| The San Francisco Bay Area's independent machine shop sector, comprised of over 500 establishments, has historically served as an important supplier base for a range of the region's Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Existing analytical dichotomies would categorize the area's machine shops as part of "old economy" manufacturing in contrast to "new economy" knowledge and service-oriented activities. However, machine shops have been critical to the development of contemporary sectors including green technologies and renewable energy; nanotechnology; biotechnology; and information technology. By supporting virtually every other manufacturing industry, local machine shops are embedded as a critical source of "hidden innovation" at the heart of a dynamic regional economy and regional innovation milieu. The existing "old" versus "new" dichotomy is hence rejected in favor of a more inclusive view which recognizes their enduring interdependencies.;Local machine shops face both opportunities and threats to their continued existence. On one hand, firms, employment and business receipts in this sector have been marked by decline and concentration due to (a) a "flattening" world of outsourced OEM supply chain practices; (b) shops' increasingly corporatized business practices; (c) neighbors' "Not in My Backyard" perspectives; and (d) difficulties in training and recruitment.;On the other hand, local machine shops have adapted by becoming more collaborative with other shops, growing bigger in size, and taking on a more diversified customer base. These adaptive changes are possible due to (a) a strong historical and cultural presence; (b) strategies in cooperation, complementarity and learning between shops themselves and with their customers; (c) diversification of shops' customer base, particularly into emerging innovation waves; and (d) skill maintenance via in-house training, conference attendance, networking and participation in college and vocational training programs.;Key stakeholders, including machinists, shop owners, OEM customers, trade associations, unions and public officials, have sought to raise public policy discussion and awareness about the role played by the machining and overall manufacturing sectors as sources of jobs and of wealth generation. Further consideration is needed of machine shops' essential role as the industrial foundation of the regional economy, to be prioritized and nurtured as a form of "hidden innovation."... |
