German manufacturing culture does many things very well, but a few things particularly stand out. One of these items pertains to the concept of verbund manufacturing. Verbund simply means “integrated” or “linked”. Verbund manufacturing sites are clusters of manufacturing units that take advantage of proximity. Clustering can offer certain logistic and energy advantages if done intelligently.
A cluster of manufacturing sites can operate and share a co-generation plant for the distribution of steam, waste heat, and electricity. Large capital items like steam plants can be shared so funds can be plowed into larger scale for better economy. Rail operations and other transportation resources can be shared as well. Clustering also provides for the possibility of vertically integrated manufacturing on site and a reduction in transportation costs.
Clustered manufacturing may also have the effect of concentrating the supply of skilled workers for the labor pool. A manufacturing nexus can attract community colleges and other vocational opportunities for the next generation of employees.
The USA has many manufacturing sites where similar industries congregate. Look at the Gulf coast with all of the refinery locations. But the extent to which there are synergistic interactions between companies is unclear.
In the US, corporations tend to behave as the Republic of Exxon or the Republic of the Union Pacific. This kind of a fragmented confederation of corporate states is becoming obsolete as we go up against nationalized business entities that control key resources and trade. The key to future vitality is greater efficiency with resources. Synergistic cooperation is one model that is available. But to do this requires trust and the desire to cooperate for mutual benefit. Competition begets gamesmanship and posturing which works against the verbund model for US businesses.
US corporations have much to learn from this business model.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
While I agree the level of trust between corporations is low, the level of trust between different organizations is also low. I’m not sure what the experience of others is, but at times I’ve had trouble getting cooperation between factories in different business units much less getting cooperation with outside companies.
I have experienced that as well. Some companies are actually like a confederation of departments or divisions with independant agendas.
In the Army, Mr. Isocyanate would be called an NCO. \;-)
I wonder how much US legal issues hinder cooperation, both in setting up unified contracts (who builds/maintains) and responsibilities if a problem (liability). Do you who is managed in Germany?
Sergeants (NCOs) are the backbone of the Military. They are building blocks that hold units together.
“concept of verbund”
My 6th grade English teacher would comment that I’d introduced my topic but failed to deliver any examples. So does this work? Are there Deutsche companies which, using this operating method actually improved efficiency?
And in terms of US companies not cooperating with the US govt, I think you got that backwards. The US does WHATEVER US corporations desire. If these US companies wanted more entangled relationships with the US govt they would exist.
We are entangled in a several trillion dollar theft from the US treasury by various military contractors. Do you really believe Bush and co said “hey let’s invade Iraq?” No, they were pushed and prodded by their backers. And what pisses me off the most is that we invade an oil rich country, spend trillions, kill thousands and DON”T EVEN GET TO KEEP THE OIL!
Now that’s F-‘d up. The Romans would laugh.
I put a link in for an example of how BASF does it. Another example is the Leuna site. http://www.infraleuna.de/cms_e/
There are legal issues in everything. But the matter of cooperation in a verbund manner might be solved by the formation of JV or a holding company by the participants. It should be easier than, say, splitting the atom.
It would take some imagination by the players. The real trick would be to get US B-school profs interested in the idea.
In the period between WW-I and -II, German chemical industry expanded on feedstocks derived from coal. The combination of coal, German ammonia technology, and Fischer-Tropsch technology afforded ammonia, hydrogen, nitric acid, acetylene, methanol, Buna rubber and gasoline. Naturally, locations rich in coal gave rise to aggregations of manufacturing plants. Unfortunately for German industry, the aggregated manufacturing sites were easy targets for Allied bombing.
I’m not a scholar in this area, but history seems to lead to the verbund concept.
Outside of Montreal in a small town – Varennes – there was a neat little operation run by three independent companies. The oil company ran the propylene gas over the fenceline to the Himont plant (yes, it was that many years ago that Himont still existed) which then polymerized it and ran it over another fenceline to the Hercules plant (yes, it really was that many years ago) which then made BOPP film. It was neat while it lasted.