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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

#151

Post by pcurve »

meibo wrote: post #115

They really need to work out their quality deficits first, a lot of recent mishaps have been inexcusable. You can't sell a $600 display model(which is a ridiculous price in the first place) with very visible gate locations from the molding process and uneven colors. These are purely caused by cheap molds and plastic mixes - it didn't used to be this way, but somehow they decided that they had to start jeopardizing th…

that's a shame. At least they're pretty good about sending you replacement parts for free

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#152

Post by adhesive_wombat »

bombcar wrote: post #38
blibble wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many cubic kilometers of plastic that is

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

And since Lego essentially never is thrown away (except by spite or accident), that's more or less 1 megaton of carbon capture right there.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#153

Post by hanniabu »

bombcar wrote: post #34
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.

Let's not pretend they care about the reduction in carbon. They'd only care about reduced shipping costs.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#154

Post by [deleted] »

newjersey wrote: post #119
GalenErso wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they just received some good old-fashioned tax incentives? It's not always about geopolitics.

My guess is that Lego customers are also increasingly older. I mean look at the millennium falcon. https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/millennium-falcon-75192 https://i.imgur.com/vsxVnSJ.png ages 16+ When I think of fancy lego, I think of something like this https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-medium-creative-bric... because it has wheels and stuff, not just bricks. I would have imagined "regular" lego was just di…

[deleted]

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#155

Post by 0xDEF »

saiya-jin wrote: post #131
AnonymousPlanet wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind, Lego is a Danish company. This is an investment in a foreign country.

Funny as it is, I wonder where the general mindset as this comes from, is it US media or even education? I mean the idea that anything good comes from US and only US, rather than mankind overall and that >95% of human race doesnt live within US borders. A bit if humility and critical thinking also about ourselves goes a long way, especially long term.

To be honest The Lego Movie franchise was annoyingly American for my Danish taste. It doesn't surprise me that many people think Lego and other European companies are American when they behave and market themselves as pseudo-American companies and insert themselves in American socio-cultural issues.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#156

Post by Dextro »

weinzierl wrote: post #148
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…

They also operate a respectable number of theme parks and hotels around the world. https://www.legoland.com/

If I remember right, they were forced to sell the theme park business when they were in dire financial straights in the early 00s.

While Legoland still exists, it's now a license and the parks owned by a separate company

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#157

Post by iso1631 »

shadowgovt wrote: post #68
iso1631 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is California not able to export electricity? The lowest I see in thee last week was 3.1GW of natural gas for CISO. Similar amount to the lowest gas usage last June and July (2.7GW I think on June 19) https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electr...

IIUC it's complicated. Because the grid is, fundamentally, still storage-starved (though that's been improving in recent years), even with export the CA energy companies run into grid over-saturation problems on clear, sunny days. Eventually losses catch up with you pushing the power geographically far enough; they couldn't, for example, power the entire United States off of enough California solar. So I naively susp…

Except the data seems to show that California Independent System Operator (CISO) has not had a single hour where Gas hasn't produced at least 1GWh of electricity, even in the height of the day in the height of summer with the lowest demand, not even close

Maybe there are local bottlenecks inside the CISO network, but that's a very separate problem.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#158

Post by lkramer »

zeristor wrote: post #149
skybrian wrote: post #35

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…

Enfield, not just for the Enfield rifle, or Royal Enfield Motorcycles, or Matchbox cars; but Lego too? How did I miss that?

I suspect this is Enfield in Connecticut and not Enfield in Middlesex, UK which is where the Rifle and Motorcycle originated.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#159

Post by mianm »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #140
ethbr0 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just glad that we're bringing LEGO manufacturing back to the US. For too long US builders have been subject to the geopolitical risks of Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary, China, and Mexico. This is a strategic raw material, without which trains, helicopters, fire engines, pirate ships, and hospitals cannot be built. To say nothing of the dependence that US media IP has on continued fresh brick availability. I…

I think this was parody... but geopolitical risks of Denmark!?!

I'd be more concerned about Lego setting up a factory in a country with very poor labour laws compared to most countries in that list, than the stability of Denmark.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#160

Post by simse »

Dextro wrote: post #156
weinzierl wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also operate a respectable number of theme parks and hotels around the world. https://www.legoland.com/

If I remember right, they were forced to sell the theme park business when they were in dire financial straights in the early 00s. While Legoland still exists, it's now a license and the parks owned by a separate company

That is correct, but has since been bought back. Well it's a little more complicated, but it's 50% owned by the Kirky family.
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