What It Takes to Bring Manufacturing Back | Wayne Cochran

Bringing manufacturing back to the United States means confronting the costs that helped send it overseas. When tariff changes arrived in April 2025, pallet maker RM2 could no longer sustain its operation in Juárez, Mexico, yet moving home meant taking those costs on. What would it take to make American production work?

In a market this price-sensitive, relocating the same operation was not enough. The company had to build a different kind of factory, one that could work under American costs.

Wayne Cochran spent decades moving manufacturing offshore for companies including Motorola and Intel. As CEO of RM2, he led the move in the other direction. He walks through the math behind that decision and why even a supply chain rebuilt at home left the company exposed to a shock from overseas.
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00:00 Intro
01:34 The Original Rush to Offshore
03:18 When the Supply Chain Broke
05:16 China's Unseen Advantage
07:16 The Truth About Mexico
09:48 The Tariff Breaking Point
14:17 The U.S. Cost Trap
15:04 Redesigning for Survival
22:01 Does Automation Pay Off?
23:42 Sourcing U.S. Raw Materials
25:10 The Next Unexpected Crisis
30:00 Six-Figure Factory Jobs
34:32 The Knowledge Worker Myth
36:15 What the Software Missed
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