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How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

LOL, The excuses used by the "Apple" execs are a crock. I worked at an electronics manufacturing plant in Ohio. There were times where we ended up working 12 hour shifts, 5 days a week. Then we'd come in on saturday and sunday for an extra 8 hours. All to get an order done and shipped.

Granted we built our own product, but the line was flexible enough that it could change from one product to the next with little trouble.

If we needed extra manpower, HR would pull in temps to fill in where needed.

The real reason behind supposed electronic companies like Apple outsourcing jobs is because of environmental impact and health issues.
Solder, for those that don't know, can contain lead. The easy to work with solder does have lead in it. Lead is toxic to the human body, hence there is a lot of regulation about it. From air scrubbers to handling with hands. The plant I worked at had a environmental monitoring company come in every 90 days to inspect air quality, and lead on surface areas. We never had a problem. We eventually switched to lead free solder. It was more expensive, and we had to get soldering equipment that would melt it and give us the flow we needed. Lead free requires a little more heat ten led based solder. Our old soldering itond didn't produce the heat needed.
We also had to sweep the floor and put the "dirt" into a metal hazmat container. Just because it might have solder in the dirt, and that couldn't go to a landfill. Instead it went to a service that recycled materials.

But all that said, people just need to realize one thing. Assembly line work is just a step up from McDonald's. Meaning no special skills are required, that can't be taught on the job. Sure there are some, that do require a college degree, or special skills, but then those jobs are a step above assembly line work.
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Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?.

In China and many other areas of Asia the labour component [Assembly line work] averages 0.25 cents per hour -- and your points are 100% correct. The fact that the Chines manipulate their currencies is a factor [indirectly tied to the labour component] -- but that is a complex subject.

IMO, manufacturing can return to North America based on manufacturing ingenuity that can overcome the valid health issues regulations try to deal with -- but regulation is not the answer -- ingenuity and the will to do it [financial incentives] is the answer. Unfortunately far to many socialists [communists/labour unions] have far to much influence in North America.
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David Mozer
IT-Expert on Call
Information Technology for Home and Business

reply to Snakeoil

reply to daveinpoway
I love all of my Apple products, but I hate that they are not made here. They are still quality made in China, but I'd pay a little more for them to be made in the USA. Obama had a real good point. Hopefully things will change, and we'll start manufacturing our own products here. Depends on who is in the White House 2012 and on.
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"Is there a 50's Cafe around here"?

reply to Snakeoil

reply to lordpuffer
I second the statement of being willing to pay a tad more to have it made by Americans in America. We seem to have plenty of folks who need the work and the cost differential seems to be coming down in comparison to Chinese produced goods so bring the work home. When people complain about the class discrepancy who do we have to blame but ourselves? If the big-wigs make too much money, then build a better mousetrap and get some of it yourself.

reply to Rob

reply to Rob

reply to lordpuffer

said by lordpuffer:

said by Rob:

said by lordpuffer:

look at the quality of American cars now.

IMO, they are still horrible. They may LOOK nice, but they are not built of good quality. Cheap parts, cheap plastic. And those dashboards, YUCK.

Woops.....I may have opened up a closure of this thread. Let's get back OT.

IMO, it could all be solved if tax breaks were given to big business to keep manufacturing of US products inside the US, instead of the other way around. In essence, our economic competitor is getting stronger every day, while we get weaker (in economic terms).
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"Is there a 50's Cafe around here"?

reply to Rob

reply to lordpuffer

reply to Rob
Double time for sunday as well

We ended slave labor not to long ago, tough those on salary sometimes feel they are slaves to the business. Salary gets a few extra perks vs hourly, but hourly get paid for every minute worked. The longer salary work, the lower their pay per hour.
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Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?.

reply to howardfine
The company I worked for had maybe 40 or so people on the line.
As we don't live in the work place, no, we couldn't show up at a moments notice. But we'd show up when we could, and ramp up from there.
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Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?.

reply to daveinpoway

Re: How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

said by NY Times :

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A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

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reply to Rob