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This is good news, but Milwaukee is primarily a power tool company. Bringing power tool manufacturing back to the USA would be much bigger news. Project Farm i
by blt 4y ago
This is good news, but Milwaukee is primarily a power tool company. Bringing power tool manufacturing back to the USA would be much bigger news.
Project Farm is a YouTube channel that reviews tools. I've noticed that most of the made-in-USA products are relatively simple - hand tools, drill bits, adhesives, lubricants, and so on. Any complex assembly that includes electronics is almost invariably made in Asia.
It feels like the remaining made-in-USA tools are those where the manufacturer doesn't need to do much more than maintain some old machines and keep them fed with raw materials.
- stacktrust 4y agoA handful of DeWalt power tools are "assembled from global materials" in USA, https://www.allamericanmade.com/where-are-dewalt-tools-made/ https://www.allamericanmade.com/where-are-dewalt-tools-made/ Jackson, TN Air compressors Hempstead, MD Drill and saw components Charlotte, NC Cordless drills, screwdrivers Greenfield, IN Grinder, recip saws, hammer drills
- e-master 4y agoIndeed, I had one of those - absolutely lovely piece of machinery, as most dewalt tools really.
- rch 4y agoSame for STIHL: > A majority of STIHL products sold in America are made in America of U.S. and foreign materials. --https://www.stihlusa.com/stihl-made-in-america/ https://www.stihlusa.com/stihl-made-in-america/
- arbitrage 4y agoThey're so "made in america" that you have to put qualifiers on that statement ... not buying it, sorry.
- bcohen5055 4y agoThis qualifier is actually more about lawyers and accountants. The US has a very unclear policy about labeling something as USA Made. It comes down to the US content in the BOM cost and it is specific to costs essential to the product, at my last 2 companies these decisions were left to accounting and legal. In my current company we make sunglasses a non-polarized pair of sunglasses will say made in USA and a polarized pair will say assembled in the USA because the polarized wafers are not domestically made. In both cases the boxes, stickers, and logos are non domestic but aren't counted because they "aren't essential". In my previous company anything that had electronics from overseas had to be "assembled" but electronics from NAFTA areas were "usa made" In reality it doesn't make much sense to ever have a BOM 100% USA made as that fully negates the benefits of trade but we should have policies that still encourage companies that chose to conduct business here. When consumers are turned off by "assembled in" it drives business out of the country. *I work as a product development engineer for consumer goods. My current role and previous company both had US MFG sites Edit: here is a link to the requirements https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-made-usa#4 https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-made-usa#4
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThat manufacturing process is the result of bean counters determining it's a waste to ship boxed products that are 50% air overseas in a container. Ship the broken down components instead with denser packing and have a minimum wage worker bolt it together stateside. It isn't an enlightened return to domestic production.
- Scoundreller 4y agoOr avoiding duties. Putting the parts together is what drives up the value, but if you import the constituent parts and assemble domestically, the manufacturer will spend much less in duties. And then you can export that Made in USA thing to Mexico or Canada and probably other places duty free.
- stacktrust 4y agoIt's a start. Next step is automation-heavy U.S. production of specific components.
- petestream 4y agoIt's more like the endgame. 1. Western companies moves production of components to China. 2. Chinese companies becomes good enough to produce their own products. 3. Western companies starts rebranding Chinese products. 4. Chinese companies buy western companies. 5. Chinese companies open factories in western countries. Manufacturing isn't industry in itself and the growth of industry is orders of magnitude more in China. Most people just have no idea how supply chains work or how many R&D centers are opening up elsewhere. Many western countries are no longer great industrial economies but still far from real knowledge economies. Western countries don't really have the infrastructure, housing or education necessary and increasingly not alternative ways of competing either like creativity, influence or equality. There is a documentary called "American Factory". It isn't the best but it is something.
- stacktrust 4y ago> Western countries don't really have the infrastructure, housing or education necessary Why do non-Western elites send their kids to Western countries for university educations? > increasingly not alternative ways of competing either like creativity, influence or equality. Which non-Western countries are competing on creativity?
- blt 4y agoMy understanding was that those materials are more like electric motors and fully assembled control PCBs, not sheets of steel and spools of insulated wire.
- moogly 4y agoMakita too, in Buford, GA. Not sure which tools, other than some corded planers.
- eropple 4y agoI try not to be too much of a fan of tools, as for corded stuff I mostly buy what's cheap, but the DeWalt DW735 planer is a tool that really makes me happy. I've had to take it apart to put in an upgraded cutting head and the process of doing so was a really pleasurable education in how mechanical tools (which I don't know much about) actually work.
- dmix 4y agoDeWalt and Milwuakee are owned by the same parent company.
- eropple 4y agoYou've got them mixed up. DeWalt is Stanley Black & Decker, which also makes modern, non-Sears Craftsman tools, along with a bunch of others--Bostitch nailers, Irwin, whatever's left of the Porter-Cable line, and upscale stuff like MAC (uses DeWalt batteries, as it happens) or Proto. Milwaukee is TTI, which owns Home Depot's exclusive Ryobi and Ridgid brands, along with Empire (measuring devices), Hart (Ryobi but for Wal-Mart), and AEG (Ridgid but for Europe). The other "big" one worth mentioning is Chervon, who own Flex, Skil (aside: their 12V stuff is surprisingly good!), and make Lowe's Kobalt tools.
- silisili 4y agoPretty well summed up. It's an even hairier mess when you look at the details. For example, TTI licenses the Ryobi name from the Japanese Ryobi, and produces tools for Ridgid while not actually owning the brand. The odd one out usually forgotten is Positec. They have a rather interesting history, and today make the Worx stuff...which honestly aren't bad tools.
- eropple 4y agoOh yeah, the off-model and the multi-model tools are a rat's nest. I own a Delta 36-725T2 tablesaw, bought from Lowe's. Delta is now owned by Chang Type Industrial (who own the Delta name now). The same factory makes the Ridgid R4560 table saw, sold at Home Depot. The Delta Cruzer was one of the earliest zero-rear-clearance miter saws and there's a Ridgid one of those now, too. I'm honestly kind of glad, it means there's more better tools getting into people's hands now, but the color is an assault upon the eyes. I could've bought an R4560 probably two months before my 36-725T2, but I do woodworking because I like it, and I don't like "ORANGE!" being shouted at me every time I open the garage door.
- 4y ago
- nichos 4y agoCraftsman started doing a lot of hand tools stateside too.
- collegeburner 4y agosecond the project farm recommendation btw. he's 100% the best source of trustworthy reviews with credible methods for tools i found, i check him every time i need a good tool.
- fyzix 4y agoLow prices or well paid workforce...Choose one! This is a result of decades of regulations and labour laws. Paying Americans 10x more to make similar quality tools is a terrible business decision. This cannot be fixed without government incentives/handouts (eg. Chips Act)
- chongli 4y agoYou don’t have to choose one. With automation you can have a small, highly paid, highly skilled workforce do the work of a much larger, low skill, low paid workforce and actually produce higher quality products at a lower price.
- happyopossum 4y agoSo you’re picking low prices and an UNpaid workforce - cutting a workforce by 90% but doubling pay for the remaining 10% doesn’t improve a local or domestic economy.
- 1123581321 4y agoThat really depends on whether the skilled workers and automation tech result in product improvements, new products, new industries, etc.
- LeifCarrotson 4y agoThere's plenty of work to go around: workers today are no less busy but far more productive than they were before any automation. It's just that instead of a bunch of farmers and a handful of blacksmiths we've found more things to do and have careers that span the gamut from yoga instructors to robot technicians.
- chrisseaton 4y agoYes it does - those people can do something else productive, the US gets the tools it needs to build other things in their economy, and the US has resilience in case of future (extremely likely and possibly fundamental) supply chain disruptions.
- milofeynman 4y agoChina is very very good at injection molding/making plastic stuff
- stacktrust 4y agoThat makes sense given their experience in mass production of plastic-based objects. How did Keter in Israel out-compete Chinese suppliers to manufacture injection-molded toolboxes for Milwaukee Packout and Ridgid, when both are owned by China-based TTI?
- bergenty 4y agoThis article is depressing. We’re making pliers and screwdrivers and that’s supposed to be worth celebrating? I’ll celebrate when we have automated factories that mean we don’t have to pay 10x wages compared to third world countries and we can actually compete by making all the real things like power tools at Milwaukee in this case.
- mizzao 4y agoAlso, isn't Milwaukee Tool owned by a Hong Kong-based holding company (TTI?) Why would they build a factory in the US?
- stacktrust 4y agoPerhaps to sell "Made in USA" tools to the US government, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32462829 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32462829