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NEW YORK -- Flextronics CEO Mike McNamara on Friday reiterated comments that manufacturing – even for high volume products – could be headed back to the US.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, McNamara said EMS companies will likely target regional manufacturing strategies, making goods closer to where they are sold. His comments are consistent with those of many analysts and industry-watchers.

McNamara noted the logistics costs, IP concerns and time-to-market as vectors for the shifting attitude toward production in the West. He said the need to protect intellectual property could even spill over to high-volume products such as smartphones.

While Flextronics maintains about 75% of its capacity offshore, it has pumped $10 million into capital improvements in the US of late, the Journal reported. Flextronics maintains printed circuit board fabrication and assembly operations onshore, including Multek's flexible circuit operations. McNamara added that Flextronics could add some one million sq. ft. of production space to its current four million sq. ft. in the US over the next five years.

McNamara had made similar comments at the Raymond James IT supply chain conference in mid December.

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