Olympics - China will never be beaten, i know this now…
August 08, 2008 by: dave
I just watched a bit of the opening ceremony, and i had a realization that kind of made me sad. America will never win the manufacturing and production competition.
We should just give up now, and send all our manufacturing to China. Sure it may not be top quality, but chances are for most things it will be good enough. What made me realize it was the part of the opening ceremony where there were these square pillars moving up and down in sequence, forming patterns, etc.
It was well executed, precise, and pretty much seemed to be automated. It wasn't. It was about 200 Chinese dudes, 1 inside each column, moving them up and down, by hand... Seriously, thats why china wins in manufacturing. Why automate something when you have 1.2 billion people looking for work? Just pay someone to be an automaton for you.
My friend Paul was once telling me about how the heat-sinks for computer processors are made, and that there is a problem with them. The fins need to be as thin as possible, which means that when they are forged, and they are still hot, they can bend and touch just because of gravity, which would ruin it. So, they had been looking into how they could possibly manufacture the chip coolers, since he owns a CNC machine shop, and started researching. They found out how the guys in China do it... A line of workers stand there with hot gloves, waiting for the machine to spit out a newly forged heatsink, which they catch, and then hold upside down so the fins don't bend. They apparently never even bothered to see if they even could automate it, since the solution was simple if you used people.
We will never beat that... ever.
The picture above, of the drummers, that is what kind of started this weird vision in my head. I just started to see 1000 women, at sewing machines, churning out tee shirts, 500 guys assembling phones, 10,000 people making the little parts that actually make your car work. Save goes for call centers in india, not to mention programming.
Quality seems to be the only trait we have left that we can defend, but that seems to be slipping as well. Were does this mean we are headed?
Photo credit: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
Recent Posts
Jawdropping Realistic 3D Architectural Animation
Wormhole opens up over Norway. Or something like that.
StarTrek Redubbed. Just Plain Weird.
Increase Jobs, pass healthcare bill
How have I not seen this cute kitten video?
Email exchange between Designer and Cheap Ass (and a bit nutty) Client
Obama wants to make sure the Robots don’t try anything! LOL
Tag Cloud
3d 3d printing ad ads advertising air conditioning airplane alaska alien amazon animation apocalypse app store apple architecture arnold schwarzenegger art askimet astronaut astronomy att audiobook augmented reality augr award ayers az baby bailout battery beer bestbuy biden big brother blog bluetooth book banning brain branding brave broadband broken bubble bug bugs bulb business calculator calendar camera
Posts
Posted by perkiset on August 09, 2008 at 09:21 AM
I think this is strangely sad, but not fatal.
It is true that a hive mentality will out perform rogues and sailors any day, however the hive is best at producing lots of the same thing, over and over again. I see a shift towards boutique production of things and individualization desires that, to some extent, may mitigate their awesome production capability. Certainly in a country with money and desire enough for uniqueness in their baubles.
That is not to say, however, that the rest of the world will not take advantage of their huge national resource and utter lack of empathy for the human condition. We may very well be looking upon the dawn of the Chinese Age, as we watch the sunset of the Age of America. Financially, their ability to produce at the rate they can is more frightening to me, since they will have the resource to design/build/deploy things at the same level as us… or beyond. The juztapositon of the notion that we out-spent the Russians on the Star Wars initiative and the fact that we’re becoming more of the planet’s upper middle class than Buffet or Gates is what creeps me out the most.
I think we (as a country) must focus on what we do best, and do it 1000% - because you’re spot on, there’s no beating that train. And it’s coming.
Posted by perkiset on August 09, 2008 at 09:23 AM
(whoops, crap: that was supposed to be juxtaposition - where’s the edit button?)
Posted by Alston on April 26, 2010 at 11:39 AM
I apprehend your post. It was amazing. Your anticipation action is wonderful. The way you acquaint about things is awesome.
montreal erotic massage