Bosch bye-bye

[John]

Plant in Heber Springs Arkansas (Bosch and Skil circular saws) moving production to (SURPRISE!) China. 500 jobs.

[Richard Clements]

wasn't Bosch a Germen Company to start with?

[J. Clarke]

While the company was German, the tools weren't always made there. The nameplate on my Bosch jigsaw, bought sometime around 1980, says "Scintilla SA, Soleure Switzerland".

[Charlie Self]

Richard Clements asks:

Bosch was German; Skil was American. The Heber Springs plant, when I visited it a few years ago, was Skil only as the buyout/merger/whatever had not taken place at that time.

Charlie Self "Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good." H. L. Mencken

[LRod]

Omigod!! Those damnable German industrialists, outsourcing all those jobs to the Swiss!

(NB: The statement struck me funny and I thought this might be a clever rejoinder. It does NOT necessarily reflect any political beliefs I may have on the subject.)

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Leon]

Now you know how the German's felt when Bosch started manufacturing in the US.

[AAvK]

Isn't anything of power tools or stationary tools made in our own USA???

Alex

[patrick conroy]

Bosch Tools is part of the Robert Bosch Gmbh. A huge international conglomerate headquartered in Germany. See

for all sorts of neat tidbits,

[Kurt]

"AAvK" wrote in news:6jrrd.163512$bk1.73399@fed1read05:

I started to say "Ron Hock's irons", but I see by their website that isn't the case all the time now. (Outsourced to factories in the US and France. Well, seeing "France" is certainly a change from the normal countries one sees appended to the phrase "outsourced to".)

Steve Knight's planes (unless things have changed since I visited him a couple of years ago).

Any tools and jigs that someone had a sudden need to cobble together in their shop to complete a project. (We'll ignore how often making the jig took longer to complete than the project itself... learning experience, right?)

Hmm... that's all I can think of at this point.

[Prometheus]

hits on Google. They're still around, they're just not at the Walmart, and you have to look for the small production shops. They cost more, and are less widely advertised. Sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you don't. But just because you don't see them at Sears or Costco doesn't mean they don't exist!

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[patriarch]

And Steve gets some of his irons from Japan. Technically outsourcing, even though it's for a 'premium priced' upgrade.

Patriarch, whose Padauk high angle smoother is on it's way from Steve's workshop as we impatiently wait...

[Mike Marlow]

Thank God - we don't need no more political threads starting up here.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Often it is done (overseas) with good reason. Here is a real life scenario November 15 request quotation from American company and Korean Company November 16 AM received quotation from Korea November 16 PM placed order with Korean Company for tooling at a cost of $5400 + freight and duty for a landed cost of about $7000.

December 1st. (today) Received notice from Korean company that tooling is complete and ready to ship Received quotation from American company stating cost will be $14,800 and delivery in 6 to 8 weeks.

Quality of the two sets of tooling is equal, same materials, same specifications.

[Ian Dodd]

Why should it be? In a country where consumers demand low prices and don't give a damn about quality, Wal Mart fills the bill and has become the largest retailer on earth. Why should Bosch behave any differently? From a business standpoint, they're doing the perfectly rational thing.

Ian

[Steve Knight]

as if anyone in the US could make them (G) but then you could claim my tropical woods are out sourcing too (G) but still 90% of my planes are all made in the US using slave labor.

[patriarch]

Steve Knight wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Entrepeneur = slave labor? As in, working for little to nothing? And everybody else gets paid first?

Like JOAT says: "Where's my T shirt?"

But at least, you're both beloved and world-famous. That's gotta count for something.

Patriarch

[Leon]

Umm, which of the 2 that you listed would YOU consider to be a "power tool or stationary tool? LOL

[AAvK]

I'm talking about *power tools*. Millwaukee? Porter Cable? Anything? Alex

[AAvK]

Patriarch, That's a GOOD thing, even at Steve's price. Japanese laminated blades, desireable.

Alex

[Daniel H]

While not related to wooddorking or tools, this article may be interesting to you. It's about why electronic gadgetry is so much more advanced in Japan than in North America, and one reason cited was exactly what Ian stated: Wal-Mart, low prices, and "cost and value", as the article puts it:

the last two paragraphs in section "May the (Market) Forces Be with You"