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Manufacturing and services
Assignment 1.Read the text, answer the questions andexpress your own opinion about the problem raised in the text
Two hundred years ago, the vast majority of the population of virtually every country lived in the countryside and worked in agriculture. Today, in what many people call 'the advanced industrialized countries', only 2-3% of the population earn their living from agriculture. But some people already talk about 'the post-industrial countries', because of the growth of service industries, and the decline of manufacturing, which is moving to 'the developing countries'.
Is manufacturing industry important? Is its decline in the 'advanced' countries inevitable? Will services adequately replace it?
Assignment 2.Read this extract from an interview with the well-known Canadian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, and answer the questions.
1. Why do people worry about the decline of manufacturing?
2. Which activities are as important as the production of goods?
3. Should people worry about this state of affairs?
We worry about unemployment and the loss of manufacturing industry in the advanced industrial countries only because we don't look at the larger social developments. The US, for example, no longer depends on heavy industry for employment to the extent that it once did. This isrelated to a larger fact that has attracted very little discussion. After a country's people are supplied with the physical objects of consumption, they go on to concern about their design. They go on to an enormous industry persuading people they should buy these goods; they go on to the arts, entertainment music amusement - these become the further later stages of employment. And these are things that are extremely important. Paris, London, New York and so on do not live on manufacturing; they live on design and entertainment. We do not want to consider that this is the solid substance of economics, but it is. I don't think it is possible to stop this progressive change in the patterns of human consumption. It is inevitable.
(J.K. Galbraith in conversation with Steve Platt, New Statesman and Society)
Assignment 3.Here is a short interview with Denis MacShane, a British Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. Does he hold the same view as J.K. Galbraith? Do you agree with either of these views?
Interviewer Denis MacShane, do you agree with the people who say that manufacturing industry will inevitably decline in what we call the industrialized countries?
Denis MacShane I think manufacturing will change, convert itself. There are many new products that have to be invented to serve new needs, and they canbe made in theadvanced countries because in fact the technology of production means you need very little labour input. I'm holding in my hand a simple pen that British Airways gives away to its passengers. It is made in Switzerland, a pen, a low-tech product, made in Switzerland, with the highest labour costs in the entire world, and British Airways, a British company, having to pay in low value pounds, is buying from Switzerland a manufactured product. Now what's going on here? It seems to me that the Swiss — and they also manage to do it with their watches, the famous Swatch - have stumbled on a new secret, which is how to make low-tech products, sell them profitably, but actually make them in a country where in theory there should be no more manufacturing, and if you look at any of the successful economies of the 1990s, they all have a strong manufacturing component.
Interviewer Which countries are you thinking of?
Denis MacShane I'm thinking of the dynamic Asian economies, all based on manufacturing, I'm thinking indeed of the United States which now has created for example a new computer, high-tech computer industry, its car industry is coming right back in America. America is a giant manufacturing economy, which is why it is still the richest nation in the world, so I am extremely dubious of the theorists who say that manufacturing has no future in the advanced industrialized countries.
British Member of Parliament, Denis MacShane
Assignment 4.Answer the following questions.
1Why does MacShane think that manufacturing has a future?
2 Why does MacShane think that manufacturing has a future in the advanced countries?
3 Why, however, is this manufacturing unlikely to solve the problem of unemployment?
4 What does MacShane mean by 'in theory there should be no more manufacturing' in Switzerland? (It is this theory that makes many people argue that manufacturing must move to 'less-developed' countries.)
5 Why does he say it is surprising for a Britishcompany to be buying Swiss goods?
6 What is the reason he gives for the United States still being the richest nation in the world?
7 Match up the following expressions and definitions:
A manual work
B to change from one thing to another
C to be uncertain, disbelieving
D to satisfy people's desires or requirements
E to discover something by accident
1 to convert itself
2 to serve needs
3 labour input
4 to stumble on
5 to be dubious
Assignment 5.Summarize both Galbraith's and MacShane's arguments in a short paragraph of fewer than 50 words.
Assignment 6.Read the following statements about manufacturing and services in advanced countries. Which of them do you find the most convincing and why?
1. A lot of service sector jobs depend on manufacturing industry. Manufacturing companies provide work for accountants, lawyers, designers, salespeople, marketers, IT specialists, etc.
2. Advanced countries have expertise in higher education, R&D, ICT, business consulting, etc. They should concentrate on these strengths, rather than trying to make things more cheaply than less-developed countries.
3. Manufacturing industry will inevitably decline in advanced countries and be replaced by services, because labour costs are too high. Companies will delocalize their manufacturing to low-cost countries.
4. Depending on service industries is dangerous; after the financial crisis in 2008, New York and London didn't only lose financial jobs, byt also lots of jobs in all the related service industries: law firms, real estate, expensive restaurants, etc. Big cities need factories too.
5. Service functions such as call centers , accounting, writing software , can all be outsoursed to companies in cheaper countries. Consequently, advanced countries should concentrate on high-quality manufacturing, which requires skills that cannot be outsourced or delocalized.
Assignment 7.Studythe Active vocabularyand give the Ukrainian equivalents of the words and word combinations:
1. industrialized countries
2. developing countries
3. to earn one’s living from agriculture
4. service industries
5. consumption
6. manual work
7. to convert oneself
8. to serve the needs of smb
9. labour input
10. to be dubious of smth
11. to stumble on smth
12. manufactured product
13. low value pounds
14. low-tech product
15. labour costs
16. inevitable
17. decline of manufacturing
Assignment 8.Translate the sentences:
1. Зазвичай, виробництво низькотехнологічних продуктів потребує незначних затрат на виробництво, що робить його особливо привабливим для країн, що розвиваються.
2. Ця машина – низькотехнологічний продукт, але вона задовільняє потреби більшої частини населення Лівії.
3. Ринок продуктів харчування задовольняє потреби споживачів.
4. На мою думку, секрет зростання виробництва в країнах, що розвиваються – невеликі затрати на робочу силу.
5. Я дуже сильно сумніваюсь, що в Зімбабве високі затрати на оплату праці.
6. За таких умов неминуче буде спостерігатися спад на інформаційному ринку.
7. Для того, щоб задовольняти потреби країни потрібно повністю трансформувати виробничу сферу.
8. Під час рецесії у Британії, коли в обігу перебували дешеві фунти, чимало закордонних компаній наштовхнулися на неочікувану можливість більш вигідно збувати там свої товари, що було неможливим до цього через жорстку політику імпорту в Англії.
9. Припущення урядових аналітиків щодо економічного росту на наступний рік є дуже сумнівними.
Assignment 9.Read and translate the text:
Manufacturing industry
Manufacturing industry refers to those industries which involve the manufacturing and processing of items and indulge in either creation of new commodities or in value addition. The manufacturing industry accounts for a significant share of the industrial sector in developed countries. The final products can either serve as finished goods for sale to customers or as intermediate goods used in the production process.
Evolution of the manufacturing industry:
Manufacturing industries came into being with the occurrence of technological and socio-economic transformations in the Western countries in the 18th-19th century. This was widely known as industrial revolution. It began in Britain and replaced the labor intensive textile production with mechanization and use of fuels.
Working of manufacturing industry:
Manufacturing industries are the chief wealth producing sectors of an economy. These industries use various technologies and methods widely known as manufacturing process management. Manufacturing industries are broadly categorized into engineering industries, construction industries, electronics industries, chemical industries, energy industries, textile industries, food and beverage industries, metalworking industries, plastic industries, transport and telecommunication industries. Manufacturing industries are important for an economy as they employ a huge share of the labor force and produce materials required by sectors of strategic importance such as national infrastructure and defense. However, not all manufacturing industries are beneficial to the nation as some of them generate negative externalities with huge social costs. The cost of letting such industries flourish may even exceed the benefits generated by them.
Owing to the emerging technologies worldwide, the world manufacturing industry has geared up and has incorporated several new technologies within its purview. Economists consider the World manufacturing industry as a sector which generates a lot of wealth. Generating employment, introducing latest techniques, real earnings from shipments etc., have put the world manufacturing industry in a favorable position.
World Manufacturing Industry:
With the implementation of the concept of eco friendly environment, world manufacturing industry has taken several measures to ensure that the manufacturing industries worldwide abide by the eco friendly norms. World manufacturing industry also plays an important role in the defense of a country. By manufacturing aircraft which play a vital role in the country's defense, the aerospace manufacturing industry acts as a shield. Other industries in the manufacturing sector manufacture products which are indispensable in our daily lives. With regard to the GDP or gross domestic product, world manufacturing industry contributes to the global economy as well as the global GDP.
Assignment 10. Answer the following questions:
1. What does manufacturing industry refer to?
2.When did manufacturing industry come into being?
3. What methods and technologies do manufacturing industries use?
4. What are manufacturing industries categorized into?
5. Why are manufacturing industries so important?
6. Are all manufacturing industries beneficial to the nation?
Assignment 11. Match up the words on the left with the definition on the right and translate them:
| 1. commodity | a. Material or item that is a final-product of a process, but is also used as an input in the production process of some other good. (Raw materials, such as steel, which will be transformed into another form.) |
| 2. value addition | b.A reasonably homogeneous good or material, bought and sold freely as an article of commerce |
| 3.intermediate goods | c.Difference between the total sales revenue of an industry and the total cost of components, materials, and services purchased from other firms within a reporting period (usually one year). It is the industry's contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) |
| 4.externality | d. Materials or products which have received the final increments of value through manufacturing or processing operations, and which are being held in inventory for delivery, sale, or use. |
| 5.gross domestic product | e. Range of control or expertise. |
| 6. finished goods | f. A consequence of an economic activity that is experienced by unrelated third parties. It can be either positive or negative. |
| 7. purview | g. The value of a country's overall output of goods and services (typically during one fiscal year) at market prices, excluding net income from abroad. |
Unit 3. Management
Part 1