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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

#221
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In these industries it might take 5 years to switch suppliers. There are also specs that can't be tested at the finished good level, even destructively.

Yes, that makes it harder. You should probably run with multiple suppliers in the first place, so it's easier to switch between them? Of course, that extra overhead probably will eat into your cost savings.

People do that too, but even with all these mitigations in place, the risk just isn't worth it.

No major medical company wants to risk recalling defective product by using a disreputable Chinese manufacturer. Unknowingly selling counterfeit product is a pretty bad look to the FDA and consumers.

This is the main reason why many procurement departments have a no China policy.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#223
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DeWalt and Milwuakee are owned by the same parent company.

You've got them mixed up. DeWalt is Stanley Black & Decker, which also makes modern, non-Sears Craftsman tools, along with a bunch of others--Bostitch nailers, Irwin, whatever's left of the Porter-Cable line, and upscale stuff like MAC (uses DeWalt batteries, as it happens) or Proto. Milwaukee is TTI, which owns Home Depot's exclusive Ryobi and Ridgid brands, along with Empire (measuring devices), Hart (Ryobi but for…

You're right, I thought TTI bought DeWalt as well for some reason (which doesn't make sense in retrospect).

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#224
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Please show me a single person who is both strongly anti-racist and strongly against free community college in the USA.

I didn’t say they opposed free college. I said the folks you would expect to support free college (those left of center) have been co-opted by a version of “anti-racism” that treats acknowledging civilizational competition with China as “racist.” There’s lots of people who support free college(or at least claim to)—but not as a means to rebuild the American industrial base and get jobs back from China. They support free college, but also oppose tariffs and other America first policies.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#225
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm referring to power tools. Sears "Craftsman" power tools are incompatible with the ones everyone else sells.

I guess I don't understand. Sears sells the same Craftsman power tools I got from Lowe's.

Craftsman was bought by Black & Decker from Sears in 2017, but Sears kept a limited license to produce their own products under that brand name which it sells in their stores (I believe TTI is the actual manufacturer of Sears Craftsman power tools).

Craftsman = "V20"

Sears Craftsman = "20V"

Different incompatible brands, it's a bit deceptive.

https://toolguyd.com/craftsman-v20-sears-craftsman-20v-compa...

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#226
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It may be a bit overblown but it’s not wrong. We should invest in the future of engineering. I doubt you’d say that statement is controversial.

The second sentence has nothing to do with the first and is universally true. Everyone, regardless of the state they are currently in or their current trajectory, should invest in the future of engineering.

The first statement is an extraordinary claim for which extraordinary proof is required (especially as a direct response to a post explaining how the opposite is true).

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#227

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…

TSMC is sending recent American college graduates to Taiwan for 12-18 months of internship/training, in preparation for work at the TSMC fab in Phoenix, AZ, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29676073

That’s pretty short for actual education on those kinds of processes, sounds like they have found the raw engineering talent they need at US universities. They then send them for a short stint in Taiwan to learn “the TSMC way” and then send them back.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

And they’re offended at the notion that we might want to build things in the US instead of China, because that would be racist. No, they're not.

The Nation: https://newrepublic.com/article/144390/trumps-white-supremac...

Vox: https://www.vox.com/2019/7/3/20681384/trump-trade-agenda-rac...

I didn’t say everyone who supports free community college also thinks rebuilding the industrial base and trade wars with China are white supremacy. But there are enough people who do to divide the coalition and render it ineffectual.

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#229
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low prices or well paid workforce...Choose one! This is a result of decades of regulations and labour laws. Paying Americans 10x more to make similar quality tools is a terrible business decision. This cannot be fixed without government incentives/handouts (eg. Chips Act)

Paying another country to do something is a transfer of value and power (money). It creates a relationship of dependence. You become dependent on them for labor. Dependence is a base form of power. An entities power over you is proportional to their replace-ability. The individual business decision is sound, but the collective business decision is catastrophic. Not only does it create an economies of scale for advers…

> the prospect of war

Are you claiming that trade dependence between countries makes war between them more likely?

Re: Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

#230
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have to choose one. With automation you can have a small, highly paid, highly skilled workforce do the work of a much larger, low skill, low paid workforce and actually produce higher quality products at a lower price.

So you’re picking low prices and an UNpaid workforce - cutting a workforce by 90% but doubling pay for the remaining 10% doesn’t improve a local or domestic economy.

> UNpaid workforce

Automation is far from unpaid. At very least it expects you to give it food (electricity, gasoline, etc.), shelter, and healthcare (repairs and maintenance). Generally the same things that humans expect from you.

Automation is significant not because it is unpaid, but because it can often do much more work for the same amount of pay.

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