Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

toolguyd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 312 posts

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#71

Post by e-master »

stacktrust wrote: post #54
blt wrote: post #44

This is good news, but Milwaukee is primarily a power tool company. Bringing power tool manufacturing back to the USA would be much bigger news. Project Farm is a YouTube channel that reviews tools. I've noticed that most of the made-in-USA products are relatively simple - hand tools, drill bits, adhesives, lubricants, and so on. Any complex assembly that includes electronics is almost invariably made in Asia. It fee…

A handful of DeWalt power tools are "assembled from global materials" in USA, https://www.allamericanmade.com/where-are-dewalt-tools-made/ Jackson, TN Air compressors Hempstead, MD Drill and saw components Charlotte, NC Cordless drills, screwdrivers Greenfield, IN Grinder, recip saws, hammer drills

Indeed, I had one of those - absolutely lovely piece of machinery, as most dewalt tools really.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#72

Post by Teever »

nostromo wrote: post #56
thaumaturgy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a great YouTube channel, Project Farm ( https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjectFarm/videos ), that features a single guy testing, grading, and comparing all kinds of things you might find in your garage. He's not sponsored and tries to be objective throughout the process. It isn't perfect but he puts a ton of effort in and for backyard science it's pretty good. Anyway, he mentions country of origin for a lot of too…

China has a “caveat emptor” culture that I suspect plays a role in this. In most western countries and other countries, like Japan, selling counterfeit or barely functional products is seen as somewhat shameful. But in China it’s often seen as being clever or cunning. Chinese consumers are used to this and are very cautious about what they buy and from whom, and of course negotiating a reasonable cost for the goods b…

It's not that it's seen as merely shameful in other countries, it's that it's seen as fraudulent and illegal.

Trying to play fraud off as a cultural difference and misunderstanding is frankly bullshit victim blaming.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#73

Post by Tao3300 »

clhodapp wrote: post #42
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact because less is spent on labor, a better quality product can be had for the same price. In theory yes, but in practice it doesn't seem to ever pan out that way. When was the last time a company that moved its manufacturing from the US to China to increase profits didn't also cheap out on materials, quality control, and customer service?

Apple comes to mind. But yes, it seems very rare.

Even they are suspect. The quality of the batteries in MacBooks at our office has been terrible. Lots of them swelling up and splitting the case apart.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#74

Post by fabfabfab »

doodlebugging wrote: post #47
_Adam wrote: post #9

I don't think this will make much of a difference aside from the branding advantage. The quality of a mass-produced product like a consumer hand tool isn't a function of the country in which it is made but rather of its design. All the decisions made during that process and all the cost / performance considerations made are what determine the ultimate outcome. It's common to blame Chinese manufacturing for cheap tool…

>The quality of a mass-produced product like a consumer hand tool isn't a function of the country in which it is made but rather of its design. All the decisions made during that process and all the cost / performance considerations made are what determine the ultimate outcome. I have to disagree with this. The quality of consumer-grade hand tools is a function of who controls the manufacturing process and quality co…

100%. I worked in the heart of semiconductor manufacturing. Quality primarily a result of systems such as COD (Contain-your-own-defect), SPC (statistical process control), inspection metrology (traceability to NIST, MCA, reproducibility, repeatability, etc.), 5M+E (man, machine, materials, methods, measurement and environment), copy exact, etc.

What OP is talking about is that good tools are the ones with better design. OP mistakes the technical term "quality" with "good design". Quality is producing things as per specifications and allowable tolerances.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#76

Post by stacktrust »

loufe wrote: post #65
ajaimk wrote: post #50

Isn’t Milwaukee tool owned by a Chinese company? Some irony here.

Yessir, it's a subsidiary of Techtronic Industries, headquartered in Hong Kong.

https://archive.ph/N5pPO

> [German] Chairman Horst J. Pudwill, a former Volkswagen executive ... co-founded the company in 1985 as a maker of rechargeable battery packs for cordless tools. It then made tools for do-it-yourselfers on a contract basis for Sears Holdings Corp.'s (SHLD ) Craftsman brand, among others. Then it bought control of brands, including rights to the Ryobi name outside Japan, Royal vacuum cleaners, and Homelite garden tools. The big move was the $626 million purchase of Milwaukee Electric Tool and Germany's AEG Power Tools -- both premier brands used by professionals -- from Atlas Copco.

> Techtronic can also take new tools from the conceptual stage to production in as little as six months, thanks to 24/7 collaboration among designers in Asia and Techtronic's "concept centers" in Hong Kong, South Carolina, Germany, and Britain.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#77

Post by solarkraft »

Teever wrote: post #72
nostromo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has a “caveat emptor” culture that I suspect plays a role in this. In most western countries and other countries, like Japan, selling counterfeit or barely functional products is seen as somewhat shameful. But in China it’s often seen as being clever or cunning. Chinese consumers are used to this and are very cautious about what they buy and from whom, and of course negotiating a reasonable cost for the goods b…

It's not that it's seen as merely shameful in other countries, it's that it's seen as fraudulent and illegal. Trying to play fraud off as a cultural difference and misunderstanding is frankly bullshit victim blaming.

Whether you're angry about this depends on which culture you subscribe to.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#78

Post by solarkraft »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #19
googlryas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever try to get something built in China, you really need to know what you're doing, or the manufacturer will violate your specs all over the place in order to profit an extra 1/10th of a cent per unit. But, big companies don't really have that excuse, because they should know what they're doing.

Yep, suddenly they will change the type of plastic used, changed the ratios of plastics, use less copper (wires, pcbs), replace the brand name electronics with cheaper knockoffs and qa rejects from other factories, replace the type of glue, etc. Basically you need a QA team there to monitor every step of the production, or they'll try to screw you everywhere they can.

This sounds like perfectly efficient capitalism. Is it really not this way in other countries?

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#79

Post by CraigJPerry »

I noticed at the most recent Milwaukee power tools event that they’re really going all in on specialist tools. This is a strong signal that they’re going to continue to cream the competition because irrational or not, people end up preferring a single battery platform, it’s not guaranteed they’ll stick to one brand for future power tool purchases but it’s extremely sticky. The Milwaukee battery power tool ecosystem started off being better than the competition by having better battery technology on the market sooner. Now they’re going all in on diversification of specialist tools.

Should i buy a dewalt or makita or bosch battery power tool knowing that i can add other common tools in future or should i go Milwaukee and enjoy better battery choices, and a far far wider selection of power tools for future purchases?

If i hadn’t started out with team blue, I’d be buying team red. I might switch when i need to replace batteries next.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#80

Post by solarkraft »

stacktrust wrote: post #20
googlryas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever try to get something built in China, you really need to know what you're doing, or the manufacturer will violate your specs all over the place in order to profit an extra 1/10th of a cent per unit. But, big companies don't really have that excuse, because they should know what they're doing.

Milwaukee (TTI) is vertically integrated, i.e. they own their factories in China.

... that's possible? Don't companies from outside china have to set up joint ventures with a chinese company?
Post reply on HN