Tim Cook confirms one line of Macs will be exclusively US-manufactured in 2013

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/06/tim-cook-us-built-macs/

by sorich87 • 14 years ago

75 35 14 years ago

sami36• 14 years ago

The biggest hope for US manufacturing repatriation is robotics. Unfortunately, it's not going to help with our unemployment issues. Even Foxconn made some noise recently about replacing their employees with robots, & if the math works for them over there, you can easily see why it would be a no-brainer over here.

I'd be curious to hear how many units those lines will produce & how many employees will be needed to man them.

MrDrone2• 14 years ago

There was an article posted here yesterday about General Electric moving home many manufacturing positions. Their plants which at their peak employed 20k people had dwindled to just 1,300 or so. In the process of moving the jobs back they've swelled up to 3k.

While moving these jobs home will never make the US a manufacturing giant again due to advances in productivity, robotics and other areas it certainly will create valuable jobs at home.

Though, that article argues that the real value of the move home is in the ability to get manufacturers, designers and others as close as possible.

glhaynes• 14 years ago

While moving these jobs home will never make the US a manufacturing giant again due to advances in productivity, …

Not to pick on you, but this kind of statement is made so often that it's become received wisdom that "nothing's made in America anymore." But the US remains the largest manufacturer in the world. And while I don't have the numbers on manufacturing employment by country (anybody know where to look?), I'm sure the US is by any measure—including employment—a "manufacturing giant", even if it is more heavily roboticized and thus needs less labor for equivalent productivity.

Spooky23• 14 years ago

The US is and will remain a manufacturing giant. What you're seeing here is a weakening dollar and need for faster iteration.

bryans• 14 years ago

Robotic manufacturing doesn't mean zero labor. There are still many jobs involved that can't be automated. Ford, for example, uses a significant amount of robotic assembly, but still employs over 150,000 people.

So yes, it replaces some jobs. But if we brought all manufacturing of domestic products back to the US, even if they were 100% produced with robotic manufacturing, there wouldn't even be enough workers to fill the necessary non-automated jobs.

tharris0101• 14 years ago

Not to turn political (And I'm independent) but Obama said something during the debates that rang really true to me. He said that the low level jobs in this country are going away for good and we need to focus on creating mid-level jobs.

It makes sense that as society and technology evolve, the low skill jobs will be replaced by automation. I think this is a good thing. In the long term, we shouldn't shun technology just because it keeps a real human from doing a mundane task 40 hours a week.

hkmurakami3• 14 years ago

I think an increase in robotic automated manufacturing is a definite positive (than the alternative -- outsourced assembly), since it incentivizes companies that make the robots for those lines, and companies that make the robots that make the robots for those lines, etc.

Many of the industrial assembly robots are made by Asian and European firms, but there are definite advantages to being local to your customers -- a significant increase in robotic manufacturing in the US could fuel a surge in robotics companies here as a result, which is an exciting possibility in my book.

magoon• 14 years ago

Robots don't replace people -- they empower them.

jlgreco• 14 years ago

That's a good attitude, and I think we should decide our public policy with that assumption, but I have a hard time believing it is actually true.

Just as an example, a lights out factory is still going to need some people for maintenance but there is hardly any sort of "law of robotics" that suggests every manufacturing job lost is a maintenance job gained. Automation does replace people, in an ideal world the economy is strengthened by that automation and those people can therefore easily find new better jobs, but is there any evidence that is actually the case? I think the Rust Belt is evidence that it is not.

rjzzleep• 14 years ago

that's going to be the extra extra premium pricing line?

gordeh• 14 years ago

I suspect this will be the mac pro line. This is probably the reason for the 2013 mac pro quote from Tim Cook.

numbsafari• 14 years ago

You gotta start with something in order to build up a manufacturing base. Also, given that Apple is building huge datacenters of its own, it's likely they could be looking to in-source their own servers going forward as well.

sephlietz• 14 years ago

Different article, same topic, over here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4881567

api• 14 years ago

The global wage arbitrage bubble depends on huge spreads between "first world" and "third world" wages. That's because there are all kinds of hidden costs to outsourcing: the difficulty of communication and coordination, travel, long-distance shipping, longer lag-times, political instability risk, etc. Even a seemingly small close in this wage spread could crash the outsourcing bubble when these hidden costs are considered.

hkmurakami3• 14 years ago

>long-distance shipping, longer lag-times

I was told that according to a supply chain exec at a major US retailer, saving 1 day in supply chain lag time would save said company $100MM per year.

grecy2• 14 years ago

I believe it.

A friend was a process engineer at a Ford plant.

Every time the line stopped moving (even if for only a few seconds), they calculated it cost a minimum of $10mil.

Irishsteve• 14 years ago

Could it be the new imac?

brudgers• 14 years ago

Reporters are sometimes lazy, those in the techpress perhaps more so than others. If there's an Apple manufacturing in the US, that's a feel good story. Easier to write than a muckraker about rural Chinese who stepped off a turnip truck and into dormitories, long days, and low wages. Cheaper to cover, too - like that won't speak to editors.

It's a sausage factory for Disney's main street. And good PR.

daniel-cussen• 14 years ago

You know, those Chinese guys have gotten 30% raises every year for a decade. And they were higher than the countryside even then.

cavilling_elite• 14 years ago

Sp what was the huge tax break Obama offered Jobs, and Cook acted on it?

Dirlewanger• 14 years ago

You think Apple prices are high now? Oh man, just wait and then the world will see just how absolutely spoiled we are by the dearth of humane labor laws in Asian countries.

hkmurakami3• 14 years ago

> In a TV interview with Brian Williams, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said "we will do one of our existing Mac lines in the United States," vaguely confirming that production of either iMacs, Mac Minis or Mac Laptops will make a wholesale move to the US in 2013.

Doesn't the Mac Pro line make the most sense considering their low volumes and (I imagine) relatively high margins?

SkyMarshal• 14 years ago

Hope so. Moving the Mac Pro assembly line might also imply they're finally getting a substantial redesign/update.

biscarch• 14 years ago

This is also what I'm hoping for.

I think Apple said the Mac Pro is getting an upgrade in 2013, so it seems likely.

gesman• 14 years ago

One of the reasons I bought Sony Z-class laptop is because it is custom manufactured in Japan (not plastic-stamped in China or alike places like other laptops, including Macs). With USA-built Macs - i'll be happy to get one too.

Tim Cook confirms one line of Macs will be exclusively US-manufactured in 2013

Related Stories