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UTAH MANUFACTUREERS ASSOCIATION


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This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.

It's an initiative you may or may not be familiar with, yet it affects you in profound ways. It's called reshoring, and it's happening right now across the U.S. Reshoring is the process of bringing business back to American manufacturing plants from overseas. And the Utah Manufacturers Association is supporting this process in a very dedicated way.

This year the Utah Manufacturers Association is involved with a project to connect major manufacturers with companies close to home that can fill their needs and provide a steady base from which to operate. It's called the Utah Capabilities Assessment Network, or Utah CAN for short, and it's designed to simplify the supply chain process.

Utah CAN is a website portal to link manufacturers from across Utah together so anyone can perform a company search for what specifications they need. The site will tell them what companies within the state can provide those manufacturing services. Todd Bingham, president of the Utah Manufacturers Association, says companies are often surprised at the resources available so close by and have discovered very comparable costs for work they've traditionally sent overseas.

The Utah Capabilities Assessment Network is part of a manufacturing initiative the Utah Manufacturers Association started 18 months ago. They brought in 30 key manufacturers from across the state to discuss some of the top concerns they were facing. Some, like workforce shortage and image concerns, they're still in the process of addressing, but Todd says this is a step in the right direction. The connections on Utah CAN continue to increase.

It's part of the UMA's effort to continually be aggressive in helping maintain Utah's reputation as one of the top states for business. Manufacturing is leaving China and Mexico and is receptive to the whole reshoring idea. Costs in China are not what they were 20 years ago, with quality and time as issues, and generally there are more opportunity costs to consider than before. That's another aspect that makes reshoring more attractive. And the Utah Manufacturers Association will continue to stay on the cutting edge of that forward movement.

For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.

Utah Manufacturers Association 136 E. South Temple, Ste. 1740 Salt Lake City, UT 84111 801-363-3885 www.umaweb.org

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