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The piece is about these people doing very small-batch custom runs, precisely the kind of thing you don't go to China for, and it's hard to fully automate skill
by msla 8y ago
The piece is about these people doing very small-batch custom runs, precisely the kind of thing you don't go to China for, and it's hard to fully automate skilled trades.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- vkou 8y agoToday, you can already get small-batch custom runs of PCBs shipped straight from Shenzhen. Nobody keeps a local PCB lithographer on staff, when you can order a batch of 20 for $50. I'd be surprised if, in a decade, you couldn't do the same for glassware.
- HarryHirsch 8y agoWith custom-built mechanical equipment it absolutely doesn't work that way. Doubtless, someone in China will build you your piece from drawings, and six weeks later it arrives, and you find that it needs modifications to work as intended. Wash, repeat. The slow feedback loop is the biggest problem with outsoucing. It already doesn't work particularly well with custom synthesis.
- magduf 8y agoAlso, when you order PCBs from China, you're doing all the CAD work yourself, and they're building those parts exactly according to the engineering drawings (called "gerbers"). With glassware, the chemist isn't using AutoCAD to create detailed engineering drawings of what he wants. The glassblower is taking on much of the design role. I suppose you could just get the university to hire a mechanical engineer to do the CAD work, and send CAD drawings to China to manufacture the glassware according to spec, but that's not going to be cheap.