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Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

manufacturingdive.com

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Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#31

Post by bluetomcat »

minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

The quality of the bricks is generally high, but set design is something they capitalise on. Instead of selling themed playsets with minifigures and encouraging kids to build new adventure worlds, nowadays they sell mostly pop-culture-referenced plastic display models with tiny finicky 1x1 pieces that are of not much use for general building. These models employ complex building techniques, but are not easy to turn into something else. They create an incentive for people to collect all the models rather than unlock creative potential.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#32

Post by gjsman-1000 »

brookst wrote: post #24
minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

Why do CPUs cost $400 when they only have about $1 worth of sand, aluminum, and other elements in them? Raw material cost is not a good proxy for end user value of finished goods.

People make this mistake all the time. “The iPhone sells for $999, but only costs $320 in materials!”

Well, sure. But you aren’t including shipping costs, storage costs, training costs, labor costs, marketing costs, office costs, employee costs, research and development costs, legal costs, patent licensing costs, wasted material costs, environmental costs, electricity costs, packaging costs, margins for resellers, distribution costs…

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#33

Post by grrdotcloud »

minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

As mentioned the quality is amazing.

I've been playing with them for thirty years. Same set thirty years ago has the same quality and matches perfectly to the identical pieces purchased today.

Despite different types and audiences the quality remains.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#34

Post by bombcar »

obblekk wrote: post #6

Interesting learnings for me from this article: - Lego operates multiple $1B+ factories around the world - they are not just a design and marketing company - 1400 manufacturing jobs in Virginia expected - not just an automated thing. Anyone know what changed economically to justify the high US labor costs? Particularly compared to MX - 100% Carbon neutral via on-site Solar in Virginia (not particularly sunny). No off…

It’s highly automated but you still need people to watch the machines. Many Lego factory videos are available.

If this lets them source much of the plastic locally, it will save on millions of boxes being shipped across the ocean. That’s a huge reduction in carbon, even if the local manufacturing costs a bit more.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#35

Post by skybrian »

It will be the first US Lego factory in a while, but here is some history:

> The first LEGO factory in Enfield opens in 1975 – a packing facility for LEGO DUPLO® bricks. The elements to be packed arrive from factories in Billund, Denmark, and Baar, Switzerland – transported to the US in container ships.

> The Enfield factory is constructed as a “conversion ready” building with open steel structures which can quickly be converted from warehouse to packing, packing to production.

> In 1980, LEGO Systems Inc. sets up its own molding shop in Enfield, starting with 10 molding machines. The factory is equipped with state‑of‑the‑art technology. One of the features is an air‑drying system for plastic granulate, which must contain no moisture when it enters the molding machine, as the finished bricks would otherwise fail to meet the LEGO Group’s high-quality standard.

> In November 2000, the LEGO Group announces its decision to close the molding plant in Enfield and in future mold LEGO bricks only in Europe. Shutting down the molding facility is a step in the LEGO Group’s plan to improve its financial results in the years ahead – preliminary accounting figures for 2000 are negative.

Before that, there was a licensing agreement with Samsonite.

[1] https://www.lego.com/en-us/history/articles/e-production-of-...

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#36

Post by frosted-flakes »

samstave wrote: post #21
dontupvoteme wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They use extremely high quality mechanical tooling. It's some of the most expensive plastic you can buy.

As someone who has many thousands of dollars in lego, and one who, in the course of my life has owned many many hundreds of pounds of lego.... Where the FUCK are they all? microplastic in the environment, no. it wast towed outside the environment to another environment where there are just fish, birds, sea and lego... anyway... as much as I love lego, they need to curb their roll on the plastics they put into the env…

I believe they plan to switch entirely to plastic derived from plant sources within a decade.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#37

Post by bombcar »

sprak wrote: post #27
post_break wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look on Amazon or Aliexpress there is definitely competition, just not in stores. I have a few not lego kits that are fantastic.

Do you remember any of the brand names that was of good quality?

Iirc there are some that are literal direct ripoffs (exact same sets with a ELGO or some obvious ripoff brand) that appeared at a time, and were pretty obviously run off of a Chinese Lego line (I believe Lego got them shut down by winning a copyright case in China).

The quality of off-brand is way up in the last 20 years but it’s still not the same; they run the molds way too long.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#38

Post by bombcar »

blibble wrote: post #29
minton wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of July 2015, 600 billion Lego parts had been produced.[1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego

I wonder how many cubic kilometers of plastic that is

400 Lego 2x4s makes a kilogram. So let’s say a cool billion kilograms.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#39

Post by LegitShady »

minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

1) Entrenched market leaders

2) Leader in terms of quality

3) Good product design and successful branding deals

4) Difficulty of starting a dedicated competitor includes high startup costs (mold making is veeeery expensive)

5) There are competitors, but since startup costs are high even they aren't super cheap, and some have quality control problems, not as much piece variety, etc.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#40

Post by iso1631 »

obblekk wrote: post #6

Interesting learnings for me from this article: - Lego operates multiple $1B+ factories around the world - they are not just a design and marketing company - 1400 manufacturing jobs in Virginia expected - not just an automated thing. Anyone know what changed economically to justify the high US labor costs? Particularly compared to MX - 100% Carbon neutral via on-site Solar in Virginia (not particularly sunny). No off…

> 100% Carbon neutral via on-site Solar in Virginia (not particularly sunny). No offsets shenanigans. Oil prices might be too high today if this is about to happen to most new factories in the world.

No mention of exporting kWh during the summer days and importing during winter nights?

Still good as every kWh of solar is a kWh of gas not burnt.

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