What is it with USA manufacturers?

Cpl Punishment said:
Jeff, I think it's greed and laziness, plain and simple.

My last company, we had a stretch of about 4 months with no work or pending orders in what we made. I pointed out to the company president that:
A.) We still had the machinery to produce a product that we had produced, but stopped because we had so much other high-dollar business we couldn't keep up with both. He said there wasn't enough profit.

B.) We had a full CNC machine shop, i could make anything that I had a blueprint for. Being a small outfit, we could underbid most of the large machine shops in the area, and since we were slow, we could deliver fast. Maybe it was time to branch out?
But then he'd have to go out, find the jobs, advertise and get the company's name out there. It was too much work.

Company I'm in now is in a slump. I keep my eye on the business because it's a hobby of mine. Several times I've brought up new products I see are coming out, and the company making those products are saying they are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. So I suggest maybe they call them (who we've done business with in the past), and see about getting some of that work.
The answer? Not enough profit.

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but when things are very slow, profit is profit. When the alternative is having equipment that you have to pay taxes on, sitting around not running, even breaking even is good enough.

IMO the only reason to not take low profit jobs is because you have more high-profit work than you can keep up with.

But it seems most businesses would rather lay people off, and even close down, than admit that the sugar tit is dried up, and it's not coming back real soon.

I think right now, small businesses that are fairly new is where it's at. These are guys that got started in tough times, will take what they can just to get their names out there, and know that they will be golden if they can survive these times while their competition dies off.


With that, I hope things work out with Josh.
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Another +1

The larger companies are now being run by vulture capitalist.
Im all for a company making money and making what the market will bear.
When the company does this to a fault however then its the employees that suffer until the company falls by the roadside or goes belly-up entirely.

The company I currently work for is laying-off its employees, hiring temps so they dont have to pay benefits, but its not so they can be competitive its so the owners can get richer. The lead stock holder is worth more than 10 billion but his workers are barely making a decent living. Im not talking about people who never finished high school either. Im talking people with Masters Degrees making 30k a year. Now the company has cut so far that there is no more room for enough profit so the jobs are going overseas. The company is not going overseas just the work, its gone from being produced by the company to be produced by a third party and branded with the company logo.

Other than that all I will say is...

{surfer dialect} "Dude DONT GET ONE!"
 
All I can say is ESEE is the luckiest damn company in the world to have Rowen manufacturing buidling our knives. I've been in the manufacturing business all my life and Rowen is the first manufacturer I have come across that shares our values and ethics when it comes to making something. I'm sure there are other shops out there but I never found them.
 
Cpl Punishment said:
But the rest -- when I get a mill, lathe, surface grinder and a shed to put them in, watch out. All this little business that doesn't offer "enough profit" is exactly who I'm going to target. As a one-man shop;, and still holding onto my night gig, I can bid a lot lower, and as a sole owner, the only shareholder I have to please is me. I'll take the very work these guys won't so much as bid on.
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Can you shoot me an E-mail, please? I have a couple things to run by you. :)

Your mail is not available.
 
My company has been manufacturing in Asian for over a decade now. I know it is not popular with many. However, we need price point and delivery of goods. We have offices in Hong Kong and don't use sweat shop labor. It is hard to find factories in North America that can compete for what we do, which is cookware, bbq tools and lighters. :(
 
Hope the lanyard deal works out well for your company Jeff. I have showed a few gun show dealers and one store owner threads on the Exchange pertaining to lanyards, and showed them my less than stellar lanyards. Some have put up a couple basic lanyards in their shops and on their tables at shows, and they have sold like crazy. A little initiative goes a long way.
 
I hope this works out for you with several of the members on the forum. Nice to see the desire to keep it made here. :thumbup:

Ross Perot was right - the only problem is the "sucking sound" it being echoed from the Far East .....:grumpy:
 
Wow, I could go for days with thread. I to own a company that currently has all of our parts made in here in the US. I agree with many of the comments made here. Companies saying it's slow but then don't respond to RFQ's. Are we our own worst enemies? Some chase the dollars first. Some are grounded in values that allow them to keep going forward no matter what the trail is.

I would like to see a data base of companies that are ready to help others.

Best of luck.
 
Another variable even with "Made in the USA" products is who exactly is making them. It may not be Americans, and your money may be Western Unioned out of the country.

That point isn't made to show that illegals consistently produce poor quality goods, because I've worked with many people of "questionable citizenship" that work better, faster and for more hours than lots of other people. I always loved when a temp agency sent us a few fresh Americans wearing baggy pants and chains then going over the process of how to clean the various parts of a screen printing machine. They'll stand there for about a minute with their hands down their pants then literally walk out the door without a word.

What I'm trying to say is because something is made in America, doesn't mean your money is "staying here", and it doesn't automatically mean "quality". There are lots of variables you have to look at with any product and see if it's worth your money and time. Robert went point by point on where the materials of the new folder are coming from, and where they will be manufactured. Looks 100% legit to me.
 
R.A.T. said:
All I can say is ESEE is the luckiest damn company in the world to have Rowen manufacturing buidling our knives. I've been in the manufacturing business all my life and Rowen is the first manufacturer I have come across that shares our values and ethics when it comes to making something. I'm sure there are other shops out there but I never found them.
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Shon and Becky are really very special people and the exception as far as business is concerned. No two people I'd rather be associated with.:thumbup:
 
i also do lanyards in my spare time, but i don't think i could meet that deadline. if whoever you go with needs help feel free to contact me and i can make part of the order.
 
Jeff,

I am sending out 2 samples of my work to you first thing in the morning along with a quote.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Thank you,
Thom
 
R.A.T. said:
All I can say is ESEE is the luckiest damn company in the world to have Rowen manufacturing buidling our knives. I've been in the manufacturing business all my life and Rowen is the first manufacturer I have come across that shares our values and ethics when it comes to making something. I'm sure there are other shops out there but I never found them.
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Rowen is lucky to have ESEE as a client as well. But we all know it's not luck, certain people attract certain people and then you get collabs made in perfect harmony. Your type of stop bitching and get it fucking done attitude is being wiped out by let's do it cheaper and easier for a few extra dollars attitude. I put my money and mouth behind companies like you for that very reason.
 
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