If Middle America wants those jobs, Middle Americans are welcome to start a fashion label of their own. But since they seem to thrive on blandness in the Midwest I doubt that's going to happen.
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MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
41–50 of 112 posts
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. MakerBot could easily move to Indianapolis, after all. Or even less expensive locations elsewhere in Indiana, for that matter. Brooklyn is one of the most expensive markets in the United States, yet Indiana has just as many qualified technical people. Perhaps more, to be honest. Purdue is a pretty fantastic engineering school.
Probably could make the same case for Detroit, get access to UofM students, plenty of large warehouse space, long history of manufacturing, dirt cheap houses, and of course... exiles that were priced out of Brooklyn.
Ooh, yeah, hadn't thought of Detroit - I'm from Indiana myself and the GP mentioned Indy, and away I went.
Point being you could find much better locations than Brooklyn without going straight to China (while keeping your own self in Coolsville).
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#43A lot of people wonder why large companies can't just stay in the US and compete on quality, and here is a great case for why. It doesn't matter how great your workers are, you can't sell a product for $3,000 when others are selling it for $600. Especially when it's a technology still in development. And I know we pay extra for the warm and fuzzies knowing that something is made in the states, but I'm sure the home t…
I'm pretty sure the Indianapolis tinkerer might be happy to pay $~1000 for a 3D printer made in Goshen, Indiana though.
I know it's harder to find talent in small-towns, but in today's economy, you can do a lot with just a small group of people and a workshop in the middle of the country.
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often wonder if costs could be lowered for many of these companies if they would stop locating in some of the country's most expensive places to operate and for their employees to live. I know the arguments about workforce availability and all that, but I've never seen a proper look into it.
It still wouldn't help. It's cheaper to manufacture electronics in China even if the labor costs are the same . The logistics are vastly better over there. If you need PCBs or components, you can have them direct from the factory on the same day. If you have a production problem, you can get a specialist engineer the same day. If you need a new production line with 200 extra staff, you can have it up and running in t…
In other news, the driverless truck is going to automate a few million people jobs:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11568699
Perhaps it's worth the effort to have some manufacturing and expertise in the US?
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#45Makerbot is in a tough spot. They lost points with people when they announced closing off of some of their work vs remaining open source. And so customers thought they might (if they are paying premium for consumer level printing anyway) to go with Ultimaker which retained premium build quality and remained open. And month after month, other companies keep bringing printers out to compete. Microcenter is carrying Mak…
The Dremel is a rebranded Flashforge Dreamer if I'm not mistaken. At home I have a Flashforge Creator Pro (a clone of a Replicator 2X, but with a lot of improvements) and I'm really happy with it.
It is more than (in Europe) half the price of a Makerbot and that for a printer that is certainly on par with it or maybe be even better. It scores very high in the enthousiasts category on 3D hubs (https://www.3dhubs.com/3d-printers#enthusiast)
Regarding Chinese quality, I don't have the feeling that "Made in USA" is so much better if I see how many problems there are with the Makerbot Replicator 5th generation imo. That version is notorious for having a lot of quality problems.
These days most parts come from Chinese manufacturers anyway... .
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
We really should try to promote 3D printing companies that support the open source movement and local manufacturing. Maybe we should set up a wikipedia category for open source 3d printers? Product Chart has a section for 3d printers with open source design: http://www.productchart.com/3d_printers/sets/4
They tried. And the result is that as they got press and notoriety people took their open plans and made replicas in China and sold them at a cost that massively undercut MB. If they had stayed open source they would have gone under years ago, probably years before Systrays bought them. Open hardware doesn't really seem to be a sustainable business, at least not when what you're making costs as much as a 3D printer.…
> Open hardware doesn't really seem to be a sustainable business
Neither does open source software tbh.
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#47If Middle America wants those jobs, Middle Americans are welcome to start a fashion label of their own. But since they seem to thrive on blandness in the Midwest I doubt that's going to happen.
That was condescending. Let's try not to make generalization about a large portion of the country.
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
They tried. And the result is that as they got press and notoriety people took their open plans and made replicas in China and sold them at a cost that massively undercut MB. If they had stayed open source they would have gone under years ago, probably years before Systrays bought them. Open hardware doesn't really seem to be a sustainable business, at least not when what you're making costs as much as a 3D printer.…
> Open hardware doesn't really seem to be a sustainable business Neither does open source software tbh.
It seems to be, at best, something you try and use as a value add to your real service like DB consulting.
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably could make the same case for Detroit, get access to UofM students, plenty of large warehouse space, long history of manufacturing, dirt cheap houses, and of course... exiles that were priced out of Brooklyn.
Ooh, yeah, hadn't thought of Detroit - I'm from Indiana myself and the GP mentioned Indy, and away I went. Point being you could find much better locations than Brooklyn without going straight to China (while keeping your own self in Coolsville).
The challenge is still that you can build ANYTHING in China and if you can get the same quality and lower prices significantly, why would you choose a middle of the road solution in the US? I think the cost differential still overrides any sort of boost you might have from having a Made in the USA stamp on the machine.
Re: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ooh, yeah, hadn't thought of Detroit - I'm from Indiana myself and the GP mentioned Indy, and away I went. Point being you could find much better locations than Brooklyn without going straight to China (while keeping your own self in Coolsville).
The challenge is still that you can build ANYTHING in China and if you can get the same quality and lower prices significantly, why would you choose a middle of the road solution in the US? I think the cost differential still overrides any sort of boost you might have from having a Made in the USA stamp on the machine.
> if you can get the same quality
That's a pretty big if. But truth be told, most things don't need to be ultra-high-quality with ultra-tight tolerances.