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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

#241

Post by nonethewiser »

mlindner wrote: post #232
nonethewiser wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 100% Carbon neutral via on-site Solar in Virginia (not particularly sunny). No offsets shenanigans. I appreciate no offset shenanigans but did they factor in the fact that their product is made out of petroleum?

I'd argue this is one of the okay uses for petroleum as it's converted directly into a high value product and not emitted as pollution. I assume people don't do a lot of throwing away of Lego bricks. Going into the future I predict petroleum will be used to make material products a lot longer than it's used to make fuel. Even after we stop mining petroleum we'll still be turning farm crops into the same material.

That’s a fair point, but it still requires the production of oil and means the material will practically never break down in a landfill.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#242

Post by routerl »

haunter wrote: post #141
routerl wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One major draw of Lego is their licensing of expensive creative IP. This is the real genius beyond the manufacturing (which other comments are correctly praising). Lego was/is the only brand that gets to make, e.g. both Mikey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, both Marvel and DC, etc. By making Lego versions of those properties, they've convinced those enormous IP holders that this does not compete with other products; Disney c…

> Lego was/is the only brand that gets to make, e.g. both Mikey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, both Marvel and DC, Balenciaga and Ralph Lauren etc. Fortnite does this too. They have DC and Marvel, Naruto and DBZ etc.

I think that's more similar to Burger King offering promotional branded cups.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#243

Post by wingerlang »

GenerWork wrote: post #70
swarnie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is the company was pretty dead a decade or so ago, since then its had a massive revival after moving away from the family-run-inheritance model. Three (anecdotal) things i've seen with Lego: > Its a toy that old and young can play with together which is semi-intelligent/challenging. Parents and Grandparents seem to be the driver of sales for the physical product rather than the kids. > They have bran…

Thanks for the answer. I had no idea that Lego had brand deals with other IPs like Marvel, which would definitely explain the drastic ramp up in sales.

Not only that but there are sets for things like FRIENDS, Seinfeld and The Office. Haven't touched LEGO in decades but I still bought two sets to build with my girlfriend, who is a huge fan of one of them. It's a pretty fun evening activity.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#244

Post by lovich »

PostOnce wrote: post #192
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…

LEGO absolutely has a quality problem now. I am in my 30s and I had never seen a LEGO defect, and I have seen quite a few bricks. In the past year, I have seen several in-person among the toys I've bought for my kids, and several more anecdotally around the internet. Now I even see it here on HN. the LEGO brand had an unassailable, invincible reputation for quality, and now, for what seems like the first time, that i…

I’ve had two models in the past year have quality defects. In one, the parts weren’t of the right tolerance and it added a flex to the build that caused parts to pop off after a few hours. I’m the second I bought a set that straight up didn’t have multiple bags of parts necessary.

I am however, not sure that it’s entirely a cost saving measure as LEGO sent me a replacement kit no questions asked in both situations. It seems more like they are switching manufacturing techniques and working out the kinks, or I would have expected needing to provide some sort of proof of the issue

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#245

Post by AndrewKemendo »

nonethewiser wrote: post #240
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then perhaps you're being paid too much compared to the other people in society

Or maybe 30k for a new grad software engineer in London is a joke. What is your salary? Salary transparency empowers us all.

I have no salary currently

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#246

Post by AndrewKemendo »

nonethewiser wrote: post #238
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is striking how quickly the US turned into a backwater for all types of labor.

Do you include professional jobs in “all types of labor?” Software Engineer?

Yes.

Most software engineers get marginal pay and benefits - nothing like FANG or whatever it is now get.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#247

Post by 7jjjjjjj »

nonethewiser wrote: post #228
gtop3 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Questions: * Does the cheaper energy come into play with such a large onsite solar system? * (From the point of view of a manufacturing company opening operations in the us) Does the US currently have a surplus of well trained manufacturing workers? I hear a lot of factory management/executives still complaining that the skilled labor they need just doesn't exist.

> Does the cheaper energy come into play with such a large onsite solar system? Legos are made out of petroleum

I'll try not to set them on fire.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#248

Post by namibj »

shadowgovt wrote: post #170
iso1631 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting. That makes me wonder if the gas plants have to operate at some minimal output level because they can't go all the way into cold shutdown without risking grid integrity should something unexpected happen. Except that I was under the impression that gas-plants, in general, are bootstrappable plants and can kickstart themselves from a cold shutdown.

Not all are bootstrap-capable, and many do co-generation for district heating, which can power absorption heat pumps for cooling in the summer.

Also a gas turbine core that's spinning can modulate power in seconds, unlike one that has to first be brought up to speed with external power (even if that's from batteries, or an on-site diesel (like AFAIK in the case of the black start capability of the downtown power plant in Wuppertal Barmen)).

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#249

Post by rgoulter »

aksss wrote: post #197
lkramer wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Small bit of trivia, but the M1917 Enfield rifle, used by American forces in WWI and a derivative of the SMLE from the UK, was actually produced in CT, but in New Haven not Enfield. :^)

The M1917 uses a Mauser action, and isn't directly related to the Lee-Enfield (SMLE).

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#250

Post by PostOnce »

danielheath wrote: post #209
PostOnce wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LEGO absolutely has a quality problem now. I am in my 30s and I had never seen a LEGO defect, and I have seen quite a few bricks. In the past year, I have seen several in-person among the toys I've bought for my kids, and several more anecdotally around the internet. Now I even see it here on HN. the LEGO brand had an unassailable, invincible reputation for quality, and now, for what seems like the first time, that i…

Pretty sure they switched to recycled plastics in the past few years; I would expect a few more years of issues, at least.

That may be it; specifically I am talking about molding defects, dents where the part was injected, sometimes quite sizeable ones.
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