Globalization has been driven in part by Western firms outsourcing manufacturing to Asia, but the long-term viability of shipping across the Pacific Ocean is under question given high logistics costs and rising wages in those markets.
 
That's according to Texas A&M University's Supply Chain Systems Laboratory, a research arm of the school's industrial distribution program. The organization is putting together a consortium to study manufacturing trends and how to improve throughput in the Mexico-Central America-Texas region.
 
Dr. Barry Lawrence, director of the industrial distribution program at Texas A&M University, spoke with MDM recently about the critical factors affecting trade and growth in Mexico, why he thinks labor costs are losing out to logistics, why ...