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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
by Vivtek 10y ago
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.
- calbear81 10y agoProbably 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.
- Vivtek 10y agoOoh, 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).
- calbear81 10y agoThe 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.
- Domenic_S 10y ago> 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.
- sokoloff 10y agoI'm pretty convinced that you can get any quality you're willing to specify, pay for, and inspect for in China. Where's your iPhone made? China gets a bad rap for the lowest, barely passable spec crap that gets made and sold by vendors seeking the lowest possible COGS. It's not that China can't make iPhones; it's that they get asked to make cheap shit in a lot of cases. And they can happily do that, too...
- Domenic_S 10y agoSure, but there's the rub - how many iphones get made in a year? Your volume has to be stupid big to make high quality chinese manufacturing make sense.
- Vivtek 10y agoWell, why aren't they moving their corporate offices to India or Thailand instead of Brooklyn? I mean, cost is the only metric, right?