OT- U.S. manufacturing and China

To All,

Ed Huntress, a regular poster on "alt,machines.cnc" has written a series of articles for 'Machining", an online magazine, that deal with the "China situation". They are very insightful and well written, and deal with issues that have touched all of us in one way or another. They can be found at

Mark

Article entitled "The China Conundrum" in the upper right of the opening page. I'm reading it now. Thanks, Mark

'Spork'

Mark Mossberg wrote:

Is he the one that started the rumor that SARS lives in tool steel for up to 6 months?

"Mark Mossberg" wrote in news:_L0Ra.366$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com:

Thanks for the link Mark.

Wow, did you touch a nerve. We're a small manufacturer with relatively low volumes that used to proudly slap 'Made in the USA' stickers on everything. Recently with the downturn there has been a huge push to procure parts from China. The cost savings are all over the board, but most are not extreme based on our low quantities. What really gets me is they are not tracking a good chunk of the cost of doing business over there. I used to finish a part, give it to a purchasing agent, then maybe, for a complex part, have a conversation with the vendor about it. Now I sit in meeting after meeting with a dozen people before anything is purchased. The worst was a very complex machined aluminum part that we spent hour after hour on the phone with the Chinese vendor and after 4 samples and 2 months still had nothing in our hands but garbage. We finally had our small, relatively average toolroom work 3 shifts to get us parts in time. And they pretty much hit every number dead on. The worst part is not a single minute of my time, and most of the other peoples time, has been captured in any way that is added into the cost of doing business over there.

Very Frustrating.

Why don't you write a short magazine article about it? It should be of interest (and self-interest) for a mag to publish it. They don't pay squat, but it might make a bit of a difference.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Thanks for the thought. The opportunity to vent a little would make the time more than worth it.

As an final note to illustrate my frustration. One number constantly thrown about is the goal of a UMC of $100, which is tough to attain for our products, even in China. Several years ago I designed a product from the ground up that the final UMC ended up (before our customer cancelled it for problems on they're end) at $89. All with local vendors that I could visit in 20 minutes. Today, we won't even quote these local vendors because the directive has come down - "Go to China!"

It's scary.

To All

"Machining" isn't really an on-line publication...(my bad). It used to be "American Machinest" I believe. This is/was a a very well respected trade magazine. Ed is the Senior Editor.

To those of you who are interested, there are several discussions going on right now in "alt.machines.cnc" that have to do with certain bills that are now before congress. These bills will most likely impact all of us in manufacturing. The thread is entitled "Defense Procurement Alert"

Regards

Mark