Made in USA on the rise.

[touchring]

Recently, I've spent a couple weeks looking for a $300-$500 mini server supplier. I searched Alibaba, eBay, Google, compared prices, and finally settled on SuperMicro, a Taiwanese company. When the I received the server, I was surprise to see "Made in USA" label on the box. Even the manual was "Printed in USA".

I'm was surprised even though through my weeks of online research, I already knew that mini servers sold by Chinese OEM suppliers are only marginally cheaper than those made elsewhere - you'll be surprised to know that mini servers are made all over the world, including the UK.

Chinese made mini servers are only about 10% cheaper (30-50 bucks) cheaper, but come with more issues based on feedback on product comparison sites and there is also no guaranteed warranty.

I believe that it is no longer cheap to manufacture in China, after all the inflation, rising wages, and rising cost of real estate. Chinese manufacturers are still able to offer cheaper goods only by cutting corners, using poorer quality components or by not providing warranty.

[seobook]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

Foxconn planning $1 billion facility in Indonesia

New manufacturing plant will create 1 million jobs in the region, where the average monthly wage is $100 a month

story from a month ago. perhaps over time (especially as energy prices rise) the cycles will get shorter & shorter to where it is harder to justify those large investments.

[suki]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

Google experimenting with electronics manufacturing in the USA:

Google Tries Something Retro: Made in the U.S.A.

I read separately that the product wasn't much of a hit, but I'm not sure that had much to do with the choice of manufacturing site (but maybe the price).

[evangellydonut]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

Google experimenting with electronics manufacturing in the USA:

Google Tries Something Retro: Made in the U.S.A.


I read separately that the product wasn't much of a hit, but I'm not sure that had much to do with the choice of manufacturing site (but maybe the price).

Most of the parts used are still made in Taiwan or China... it's only the casing and the assembly are made locally... not too different from Gucci or Dior putting a few screws on sunglasses' parts from china and slapping a "Made in Italy" label on them... As an engineer, I see first hand the knowledge that's lost when we no longer manufacture semiconductors (with exception of Intel).

[touchring]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

Most of the parts used are still made in Taiwan or China... it's only the casing and the assembly are made locally... not too different from Gucci or Dior putting a few screws on sunglasses' parts from china and slapping a "Made in Italy" label on them... As an engineer, I see first hand the knowledge that's lost when we no longer manufacture semiconductors (with exception of Intel).

Parts are made everywhere, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Japan. It doesn't matter. Once the assembly is made locally, local sourcing will begin.

[suki]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

Parts are made everywhere, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Japan. It doesn't matter. Once the assembly is made locally, local sourcing will begin.

Agreed, this is how things got rolling in Asia. Plus, I think that assembly produces the highest number of low-skill manufacturing jobs. I'd visited one modern semiconductor fab in Texas a couple years ago. There were maybe 10 people working there. If that was representative, then I doubt that modern fabs create many jobs directly...

[evangellydonut]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

Agreed, this is how things got rolling in Asia. Plus, I think that assembly produces the highest number of low-skill manufacturing jobs. I'd visited one modern semiconductor fab in Texas a couple years ago. There were maybe 10 people working there. If that was representative, then I doubt that modern fabs create many jobs directly...

No... things got rolling in Asia because we started deeming manufacturing of certain semiconductors to be unprofitable and outsourced them to Taiwan (LCDs for example). Dell et al then started outsourcing assembly because most of the parts are already made over there anyway, and it snowballed from there. It's the bottom up approach that will bring manufacturing back, not the top down.

As to your point about fabs - much of the knowledge is with whoever that designed and owns the fab. You think Chartered or TSMC engineers who designs the fab will give all the secrets to the fabless design houses in the US? Even with all the NDAs in place, unless you use many experts to micromanage, you'll only learn of the problems after a few million parts got shipped, or a few million dumped in production with crappy yield. And where do those experts come from? where do they cut their teeth? not in the US...

I don't know who designed Google's hardware, at least we know that all Apple design are still done in US... their design engineer then gets sent to Asia for months at a time to work with manufacturing, something that's rarely done these days.

[touchring]

Re: Made in USA on the rise.

I don't know who designed Google's hardware, at least we know that all Apple design are still done in US... their design engineer then gets sent to Asia for months at a time to work with manufacturing, something that's rarely done these days.

This is the reason why Apple is winning marketshare. They are willing to spend 0.1% of their revenue to hire their own design engineers.