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Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

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Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#121

Post by throwawaylinux »

gurumeditations wrote: post #106
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That manufacturing process is the result of bean counters determining it's a waste to ship boxed products that are 50% air overseas in a container. Ship the broken down components instead with denser packing and have a minimum wage worker bolt it together stateside. It isn't an enlightened return to domestic production.

American manufacturing looks like low-wage workers making $12 an hour (a few years ago) making windshields. A real American manufacturing renaissance would be German, with high skilled trained professionals designing, building, and operating advanced machines to create complex products. Basically what the Chinese are continually getting better at. There is no hope. America can’t even agree on giving community college…

> There is no hope. America can’t even agree on giving community college to poor kids,

Working on factory production lines does not require a bachelor's degree. Germany isn't assembling cheap power tools either. One reason is that labor costs are too high, and requiring low skill jobs have a college degree does the opposite of helping that.

> let alone training a generation of toolmakers, electronic engineers, programmers, and every other profession involved in making things out of atoms more complex than a handtool or a radiator.

This isn't true. USA has some of the best EEs and programmers in the world.

> This country is dying and wildly unstable politically.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#122

Post by stacktrust »

yomkippur wrote: post #111

I am seeing the following trends: - supply chain is moving to US (ex. Korean conglomerates, TSMC, Japan) - cost of goods is rising as result of Made in US - increased number of articles justifying this for improvement in quality

Some German-manufactured goods have earned their price premiums with a track record of quality products.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#123

Post by nwiswell »

gurumeditations wrote: post #106
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That manufacturing process is the result of bean counters determining it's a waste to ship boxed products that are 50% air overseas in a container. Ship the broken down components instead with denser packing and have a minimum wage worker bolt it together stateside. It isn't an enlightened return to domestic production.

American manufacturing looks like low-wage workers making $12 an hour (a few years ago) making windshields. A real American manufacturing renaissance would be German, with high skilled trained professionals designing, building, and operating advanced machines to create complex products. Basically what the Chinese are continually getting better at. There is no hope. America can’t even agree on giving community college…

> A real American manufacturing renaissance would be German, with high skilled trained professionals designing, building, and operating advanced machines to create complex products.

So like Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA Tencor? The global leaders in semiconductor machinery are predominantly American, with honorable mentions for the Japanese (Tokyo Electron, Dainippon Screen) and Dutch (ASML, ASMI).

Most of the equipment is made stateside, e.g. Applied Materials manufacturing is in Austin.

> America can’t even agree on giving community college to poor kids, let alone training a generation of toolmakers, electronic engineers, programmers, and every other profession involved in making things out of atoms more complex than a handtool or a radiator.

The "America is doomed!" rhetoric is older than the hills and, while we are in decline as the global hegemon, economically we are still as vibrant as ever. Last year KLA Tencor opened a second headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan... not in China.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#124

Post by Teever »

londons_explore wrote: post #88
Teever wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

'barely functional' isn't fraud. And in most cases the cheapest made in china product is barely functional. It's only deliberately selling nonfunctional products that would meet the definition of fraud.

There are whole industries where it's unacceptable to ship 'barely functional' products -- aeronautics for instance.

We should be striving to expand this to more industries not the other way around.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#125

Post by rascul »

tzs wrote: post #89
ajaimk wrote: post #50

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

Yes. They are owned by the Hong Kong company Techtronic Industries, which also owns Homelite, Hart, Oreck, Dirt Devil, and a few others. Ryobi Power Tools and Ryobi Outdoor Equipment are also Techtronic Industries brands, under license from Ryobi. Techtronic Industries bought them from the Swedish company Atlas Copco in 2005. Here's an article on who owns what in power tools [1]. With some of the licensing deals, the…

> There are some adapters to allow mixing batteries, for example this one allows using Black & Decker 20V batteries on Bosch 18V tools

DeWalt, Craftsman, Porter Cable, Black and Decker, and probably another brand or two that I can't recall at the moment all use very close to the same batteries. The pins are in a different order and there's small plastic tabs in certain places so you can't swap brands but with a little bit of work you can charge a Craftsman battery in a Porter Cable charger and use it to power a DeWalt drill. Don't attempt to modify these batteries and chargers unless you have an understanding about what you're doing, though.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#126

Post by rascul »

death_syn wrote: post #12

I'm interested in how these compare to quality Chinese tools like Harbor Freight's ICON line.

Quality from Harbor Freight? I use tools for my day job and almost nothing from Harbor Freight holds up.

Edit: Sorry, I should add a bit more. I certainly have not used all (or even most) Harbor Freight tools, but for the work I do, the tools I've bought from Harbor Freight, they just don't last. For a backyard mechanic or Average Joe Homeowner, they're probably just fine.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#127

Post by bamboozled »

_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…

Who actually wanted / needed cheap tools ?

Cheap tools were pushed on the majority of people.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#128

Post by moogly »

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

Makita too, in Buford, GA.

Not sure which tools, other than some corded planers.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#129

Post by goodoldneon »

whilestanding wrote: post #41

Increasingly looking like my decision to give up bootcamping myself into a coastal tech job and come back home to the midwest and work in a factory was the correct choice long term. Plenty of job security with all the onshoring happening. Ironically I'd be worried if I was in tech about the WFH trend and out of touch entitlement of the zoom class bringing about outsourcing again. Oh and the funny money ponzi scheme c…

I worked in steel plants for 7 years before becoming a software engineer. Making the switch was the best professional decision I've made. Steel is cyclical so it was so stressful when times were bad -- I survived 4 mass layoffs. There's also the constant penny pinching in every possible way, even to the point of removing the free coffee from break rooms.

Now my salary is significantly higher and I deal with significantly less BS

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#130

Post by petestream »

stacktrust wrote: post #100
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That manufacturing process is the result of bean counters determining it's a waste to ship boxed products that are 50% air overseas in a container. Ship the broken down components instead with denser packing and have a minimum wage worker bolt it together stateside. It isn't an enlightened return to domestic production.

It's a start. Next step is automation-heavy U.S. production of specific components.

It's more like the endgame.

1. Western companies moves production of components to China. 2. Chinese companies becomes good enough to produce their own products. 3. Western companies starts rebranding Chinese products. 4. Chinese companies buy western companies. 5. Chinese companies open factories in western countries.

Manufacturing isn't industry in itself and the growth of industry is orders of magnitude more in China. Most people just have no idea how supply chains work or how many R&D centers are opening up elsewhere. Many western countries are no longer great industrial economies but still far from real knowledge economies. Western countries don't really have the infrastructure, housing or education necessary and increasingly not alternative ways of competing either like creativity, influence or equality.

There is a documentary called "American Factory". It isn't the best but it is something.

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