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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

#191

Post by eru »

AlbertCory wrote: post #90
_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. I don't think you've read all the posts by people with actual experience in manufacturing. Give the same "design" to two different factories and you get two different results. Manufacturing matters.

Though I wouldn't necessarily blame it directly on country. Rather on culture.

As an example, manufacturing in southern Italy vs norther Italy might be rather different, too.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#192

Post by symlinkk »

yomkippur wrote: post #140
stacktrust wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

but why is it then so many BMW have issues? I have to go to my Benz dealership quite frequently too. Toyota/Lexus - zero issues.

Because BMW and Mercedes are pushing the envelope in technology. Lexus and Toyota stick with old technology. It makes their cars less pleasant to use - older infotainment, worse performance - but they are more reliable. Different values.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#193

Post by exabrial »

While I have no doubt a lot of HN'rs are handy... for those that don't know, Milwaukee is _the_ professional tool line. If you get your house framed, your driveway re-concreted, your roof redone, your toilet cleared... they contractor was probably using a Milwaukee tool. It's owned by TTI (Techtronic Tool Industry) and oddly enough is the same people that make Ryobi.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#194

Post by throwaway9870 »

solarkraft wrote: post #78
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

No, perfect capitalism would include having perfect knowledge of the product, which is exactly the opposite of this situation.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#195

Post by throwaway9870 »

londons_explore wrote: post #92
s1artibartfast wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely the case in med tech, devices and Pharma. Many manufacturers avoid China because you can set a spec but you can't trust the outgoing QA testing. You can do incoming QA testing, but then you are double testing and losing a lot of efficiencies when those things would be best done at the supplier

You do spot incoming QA testing. And if you find any issues, you test the whole shipment. And then you compare the results to the outgoing QA test results. And if any results can't be explained by failures relating to shipping, then you fire your supplier. You let them know ahead of time that this is the procedure you'll apply, and then they'll do proper QA testing.

QA testing is easier said than done. There are few firms the in the world that could do complete QA testing on a TV for example.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#196

Post by VectorLock »

collegeburner wrote: post #58
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…

yea i've seen the attitude extend to college here, we generally have some idea that cheating is wrong but most of the chinese students i met seemed to think it was fine if they could get away with it.

My SO is a professor at a university with a lot of foreign students and she mostly only has to deal with cheating with this cohort of students.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#197

Post by dehrmann »

_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…

> It's common to blame Chinese manufacturing for cheap tools

Apple has shown exactly this: you get what you pay for in China, just like everywhere else. If you want quality and consistency, you can get it in China. It just costs more than low-quality from China.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#198

Post by Scoundreller »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #94
stacktrust wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Or avoiding duties. Putting the parts together is what drives up the value, but if you import the constituent parts and assemble domestically, the manufacturer will spend much less in duties.

And then you can export that Made in USA thing to Mexico or Canada and probably other places duty free.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#199

Post by ufmace »

hayst4ck wrote: post #137
mc32 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's not always straightforward but I also feel there is a disconnect when on the one hand people say the answer to worker's poor pay is "Unions!" and then on the other hand they want cheap things and also say that people have a right to cheaper things because that improves quality of life through increased purchasing power... Well, that's true if you have a professional white collared job. If you're in the l…

Unions aren't about more wages. Unions are about checking owner/capitalist/CEO power. Why does the CEO get paid 10-100x more than the lowest paid worker despite working the same number of hours a day? That's the question unions aim to solve. This puzzle revolves around power. Power is the ability to execute force or inflict pleasure or pain. A CEO is clearly capable of painful force against their unskilled labor. A C…

I see that point, which is why I'm not entirely against unions, but they have their downsides too.

Unionization has brought about some very beneficial improvements in working conditions and worker benefits and rights. But unions that get too big and powerful are often just as bad in different ways. They tend to make pay increases and promotions based solely on seniority instead of any measure of actual skill or work ethic, demand adherence to finicky rules about exactly who is allowed to do what work when, lose interest in representing individual workers when they don't fit the mold exactly, be just fine with driving business into bankruptcy or non-competitiveness with international competition, and generally foster an adversarial relationship between workers and management.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#200

Post by UberFly »

rayiner wrote: post #153
gurumeditations wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Quoted post unavailable.

I did actually have a lady yelling at me once at a street fair because one of our products had a "Made in the USA" tag on it. Called us imperialists. Yes those people are out there. (I'm in the US btw)
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