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America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

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842 points putzdown | 8 comments | 15 Apr 25 13:50 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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mppm ◴[15 Apr 25 14:12 UTC] No.43692983[source]▶
Jonathan Blow's "Preventing the collapse of civilization" [1] makes a similar point. It is easy to assume that, if we can build EUV machines and space telescopes, then processing stainless steel and manufacturing PCBs is baby stuff, and is just waiting for the proper incentives to spring up again. Unfortunately that is not the case -- reality has a surprising amount of detail [2] and even medium-level technology takes know-how and skilled workers to execute properly. Both can be recovered and scaled back up if the will is there. And time -- ten or twenty years of persistent and intelligent effort should be plenty to MAGA :)

1. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pW-SOdj4Kkk

2. http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...

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imbusy111 ◴[15 Apr 25 14:14 UTC] No.43693026[source]▶
But the important question is - is it worth it? Should we be doing something more valuable instead?
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1. sct202 ◴[15 Apr 25 14:28 UTC] No.43693263[source]▶
I've seen this brought up with board games that are now primarily made in China, because injection molding is cheaper there especially for small quantities. The US could make the board game minis, but everyone who is capable of it in the US is producing high value high quality aerospace, industrial, medical parts. It's a waste of their time to produce small runs of toy parts.
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2. iamacyborg ◴[15 Apr 25 14:49 UTC] No.43693564[source]▶
This seems like the kind of thing where 3d printing is probably good enough quality wise.

Of course, the 3d printers themselves are probably being made in China.

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3. lasermatts ◴[15 Apr 25 15:07 UTC] No.43693866[source]▶
mold making is also pretty complicated -- anything in the 1,000-1M parts produced will _probably_ be an aluminum mold (cheaper than steel) but they're still heavy and large to keep around.

I haven't met any injection molding shops in the US that do a huge amount of specialty parts like toys. The industry tries to get as many medical device jobs as possible.

4. pjc50 ◴[15 Apr 25 15:13 UTC] No.43693974[source]▶
3D printing absolutely sucks for production runs of more than a few dozen, and it produces finishes nowhere near as good as injection moulding.
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5. nilkn ◴[15 Apr 25 15:42 UTC] No.43694437[source]▶
That's a crazy statement. It is clearly not true that every single person in the US capable of making board games now or in the future is instead already making high-grade aerospace and medical components.
6. iamacyborg ◴[15 Apr 25 17:29 UTC] No.43695941{3}[source]▶
Is that still the case? Even for a simple (presumably) board game piece?
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7. mathgladiator ◴[16 Apr 25 15:20 UTC] No.43706609[source]▶
I've thought about this and love board games. I don't want cheap plastic anymore. I want a reusable modular gaming system that let's me use more imagination.
8. tstrimple ◴[16 Apr 25 15:45 UTC] No.43706872{4}[source]▶
Finishes are getting much better, especially with the high resolution resin based printers. But they are still slow and labor intensive compared to a "real" factory.