how⁷, and my grandmother supplied the money. So, I mean, this was, yeah, a dream team, yeah (laughter).

YDSTIE: Schmittenberg was founded in 1932. It survived the Second World War and right afterward⁸ began supplying parts for Germany's recovering auto industry.

SCHMITTENBERG: Starting with Volkswagen, the Beetle⁹ - the first Beetle - was supplied by Schmittenberg company with the first weld nuts.

YDSTIE: Weld nuts are small but critical auto parts. They're still Schmittenberg's specialty¹⁰. Yvonne Schmittenberg is a petite woman with long, blond hair - an unusual CEO in the male-dominated industry. She was working in France in the 1990s when her grandmother, who was running the family business then, called and said it would be sold if Yvonne didn't come back home and take over.

SCHMITTENBERG: I was working as an investment banker, which I liked a lot. However, blood is thicker than water, and after all, I was very much tempted¹¹ by the entrepreneurial challenge, yes.

YDSTIE: This is one of the strengths of German Mittelstand companies. They're often family-owned and focus on long-term success and not maximizing short-term profits. The part Schmittenberg makes are used by most of the world's automakers. Your car likely has some. Most are about the size of a silver dollar. They're welded to a car's body and used to bolt on things like seats and seat belts, says Christian Rieder.

RIEDER: So they need to be resistant¹² to really high-strength impacts, like a crash, for example.

YDSTIE: The parts look simple, like the kind of thing you could make more cheaply in some low-wage country, but actually, they're very highly engineered. In fact, these weld nuts, or threaded plates, no bigger than the palm of your hand, are incredibly strong, says Rieder.

RIEDER: On this threaded plate, you can hang four Mercedes S-Classes on.

YDSTIE: Think about that. You could weld this small, threaded plate to a steel girder, then hang four large cars on it - the equivalent of eight tons - and the threads would not strip, the part would not fail. That attention to engineering and quality is a hallmark of German manufacturing, and it's what makes Schmittenberg and companies like it competitive.

SCHMITTENBERG: Obviously, we are under pressure, and we have to fight for market shares every day, but we would never, ever shift to anywhere when the quality is in slightest question.

YDSTIE: So what's the takeaway for U.S. companies? Focus on quality and take a long-term view. And Yvonne Schmittenberg has one more piece of advice - pay attention to your workforce¹³. Don't presume every kid should go to college. Get them interested in making things.

SCHMITTENBERG: I think this is so important to keep the youngsters interested in manufacturing, and this starts at the schools, to have the kids running around with open eyes, being interested in technical issues, see how things get done and really get them motivated to want to do that.

YDSTIE: Now, the U.S. has struggled to make this kind of vocational training widely available, Ailsa.

CHANG: Yeah.

YDSTIE: We'll hear more about how the Germans do it tomorrow.

CHANG: All right. So lots of examples here about what makes German manufacturing so strong, but can the U.S. embrace these same qualities and boost manufacturing here?

YDSTIE: Well, I asked that question to Martin Bailey, who studied this. He's an economist¹⁴ at the Brookings Institution and a former White House economic adviser¹⁵. Bailey says he thinks it would be a good thing if the U.S. had more manufacturing jobs and could provide work for people who aren't highly educated, but he thinks it would be very difficult to achieve.

MARTIN BAILEY: I would not advise U.S. companies or U.S. policymakers to try to replicate¹⁶ what's happened in Germany. In fact, I would look at Germany and say, you're going to have a tough time going forward. In fact, you, to some extent, already are having a tough time as some of the production shifts to Eastern Europe.

CHANG: So he's saying even Germany won't be able to hang onto these manufacturing jobs.

YDSTIE: Right. And Bailey says a big reason is technology. It's advancing so fast that it will continue to replace even highly skilled manufacturing workers. And some Germans are also worried about this. Jeromin Zettelmeyer, a former economic official in the German government, now at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says Germany may soon find that it's too reliant on manufacturing.

JEROMIN ZETTELMEYER: There is a very serious worry that we might lose our manufacturing edge over the next 10, 20 years and then be much in the same position that the U.S. is now except without having grown a new growth engine like the IT sector in the meantime.

YDSTIE: So it's sort of grass looks greener situation. Even if Germany is really good at manufacturing, maybe it needs to try to emulate¹⁷ the U.S. and start looking beyond manufacturing to find post-industrial jobs to drive its economy. Still, this begs the question for the U.S. - how are we going to provide decent jobs for workers who once have been employed in manufacturing?

CHANG: A question that's very hard to answer. That's NPR's John Ydstie. Thank you very much.

YDSTIE: You're welcome, Ailsa.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE AMERICAN DOLLAR'S "WUDAO")

1 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 softens   

（使）变软( soften的第三人称单数 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰

参考例句：

• Iron softens with heat. 铁受热就软化。
• Moonlight softens our faults; all shabbiness dissolves into shadow. 月光淡化了我们的各种缺点，所有的卑微都化解为依稀朦胧的阴影。 来自名作英译部分

7 know-how   

n.知识；技术；诀窍

参考例句：

• He hasn't got the know-how to run a farm.他没有经营农场的专业知识。
• I don't have much know-how about engines.发动机方面的技术知识我知之甚少。

8 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

9 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。

10 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

11 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

12 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

13 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

14 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

15 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

16 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

17 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。