Tractor News Kubota - Made in the USA

[varmint]

FWIW, our daughter-in-law works for a supplier to Honda, in Columbus, Ohio. From what I hear, they are all about quality and consistency, and the Honda autos that are produced are equal to any produced in Japan. I remember buying an American made Toyota some years ago, and was surprised to learn that the USA Camrys had a lower defect rate than those produced in Japan. No reason we can't build stuff as well as anywhere, given the right designs and materials. Consider that our California-based Haas cnc machining centers are world class.

 

[BlacknTan]

Building Kubota's here might not be a good idea. For me the reason to have the Kubota is because it's built in Japan under a Dr. Deming style of management, by Japanese workers. It would be a less desirable machine to me if it's made by some baggy pant, hat on sideways, crouch grabbing, listening to rap on the line guy, while he puts pistons into my block. No thanks. HS

Just a few stereotypes here ...

If only the world were so simple!

 

[houstonscott]

Just a few stereotypes here ... If only the world were so simple!

. Yeah, seen the American assembly crews on the news in Ferguson, no thanks. Not a few stereotypes, just who lives there. HS.

 

[bumperm]

. Yeah, seen the American assembly crews on the news in Ferguson, no thanks. Not a few stereotypes, just who lives there. HS.

Your tax dollars "hard at work", so others don't have to. Good example of 3rd of 4th generation welfare.

bumper

 

[Garandman]

We have two Honda Accord's at work that are over 70% North American content. We purchased two Chevrolet Cruze turbodiesels and the percentage is actually lower, because the engine is made in Germany and the transmission in Japan.

Then there is the Subaru Outback we own. It was made in Indiana but the engine and transmission are from Japan. At the time, GM owned 25% of Subaru. Then in the financial crisis GM sold their stake in Subaru and a number of other foreign manufacturers. So was the Subaru more American when GM owned a chunk of them, and did the Subaru become less American when GM sold out?

Almost any equipment today anywhere in the world will say, "Assembled in ___________, from globally-sourced parts."

 

[bumperm]

Garandman,

Yup, I agree that's the case, parts and complete assemblies are globally sourced. The issue is, the US has allowed the outsourcing to go much too far. If we haven't already reached the tipping point, I'd be surprised. Our steel industry is decimated, most of our manufacturing base is gone in a very many areas, you have only to look at the shelves in most any hard goods store, most everything made in China.

This transition is not entirely the fault of US companies, part of the blame goes to unions, worker's standard of living expectations, EPA, Fed and state tax laws, and local rules, in short everything that came together to make it much more expensive to do business and make consumable goods here at home, and far less expensive to import. Over the past several years, China has been buying up us companies to obtain even more technology. Some of these companies will operate here providing jobs for now, some not, but corporate profits will, for the most part, still go back to China.

Many years ago, I heard that the US economy would become all about "information" and "service". Unfortunately, that leaves behind a large segment of our society that is ill equipped to find gainful employment in those sectors. Flipping burgers doesn't support a family and without aptitude, intelligence, and educaton, good luck getting a high tech job. Most of the unemployed and minimum wage earners are currently on handouts of one kind or another, and as you know, about 50% of the population gets government subsidies of one type or another and pays no Federal taxes. How long can this continue?

I own a small service sector company of about 20 employees. All the parts we use were once made in the US, now they designed here and made overseas or in Mexico. We have no equipment sourcing alternatives to "buy American" to help change this.

I personally believe that many US companies are acting like the bears in my back yard. They tear off the branches of our young apple trees to get at the ripe fruit now, not considering that the trees they destroy, to get the high fruit now, will not bare fruit in future years (actually I'm protecting the trees now with an electric fence after picking up a lot of torn down limbs). As a country, we are being short sighted in the manner we obtain consumables. With NAFTA and few trade barriers, we are picking low hanging fruit with cheaper prices from China, but we do so at our own peril in the long term. Just as our government cannot exercise the restraint to live within their means, the US consumer (on average), is not doing a whole lot better.

Yeah, I'm worried for my children and grand kids.

bumper

 

[MHarryE]

I've never been a union member but have worked in union and non-union factories. If the union and management are adversarial, in general quality will decline. On the other hand in a non-union plant I have observed that during cutbacks during hard times people can be very sensitive to workers with a lot more experience being let go first, especially if the person is felt to be a good worker but doesn't always agree with the boss. Of course on the management side I have always had to contend with that, and in one plant it resulted in a vote to unionize all but the upper management at the time because the people felt they were being treated unfairly. This plant had recently had several key positions, including the top dog, filled with ex-Chrysler Corporation employees. The first thing the new manager had done was completely soundproof his office, and had a door closer added that was controlled by a switch under his desk. When he wanted to rake someone over the coals, he would call them into his office. When the door slammed behind them they knew they were in for a scream session. Quality sucked. By the way the special soundproof screaming office was mentioned to me to be part of the Lee Iacocca school of management.

My experience from the 1990's on was the non-union plants tended to pay more because they did not want a union in place. I am talking about skilled assembly labor. If the people are treated with respect and compensated fairly, they have no reason to unionize.

Buying a car listed as having 70% USA or North American content can be misleading. My last factory had an accountant who determined the foreign and domestic content. Say, for example, a final drive was procured from a supplier who assembled in Ohio. It would be listed as $xxx North American. The gears might have come from Italy, a very common gear source. The castings might have come from India, a very common casting source. Bearings may have been sourced from China, now one of the top bearing producers (they make super quality as well as super poor quality - you need to know what you are buying, not let the country name dictate). The final drive may be sourced worldwide but to the buyer it is sourced from North America.

For a short time I worked for a large US company that was so focused on cost that every week we engineering group managers had to meet with a group of executive vice-presidents and explain every engineering change that increased cost - even if the change was less than a penny. For example if an engineer made a mistake and specified a 1" bolt instead of the required 1 1/4" length, the change could not be implemented until a senior VP signed off. We were actually known to use our own pocket money to have someone run down to our hardware supplier and buy the proper bolts to keep the line running until a senior VP would sign off, after taking a tongue lashing of course. That's America. And people wonder why GM put out ignition switches that would have cost so little to function per customer common use (key chain with extra crap on it). The company to which I was referring is now owned by a large European corporation and friends with whom I keep in touch say things are quite different.

 

[ultrarunner]

Very true... rightly or wrongly, I've been known to pay for something needed and hope management agrees to reimburse.

Actually, for the first 20 years under the same CEO it was really appreciated as in going above and beyond.

The most recent CEO is only about stakeholder equity and even the the Landscape drip watering system had to be turned down until his wife visited and told him the landscaping was dieing...

I guess even CEO's sometimes have people they listen to... too bad more often than not... it is not the ones that have spent a career making the business viable...

Offshoring product is a real problem in that items become obsolete much quicker... we had old time American made hospital devices where I could call the factory and actually source parts for items decades old... good luck with that today... lucky if you squeak by with 10 years and that is buying at rollout.

Real shame to see 30k OR tables that are 10 years old with no support... of course the company has probably merged and been sold several times during that 10 years.

For 10 days I've been trying to get a quote on new Anesthesia Machines... maybe 35k each... have not had a single response from voice mails or e-mails to GE... crazy.

Just for kicks I will mention a friend that commented on my Kubota BX and asking why I didn't buy American John Deere...

Had to explain that my BX was more American than the comparable Deere.

 

[bumperm]

MHarryE,

Very telling. I know there are managers like that. I would never condone yelling at employees, or being disrespectful of them. Also, dignity being important, I never "ordered" an employee to do something, always asked them. (However, I'm quite sure they knew what my request meant :c). I once asked an installer to do something and he demurred, I told him that no was not an option and he repeated his objection. That was his last day at work. Always hated firing anyone, and was introspective trying to determine if there might have been things we could have done to prevent whatever issue from reaching that point - - seldom possible though.

We paid 100% of the employee's health care starting in '84, 75% kids and 50% spouse. Unfortunately, those percentages have dropped due to exploding health care costs. I'm sure we'll have to cancel the plans and dump everyone on the exchanges (if ObamaDon'tCare isn't repealed).

It's doubtless much harder to successfully start a small company now than back in '78 - - I continued on with the police dept for 2 more years back then, so we could pay the bills, not sure how we pulled it off, oh, I remember, long days and no vacations for 5 years. Kids run the company now as I'm trying to stay retired.

If a person is willing to work hard, and quit blaming stuff on everyone else, there's still lots of opportunity in this country. I remain optimistic that if we can get gumnt turned around, the American people and spirit are up to it.

 

[Garandman]

Manufacturing jobs are now increasing after years of declines and what is called "reshoring" - returning manufacturing to the US - is on the upswing.

As Overseas Costs Rise, More U.S. Companies Are 'Reshoring' : Parallels : NPR