In watching American Factory, the documentary selected by the Obamas for their new production deal with Netflix, I felt multiple ripples of familiarity. The movie followed the workers and managers in a shuttered General Motors plant in Ohio as it was re-opened into a Chinese-owned glass factory. The setting in the industrial Midwest is similar to where I grew up: on the west side of Indianapolis, in a blue-collar community dominated by an automotive transmission plant that fed General Motors. The workers in the movie reminded me of my classmates’ parents: hard-working factory workers and truck drivers just able to afford a middle-class life for their families — that is, until the 2008 financial crisis hit. And the Chinese mid-level factory managers in the movie reminded me of my own family: Chinese immigrants attempting to make sense of how to work, how to communicate, and how to live in a place so different from where they came. They approach America and Americans with turns of optimism and frustration, wonder and incredulity, marvel and resignation.
Netflix’s “American Factory” and the New Geography of Manufacturing
The glass plant in American Factory is proof that U.S. manufacturing, despite its well-trumpeted demise, may well be one that can come back, albeit in the form of Chinese or other foreign investment. The author describes how watching the documentary reminded her of the factories she had seen in Africa while researching her book, The Next Factory of the World. The first over-riding similarity between American and African factories is that factory life is just plain hard. Factory jobs require manual dexterity, an overriding sense of discipline, and an incredible endurance. Despite the repetitiveness of the work, the sector also tends to be deeply skills intensive. Driven by fierce global competition, factories are constantly striving for greater efficiency, which requires continuous learning and improvement. This brings up another commonality about the manufacturing industry, whether in Africa, America, or elsewhere: it’s a learnable industry. Uniquely amongst industries, manufacturing is one that can take root and thrive in all kinds of places. Economists have shown that modern manufacturing is the only sector in which poor countries have managed to consistently catch up to rich ones in productivity.