[bkeyes]

Never heard of them. Their company setup is pretty impressive. However to say 'relies on absolutely no one else for its supply chain' is an extreme exaggeration and frankly impossible.

They don't make the computers, fiber optics, switches, exchanges, or software that their web site requires to run. They don't own the fleet of trucks, boats, and planes required to get their product to their customers - or their raw materials from plant to plant. They likely use rubber mats in their plants but I don't think they have a rubber plant. Unless they use outhouses I'm pretty sure they don't make toilets and sinks and plumbing. I don't know if they produce their own electricity but I'm sure they didn't build a generating plant from scratch....and on and on it can go.

If you haven't read it, search for the essay - I, Pencil - I'm sure YKK uses pencils as well.

The point is noone is even remotely close to being their own supply chain every one is deeply dependent.

[s_dev]

>Never heard of them.

We had an argument in a CS class once about what the most "pervasive technology" in the room was. We were examining claims that "computing would become so pervasive and ubiquitous that it would become invisible" like electricity and that zipper.

The reason it won was because we could count more of them than any other piece of tech in the room. Every person had more than they thought -- often as many as half a dozen between their pants and schoolbag.

[hammock]

The thing about zippers is, YKK is hands down the best and most reliable zipper. Yes I know there are types of zippers, metal coil, molded plastic etc- YKK makes the best of each.

Plenty of companies try to source their own (Levi's is the first to come to mind), but the best companies all use YKK zippers because they know. If it doesn't say YKK on it, it's not a YKK zipper.

[jschwartzi]

YKK also has a lot of imitators. I recently saw an "HKK" zipper on a cheap piece of clothing from Amazon, for example.

[int_19h]

The companies also use it because their customers know. Not only YKK succeeded in making itself the most trusted brand, but they also succeeded in informing the end users of complete products that there is an important practical difference they must to pay attention to.

ITW Nexus did something similar with fasteners.

[agumonkey]

and it may only be the beginning.. application class SoC can fit in a microusb plug.. I think some people hacked some arduino like chip in the wire itself (granted it was not as thin as a normal cable)

[darkarmani]

> They don't make the computers, fiber optics, switches, exchanges, or software that their web site requires to run. They don't own the fleet of trucks, boats, and planes required to get their product to their customers - or their raw materials from plant to plant.

You aren't describing a supply-chain. They don't lose a computer for each item sold. The difference is that they can have a disruption in their infrastructure suppliers but continue to sell products at a degraded pace. If they lose all access to a raw material (supply chain), they can't sell any more product once they are out of supplies.

[mschuster91]

> They don't make the computers, fiber optics, switches, exchanges, or software that their web site requires to run.

Because they don't need to. The quality of their network setup has no, utterly no, relationship to the quality of the final product - the machines and materials however do have such a relationship and therefore it's done in-house.

Additionally this vertical integration removes the incentive for a supplier to cut corners somewhere for more profit - which is something that Tesla and SpaceX also have discovered and apply it wherever they can.

[bkeyes]

Vertical integration can certainly be a great approach and can have many advantages. It can also limit your risk of exposure to outside events.

However, my point is and was that controlling your whole supply chain is impossible.

Computers are critical to everyone's supply chain, including YKKs. If they aren't and YKK can fall back to pen, pencil, and paper then they are dependent on those manufacturers and industries.

Again every business and every one is DEEPLY dependent on hundreds if not thousands of others.

[seymore_12]

Well, Kodak tried to breed it's own cows, to control the quality of gelatin (used in film manufacturing) https://www.fastcompany.com/1806686/way-kodak-died Did not work that well.

[robocat]

https://www.guiavegano.com.br/vegan/acervo-vegano/respostas-...

Has some background about gelatine (not breeding).

[learc83]

The difference is that they can ride out a supply chain interuption for months for non consumables that aren't a direct part of the manufacturing process.

Giving them time to find alternative suppliers for things like computers and pencils.

If they instead depended on consumables like say zipper teeth, they would have to shut down almost immediately in the case of a supply chain interuption.

[secabeen]

Interesting. YKK is the highest-quality large manufacturer of zippers in the world. There is a correlation between the quality of a garment or zippered good and the presence of a YKK zipper.