Posted on 07/22/2023 8:50:10 AM PDT by DFG
When Craftsman announced a state of the art manufacturing plant in Texas, the company said it would ‘revitalize’ and ‘bring back their American manufacturing heritage’.
The $90 million dollar plant in Forth Worth would employ 500 full-time employees as well as an army of state of the art machines to churn out American made tools manufactured with domestic steel.
Use of the high-tech robots for much of the manufacturing would lower production costs to a level normally seen in China, it was even claimed.
But the whole process became nothing but a headache for Craftsman - owned by Stanley Black & Decker - when company after the automated system failed and the number of tools being churned out dwindled.
The factory ended up churning out so few tools that they've become a collector's item on eBay.
In March of this year, just three and a half years after breaking ground on the 45,000 square foot factory, the company announced it was closing the plant.
It had been a high profile example of a drive amongst U.S. manufacturers to bring offshore plants back on American soil and use American steel, which had been fueled by government incentives.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sounds about right. Other than common hand tools I was never impressed with craftsman gear anyway.
Craftsman was a Sear’s private label. For a long time they sold products from multiple manufacturers. Was not a single source.
The brand was sold, and heaven only knows where the last was made.
Black & Decker was once a great company.
I worked for 2 wholesale hardware distribution companies for almost 40 years.
One of those companies bought the well known Thorsen Brand (no manufacturing, just the trade name).
That company is gone now, long story that should not have happened.
“For a long time they sold products from multiple manufacturers. Was not a single source”
That would explain at least in part the lack of quality control.
Yes. That issue also happened with Thorsen (which at one time was 100% US made) and they relabeled it Thorsen allied.
You never get more than you paid for, some times you don’t get what you paid for.
What does this even mean???
90 million dollars is not a huge price for a serious manufacturing plant.
“some times you don’t get what you paid for.”
I worked for the DoD for 30 years.....I know. 😏
Tariffs and import quotas will be necessary to bring manufacturing back to the US and recreate end-to-end supply chains. In 1865 the economy of the United States was devastated by 4 years of civil war. England and other European countries exported manufactured goods to the US and undercut American manufacturers. From 1865 to 1900 the United States employed the highest tariffs in its history. The protective tariff was designed to give American manufacturers the ability to compete while the US industrialized. It also fully funded the operations of the US government, making an income tax unnecessary. In 1900, thirty-five years after the Civil War, the United States had the largest industrial economy on the planet and a burgeoning middle class.
It can be done again if we adopt an America First trade policy. It won’t occur with the current program of government subsidies and tax breaks for politically favored industries like big pharma, the auto industry, green energy, government funded stadiums for professional sports, and overpayments to big defense contractors.
It means they used craftsman tools to build the robots
Too bad, I only have one Craftsman tool left. A 1/4” ratchet from the 1960s.
At one time Craftsman was not only the best feeling tool in my hands, they were unconditionally guaranteed.
But like everything from the 40s, 50s & 60s, they fixed it.
We traded Sears and Craftsman for Harbor Freight and Pittsburg.
Tradesmen use Milwaukee almost exclusively for electric hand tools. I wish you could still get the old vintage Porter Cable stuff.
OK, I will buy that.
Government project are seldom efficient.
Private Industry must do smart design and achieve cost containment.
The government almost never has their priorities right.
It is also why Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Corporatism always fail.
All forms of Totalitarianism are Evil. All Fail.
They probably tried to do it on the cheap and instead of high-end Japanese or South Korean robotics, they went Chinese and got burned.
Could it possibly be because the plant was a union shop?
Yep.
The only ratchet wrench I have ever broken is the Craftsman ones. They do have a life guarantee so I have broken a bunch of them.
I worked in a highly automated airfoil production facility. In the 1990’s we used robots for machine loading of forges and broaches. We used high quality large industrial robots. We decided to skip low payload weight robots. Even if the payload was only a few pounds we used robots with a 1000lb capacity. The reason was wear and reliability. Also we used only top of the line manufacturers robots, again reliability was the issue. We had a team of maintenance people that treated the robots like race cars. They had planned down times for servicing and a robot that had an unplanned failure was swarmed by a team of maintenance techs just like it was an unplanned pit stop on a race track. Also the area for the process was designed that a human or humans could step in and act as replacements to keep the process flow going. We even used robotic carts to move product between work cells and also in and out of in process/completed parts storage. Having a 24/7/365 automated factory is a non trivial endeavor. Our peak production was over 1,000,000 titanium and nickel aircraft engine compressor blades a year. I wonder how many people were assigned to monitor the process flow, what percentage of time was assigned to downtime, and what brands of robots and machine tools were used. All robots are not created equal. ( and by robots, a factory either means automatic loaders , pick and place machines, or generic robot arms purposed as parts handlers.)
Still have grandad’s beast of a grinder/cutter. Black and Decker made in Milwaukee! Heavy high speed, lovingly maintained and lubricated properly, bearings all work. Will cut through 1/2 inch steel... like buttah (the blade needs to be the best quality to match up to the rpms and power of the tool).
“...manufactured with domestic steel.”
Where are they going to find that?
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