Tommy Hilfiger makes absolutely nothing. No manufacture. Just branding. In sweat shops mentioned by you.bm Have a Google read, Mr Smart
I cannot make a fuss about your reply which anyway will be outside of your acknowledgement, however thanks to people like you Iām earning my wageā¦
Now returning to shocks. There are industry specific requirements for IATF16949 standards, earlier known as TS16949. To make anything to your suspension - you need to make it to IATF. Iām just hoping that youāre accountant so I can explain your reply and expertise. If not, weāre doooomed!
If you would spent some time in manufacturing, especially in CNC manufacturing, machining and programming - you would be able to recognise some details like coating cut-off, punch-press and tooling marks, weld spots location and bead shape, seal numbers used, fixture/holder marks from spray room, endmill lead in/lead out points, chamfer depths, dimensions and tolerances on final assembly and most important - serial number and serialised imprints for traceability which always includes supplier code, sometimes coustomer code as well.
Definitely, some of the Bilstein shocks are still manufactured in USA or Germany. Some and very limited. You must be dreaming to understand how much tooling you would need to manufacture batch of shocks to each model of the car on the road. You must be insane to assume that change-over on manufacturing lines would accomodate costs of being performed in Europe or USā¦
Youāre underestimating quality of Chinese products. They can make for $5 what we struggle to manufacture in Europe or US for $100. Youāre buying from them or youāre out of business. You should understand this if youāre truly accountantā¦
Now the shocker. What youāre buying from eBay and what came from China is usually rejected from the manufacturing lines or nicked. The acual suppliers are not selling on Aliexpress and their orders starting from much greater quantities and appropriate lead time in order bookā¦
I am in the construction industry. Iāve been to China to see them knock off light fixtures, door hardware, kitchen fixtures, etc. I know what they can do, and how much money I can save by asking them to do it, assuming I can order enough product.
The rejects they create would make your head spin. You talk about IATF? They would ask you WTF if you demanded they meet some standard like that. You want IATF, price goes up exponentially. You want a shock, in their opinion, that works just as well, you can buy 100 for the price of one here. No way will they be the same, they might resemble the part, but itās not going to be made the same way. If they make 100 shocks a day for Bilstein, theyāll make 1,000 copies later that evening. Faster, cheaper, but in the end, significantly crappier.
If youāve been there, then you already know. When you ask to clone a product, there are various degrees it can be copied. They can make you an exact copy and charge you nickels less, or they can make it as cheap as possible and save you suitcases of cash, and then you can negotiate from there.
Oh, and if youāre buying anything better than the cheapest of the cheap, youāll have to pay someone to stay there and watchā¦
Vee,
It seem weāve seen different industry and different factories. Brands like Bilstein are obtained by corporations. Corprations are usually buying from other corporations or Chinaās stockistsā¦ It is slightly different to see usual manufacturerās shack in there and place where you can eat from the floor. Being from US, you should know the best where big manufacturers moved their facilitiesā¦ And the blueprints of those - are unfortunately amazingā¦
Agreed. Corporations buy from China stockists. They have manufacturing to an artform. You said it best, they can make parts for $5 that we canāt do for $100. They can dumb down the assembly to fit any budget. They are truly magicians when it comes to fabricating, but more importantly, fabricating at a profit. They know how and where to squeeze at every junction. It is indeed simple accounting. \
I wouldnāt call the plants necessarily amazing. They are well suited for the task at hand. Well lit, clean, orderly, not much different than what Iāve seen in some of the factories Iāve seen in Michigan and Ohio.
