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Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

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Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#101

Post by michaelmrose »

matchbok3 wrote: post #71
vrganj wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, "climate catastrophe" is not a thing. It takes a deep ideological commitment to close ones eyes to the reality in front of us. Our planet is literally dying. The oceans are boiling [0], marine life is dying [1]. Land close to the water will be land under water soon [2]. The ice caps are melting and setting free all sorts of diseases. [3] Large parts of our planet on fire all the time now, here's one from Austr…

It is quite sad how doomerism has taken so many people. Our planet cannot "die", it is not a person. Take a deep breath!

It actually can die but more accurately it can also become far less amenable to human thriving and kill off the majority of other species both of which appear to be happening

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#102

Post by Aurornis »

probably_wrong wrote: post #32
taneq wrote: post #9

Is this the new “China can’t manufacture a ball point pen”? (Which I strongly suspect they can do at this point. :)

More like the new "America can't manufacture a grill scrubber" [1]. For those who haven't seen the video, YouTuber Destin Sandlin ("Smarter every day") tried to build a grill scrubber using 100% materials from the US and failed. [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY

You have to separate the YouTube clickbait from the real learning content in there.

US manufacturing is expensive because wages are high, but also because we focus on the high end work that pays more . Even the small machine shops I used 10 years ago for small scale production runs are no longer interested in doing any small batch work. They have more contract work from big companies than they can handle, and the big companies pay more and have higher order quantities.

If you’re a shop or a factory in the US you’re never going to take some small orders for a grill brush from some YouTuber who doesn’t have any expertise in marketing grill brushes. Everyone is going to turn that order down because there’s no money or future in it, but there’s plenty of better work that pays better from companies who want to keep using your services in the future.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#103

Post by Aurornis »

probably_wrong wrote: post #80
brynnbee wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim he failed seems like hyperbole. He couldn't find an existing manufacturer for chainmail in the US but this is a fairly trivial and niche thing to create, and is more a reflection of how uncommon it is for people to need that specific type and size of chain mail than it is that the US is incapable of making it. The other part is from Costa Rica only bc he hasn't yet made the injection mold for it, like he di…

I disagree with that conclusion: even if the chainmail were indeed very uncommon (no idea), getting it from China was so easy that he even got it when actively trying to avoid it. And since the chainmail is the revolutionary part of the idea (and the most expensive part) it might as well be the product. He set out to get "100% made in the USA", settled for "no part made in China", and couldn't even get that. That def…

> That definitely feels like a failure of the US manufacturing industry.

The US manufacturing industry moved on to better paying, more stable contracts because they could.

They have no incentive to do niche things for small time YouTubers who won’t be generating repeat business.

Even the small machine shops I know now have more high paying work than they can handle. They’re just interested in doing some niche temporary work in a race to the bottom with another country that can pay workers a fraction as much and ignore all of the health and safety regulations.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#104

Post by whatever1 »

I wonder whether with AI we will be able to document more efficiently all of the nuances of production so if we need to ramp up a forgotten process we can do it faster.

There is so much domain expertise that exists in production that is not documented, because who has time for writing documentation when your floor is on fire.

But if writing documentation is something free and can be automated (maybe from the company internal comms), maybe we have a chance?

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#105

Post by delusional »

whatever1 wrote: post #104

I wonder whether with AI we will be able to document more efficiently all of the nuances of production so if we need to ramp up a forgotten process we can do it faster. There is so much domain expertise that exists in production that is not documented, because who has time for writing documentation when your floor is on fire. But if writing documentation is something free and can be automated (maybe from the company…

How would the "AI" figure out what the process is? That's non-sense.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#106

Post by chronogram »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #84
wbl wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or stockpile a two year supply. You can get a lot with a billion dollars.

These things expire you know, for latex gloves it's only 3 years.

The US already has their Strategic National Stockpile for medicines.

Shorter expirations are managed by constantly selling the old to the domestic industry and purchasing new, like China does for grain and frozen meat while simultaneously being able to keep the market more stable by selling high and buying low. Switzerland has a lot of stockpiles, even including coffee[0], which the companies also go through FIFO.

0: "The 15 big Swiss coffee retailers, roasters and importers, such as Nestlé, are required by law to store heaps of raw coffee. Together, these mandated coffee reserves amount to about 15,000 tonnes—enough for three months’ consumption. The government finances the storage costs through a levy on imports of coffee. All 15 companies are in favour of maintaining the coffee reserve—as long as they are paid for it." Economist 2019

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#107

Post by axus »

vrganj wrote: post #74
matchbok3 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite sad how doomerism has taken so many people. Our planet cannot "die", it is not a person. Take a deep breath!

Sure, the planet can't die. But the people and animals on it can. But I have a feeling you knew what I meant and are just being deliberately obtuse.

Sometimes we hate incorrect usage of the word "literally" as much as we hate apathy to a billion people suffering.

The Gaia hypothesis is science fiction compared to climate catastrophe, which is real.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#108

Post by dude187 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #94
b112 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stockpiles of masks and gloves where maintained in Canada, and I believe the US after SARS. But a year before COVID, these warehouses were shut down, as the stockpiles were old, and needed a refresh, and politicians didnt see the need to spend tens of millions on new stockpiles. The has happened several times over the last 100 years.

Republicans didn't see the need to be precise

Seems the decision to deprioritize n95s was done by the Obama administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_National_Stockpile

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#109

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

chronogram wrote: post #106
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These things expire you know, for latex gloves it's only 3 years.

The US already has their Strategic National Stockpile for medicines. Shorter expirations are managed by constantly selling the old to the domestic industry and purchasing new, like China does for grain and frozen meat while simultaneously being able to keep the market more stable by selling high and buying low. Switzerland has a lot of stockpiles, even including coffee[0], which the companies also go through FIFO. 0:…

To be clear, I think a plan like that makes a ton of sense, because the only costs you have are the ongoing storage and admin costs, and in the grand scheme of things a big warehouse to store a 6 month rotating supply of PPE would have huge potential benefit and would also be a rounding error compared to things like the Iran war. I was just objecting to the idea that you buy "a billion dollars" worth of gloves because that's not a sensible or sane solution.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#110

Post by whatever1 »

delusional wrote: post #105
whatever1 wrote: post #104

I wonder whether with AI we will be able to document more efficiently all of the nuances of production so if we need to ramp up a forgotten process we can do it faster. There is so much domain expertise that exists in production that is not documented, because who has time for writing documentation when your floor is on fire. But if writing documentation is something free and can be automated (maybe from the company…

How would the "AI" figure out what the process is? That's non-sense.

Because of the slack complaints?
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