Hi All
Just to put the cheap versus brand name power tools debate into perspective.
Multinational company I work for is facing a more & more competitive market place. We build high pressure cleaners (the industrial type) in a smallish factory in Denmark. That's been OK for the last 40 odd years, but Denmark is a very expensive place to build anything.
Increasing competition from highly automated, mass volume German & Italian competitors has lowered the price you can charge for a commercial high pressure cleaner.
So, how do we reduce costs?
We now use the 'Just In Time' method of manufacture to reduce labour & overhead, resulting in a 20% reduction in cost. Better quality if anything.
What we call 'non critical' components - tubular steel frames, handles, covers etc, are now made in Estonia. Pump castings are made in Poland, but we still machine the critical bits in the Danish factory.
Latest project is to source electric motors in China. We have been to many manufacturers, checked out what they do - based on 40 years experience - and started a program of testing.
Motors are tested in real conditions for over 1,000 hours. We are now happy that they are all OK and will soon start using them - and will continue testing every batch.
So, no reduction in quality at all, but a reduction in selling price of some
40% and a better margin for us.
Previously, to reduce cost, we had to cut corners. Cheaper components were the only way to go. Sometimes we left out components we should really have left in, to our detriment.
It is entirely possible to buy lower cost stuff these days without a sacrifice in quality.
Dave