Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility • Hacker News Board

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#301

Post by brendoelfrendo » Mon, Apr 24, 2023, 7:05 PM UTC

JasserInicide wrote: post #190

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…

And now they're moving to Boston. CT loses another multinational company, they just can't catch a break. Then again it is entirely the state's own fault for driving businesses away.

As I recall, Lego cited talent as their biggest reason for locating[0]. From the same source, the governor of CT says that state policy wasn't part of their relocation plans.

I hate to say it, but Lego is probably right here. CT and MA are very similar from a cost-of-living perspective and, all other things things being equal, Boston has a larger and more diverse talent pool, and is a more attractive place to live for retaining that talent. I suppose you could extrapolate that to state policies, that the state isn't doing enough to make CT an exciting place to live but that might be a bit too uncharitable. I say this as someone who grew up there; my mom even worked at the Lego plant for a brief period in her 20s, and liked it there. As a Lego-loving kid, I always took pride in the fact that all that magic happened so close to home.

[0]https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lego-move-north-american...

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#302

Post by iso1631 » Mon, Apr 24, 2023, 8:21 PM UTC

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…

> even with export the CA energy companies run into grid over-saturation problems on clear, sunny days

Which day, specifically, had zero natural gas generation?

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#303

Post by buffington » Mon, Apr 24, 2023, 11:02 PM UTC

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

And trees are made of wood. What's your point?

If the question was "what are Lego made of?" then this answer would at least make sense, but that's not what the question was.

For what it's worth, Lego has used a lot of different materials over the years, and not all of them have been petroleum based. To be fair, the majority of their new products are made from petroleum based plastics, including ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), polypropylene, MABS (Methyl Methacrylate-Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene), PA (Polyamide, aka, nylon), POM (Polyoxymethylene), PE (Polyethylene), MTPO (Metallocene Thermoplastic Polyolefin), SEBS (Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene, the material used for "rubber" tires and similar), and PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate).

There are efforts being made towards replacing ABS with recycled PET. Some kits may already use recycled PET.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#304

Post by munificent » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 12:11 AM UTC

arcanemachiner wrote: post #128

munificent wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to those serious Guiness records like "farthest eyeball pop", "loudest purr by a domestic cat", "most face flesh tunnels", "most tennis balls held in the mouth (by a dog)", "most eyebrow waxes performed in eight hours by a team", and "longest head massage chain". Guiness has always been a half-commercial silly enterprise. It's literally founded by a beer brand to resolve pub trivia arguments.

The point still stands: By no reasonable definition is Lego the largest manufacturer of tires.

The record is actually pretty clear:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/100909-la...

Think of all the makes of tyre you know. Who would make the most tyres each year? The simple answer is Lego! Since 2006, Lego makes around 306 million rubber tyres each year for its construction kit toys. In 2010, this number was topped at 381 million tyres, easily beating all other tyre manufacturers. Even though Lego products are unlikely to fit an everyday car, they do fit all descriptions of a standard tyre, albeit of the solid rubber variety. Even the rubber compound used for the Lego products would not be out of place on a domestic car.

"Largest tire manufacturer" could reasonably be interpreted to mean:

* Largest company that manufactures tires

* Company that produces the most tires by mass/weight/volume

* Company that produces the most tires by number of tires

If you read the record, it's clear they mean the latter interpretation. By that interpretation, it seems like LEGO clearly is the winner.

The things they make are tires: They are rubber-like and go around wheels. There is no rule anywhere on Earth that says tires must not be on toys.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#305

Post by theandrewbailey » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

bricemo wrote: post #104

I grew up in this tiny town of Chester, Virginia and moved to Silicon Valley after college. Seeing this factory and my hometown at the top of Hacker News is blowing my mind.

When I was growing up in Ohio, if you told me that Intel would have a chip fab half an hour down the road, I would not believe you. Still don't believe it.

Welcome to the club.