[rebootthesystem]

I have been in physical product development and manufacturing for three decades. Doing business with US manufacturers has become more and more difficult over time. What you describe here is very true and only the tip of the iceberg. I have, for example, sent out 50 requests for quotes for machined components only to be utterly ignored by most of the shops I contacted. The same exercise with China results in an almost overwhelming number of quotes received almost instantly. They are open for business. Have been for a while. I, frankly, have no clue what game we are playing.

[munificent]

> Doing business with US manufacturers has become more and more difficult over time.

Any thoughts on why?

[extrapickles]

In my experience, it's a combo of issues.

US manufactures were the first to automate, so many of them are with 1st/2nd generation gear that is designed for high throughput operation and not around setup time. These machines can take several hours to change what they make.

Also, manufactures have become jaded with new customers as they are constantly asking for them to move mountains for overseas pricing. Manufactures typically have a big enough collection of frequent customers that they can use bad first customer support as a means to filter out people who will go overseas anyways after they hear the quote the manufacturer spent a fair amount of time on. If a customer is willing to pass the gauntlet of trying to contact you, they are much less likely to disappear after you give them a quote.

[qume]

I tried to get some waterjet cut parts about 5 years ago near Santa Barbara. The only shop I could find that could do it had no way to get the data into the 486 - yes you read right - other than hand replicating my file in his ancient CAD program.

My experience overseas is more like fire off an email with an attachment and have perfect parts a few weeks later.

I believe this is changing though. There are some awesome short run PCB assembly services in the states now for instance.

[extrapickles]

Now that the old equipment is at the end of its useful mechanical life people are switching.

In the manufacturing I’m involved with recently got rid of their last machine that used 8080 era processors and character only green CRTs.