The announcement was spurred by an executive order signed last month by President Jenna Bush, stating that America will create a bustling city on the moon by the end of the year 2022. At a White House press conference to announce the plan, Bush said it would “complement the work of my father, who we all know loves a good moon.”

The rush to pitch the first cosmic tents on the moon has created a bustling market for all manner of specially fabricated materials. The news has also revived a decades-old discussion about supply chain best practices; namely, where manufacturers should locate production operations — near the customer to shorten the delivery chain, or where workforce and regulatory conditions provide the best environment for their plants.

In the latest chapter of that debate, a bevy of startup companies is racing to break ground on the rocky surface of the Earth’s only inhabitable satellite. And some have sunk a proverbial stake in the ground.

“A responsible company manufactures its products on the celestial body where they will be put to use,” said Elaine Prost, president of Lunar Lids, a maker of hermetically sealed containers. (“So your cookies don’t get moon dust on them,” Prost explained in an interview.)

Officials at Galactic Beds, Inc., agree, and will face the same supply chain challenges as Lunar Lids. But CEO Daryl Best shrugged off any talk of obstacles.

Distribution of the company's Man on the Moon products will be a cinch, Best said, noting that the distribution chain will be compact. Asked how delivery fleets would navigate the patchwork of rocky craters, he appeared unfazed. “I’m not wahrried about that. I’ve seen bigga pahtholes in South Bahstin.”

“Actually, I am a little worried about the labor pool,” conceded Prost. “We’re offering incentive programs to bring engineers and automation specialists to the moon. But I’ve heard talk about limiting ‘non-native’ workers. So I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. 

Other manufacturers, meanwhile, are determined to remain earthbound, intent on using cheap labor in locales such as Borneo, Antarctica, and Cleveland to produce materials such as gravity boots, lead-plated stock cars, and Tang for the pioneering moonies, as lunar citizens will be known. Details on how companies will navigate such a daunting supply chain remain sketchy.

“This gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘intermodal,’” chuckled Ted Franz, VP of operations at lighting manufacturer MoonGlow. With competition for first-mover status approaching fever pitch, Franz said he preferred to keep his company’s plans under wraps. He did, however, drop a tantalizing hint, saying, “You think ocean transport was cheap in the days of $20 barrels of oil, just wait until you see what we’re doing with rocket fuel these days.”

As was the case more than a decade ago, it appears there won’t be any easy answers to this debate.

—Chris Chiappinelli, Editor, ManagingAutomation.com

Posted by Chris Chiappinelli at 03/13/2009 09:24:43 PM |