What's the difference between a product that we expect to be made overseas (a drill from harbor freight for example), and one that is made overseas by a company that really should be building their stuff in the US.
Well, in my mind, the difference is getting to be less and less.
We all know, or are learning, that China has factories that build things.
They will build whatever you need built, to your specs, and you can sell your product as your own, even though your competitor's product is built on the next bench/factory over.
We know this to be true because of Foxconn (I'll use them as an example because most of us have heard of them by now).
Foxconn builds Apple products (iPad, iPhone), Microsoft products (XBOX 360), Dell products (specifics unknown) and the products of many more electronics companies.
So isn't all this stuff essentially built by the same company?
Granted, its built to the "standards" of the client...
but if Foxconn builds it all, who cares what name is stamped on the unit?
Meanwhile, the client company (the one who claims they make a product), doesn't really make anything.
They just pay someone else to make a product that they developed.
Hardly seems like the right way to "build" something, since there's an inherent disconnect between the client and the factory.
Surely that's worse than the disconnect that happens in US companies between the shop-floor and management.
What's the difference?
Started by Rusty Pancelode, Jun 04 2012 02:53 PM
2 replies to this topic
Sorry for my ignorance, but it sounds important.. 
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