Made in USA: Element Electronics

[Brigid]

There was a thread recently about this company, which is preparing to open a TV assembly plant near Detroit in March. CEO Michael O'Shaughnessy was on Reverend Al's show tonight. Reverend Al said this will be the first time TVs have been made in the USA in almost 20 years. I know what brand my next TV will be.

http://m.prnewswire.com/news-releases/element-electronics-america-matters-137021908.html

[Fool Count]

1. What, they found workers willing to wake up in the middle of the night to work

12 hour shifts assembling TVs on warm tea and stale biscuits? In the US? How the mighty has fallen.

[tridim]

2. I thought Zenith was the last, and that was probably longer than 20 years go.

When I think Zenith I think of rabbit ears, dials and black and white.

[malaise]

3. I was really surpised at that news

Reverend Al said this will be the first time TVs have been made in the USA in almost 20 years.

They're only going to make 46" TVs though.

[Amonester]

4. Sweden's Electrolux closes plant in Canada: relocates to Memphis.

(CDN $ parity - taxes - lower wages...).

Closing the Sale
What the Electrolux deal means for economic development
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/ArticleEmail.aspx?id=55736

From the World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)
Quebec: Shutdown of Electrolux plant threatens 1,300 jobs
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/cana-f07.shtml

[Mopar151]

5. It makes good business sense.

How many thousands of TV's have to be made, just to fill up the supply chain? What are lead times like, and how many TV's are "stranded" in the supply chain, if there is a change or defect?

How does it affect startup costs, if there is already a building waiting, and a trainable workforce local to that building? Not to mention that a lot of furnishings and equipment can be bought for pennies on the dollar at the moment.

[Zalatix]

6. We need a Made in USA forum.

[hootinholler]

7. At least 20 years

IIRC Zenith owned the final US plant which was offshored in the early-mid 80's

[Mopar151]

8. I just saw a new slogan from these guys: MICHIGAN MADE, MICHIGAN STRONG

http://keysermanufacturing.com/

They have combined 3 well-known motorsports brand names with custom engineering and manufacturing, allowing them to amortize sophisticated equipment and engineering costs across a wider customer base.
From the Port City Racing site:
Our commitment to racing is reflected in the wide range of innovative and cutting edge products we develop and manufacture for the racing industry. We pride ourselves on looking forward, while continuously upgrading and maintaining our current product lines.

Our spacious new location in Coopersville, MI gives us the advantage of housing all of our operations, (Keyser’s Port City Racing, Keyser Manufacturing, Integra Shocks and Springs, and OMI), under one roof... allowing us to increase our efficiency, improve customer service, and ensure that we have ample room to expand. Keyser’s Port City Racing is housed in a 140,000 square foot building containing our sales, showroom, manufacturing, warehouse, and distribution centers.

Our knowledgeable sales staff is only a phone call away to talk you through the ordering process and answer any questions you may have either on the phone or one-on-one at the sales counter.

We ship products to racers all over the world including Canada, Mexico, The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, and the Netherlands. We dream it, draw it, build it, test it, and ship it right to your door. We’re your total solution race car provider. We warehouse over 100 different brands of racing products.

From lugnuts to bodies, and 12,000 parts in between,
we’re Keyser’s Port City Racing!

If Element TV wants to prototype a new wall mount or pedestal, they can get a short run of samples in a week or so - like for a trade show or dealer conference - literally with a phone call or 2, with no middlemen and real IP protection.
An example of custom manufacturing:
ATV parts for racing:

[Hama]

9. I worked at

the Quasar assembly facility in Franklin Park, IL in the early 90's. It was owned by Panasonic, but was definately making TVs until around 1992 or 93 when they relocated the North American assembly to Baja Mexico. They had one of the last CRT manufacturing lines in the US.
If I worked late I liked to walk through the shutdown assembly lines on the way to the parking lot. The lights were low, there were flashing red and yellow strobes and the robots would be hissing and whirring through their test routines. It was like walking through the bowels of the ship from Alien.

[Demonaut]

11. I sold Panasonic's then and when they went to Baja QC dropped for awhile

they did get better tough, LG acquired Zenith but that was a good thing because Zenith qc was terrible just before the acquisition

[Demonaut]

10. mebbe an American company...Pioneer made plasmas until about 2008/09 here

and they like Element will source parts from Asia and other parts of the world

[DCBob]

12. This guy is one smart dude. He should be Obama's poster boy for our new economy.

We need alot more like him in this country.

[Zorra]

13. I have a portable video player made by Element. I bought it on sale

for like $40 after Xmas December of 2005. It was made in China, but I've probably watched 500 videos on it, many while traveling, and it still works great.

It's one of the very few Chinese products I've ever had that was long term reliable.

So if Element makes portable video players at their Michigan plant, I will definitely make it a point to buy another one if this one dies.

[Sebass1271]

14. hello there everyone!! glad to be back!

I posted this as a link on my fb wall and one of my right wing friends came back with his sharp tongue as usual!

"Evil Capitalists! Now lets tax the crap out of them! 94% sounds good plus a 6% surcharge for being in the 1%."..

god, i can't really stand these ppl and the funny part is that aside from his politics he is a nice person..