Revitalizing small town manufacturing industry: With industrial engineering and ideas from Germany's Puppen and Baren industries

This paper reports on a recent benchmarking visit to nine design studio/factories in Germany which manufacture collector and play dolls and Sears in a century-old cottage industry setting. Unit prices far these largely hand-crafted items ranged from approximately $7 to $15,000. The number of employees ranged from five to 1,200. A wide variety of specialized methods and tools were used which did not necessarily depend on production run size. Large-scale manufacturers have purchased rights to duplicate some of these hand-crafted products in large quantities, in one case creating a billion dollar global industry. Some of the unusual methods and tools used in this niche industry are described which can apply to small-and medium-sized manufacturers of other products which require skilled hand labor. The author believes that the observed German manufacturing techniques can be of special benefit to small U.S. companies located in rural areas, especially where a local manufacturing company has recently downsized or relocated its operations to another geographic region leaving behind an unemployed but highly-skilled work force.