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Lenovo Building Manufacturing Plant in North Carolina
An anonymous reader writes "One of the major themes of the ongoing presidential election in the United States has been the perceived need to bring product manufacturing back to the United States. A recent announcement from Lenovo is going to play to this point; the PC manufacturer said today that it's building a U.S. location in Whitsett, North Carolina. The new facility is small, with just over 100 people and is being built for a modest $2M, but Lenovo states that it's merely the beginning of a larger initiative."
It makes sense: their U.S. HQ is a stone's throw away in RTP.
Just a new line inside an existing facility. Still good news :)
K Man
Just don't put it near any military bases...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
..has our dollar really declined that much?
WTF does RTP mean, in context with this story?
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
I, for one, welcome our new Chinese Overlords!
So, you're suggesting we should be in a race to the bottom and just eliminate all taxes on businesses?
I don't respond to AC's.
Perhaps also related to NC's being a "right-to-work" state. TFA didn't mention that as a factor, so I'm just guessing.
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American companies can not build here, but Chinese can. Just amazing how bad American leadership has become.
At this point, if the west really wants to acknowledge China's gov cold war and take it on, then we should start sending as many MBA's to China as humanly possible. Of course, the Chinese will probably realize it and simply put a bullet in each one of them and then charge the USA for it, while subsidizing and dumping the rest of the ammo on America's market.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Im pretty sure the Research Triangle has more to do with the fact that it is formed by the triangle of Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC St, which are strong tech/science/research schools. Plus there's the fact that the Triangle has been around since the 50s. This is what makes it attractive to businesses, especially reasearch and tech companies.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The worst crowd who could possibly own a company. I'd say this is just a token gesture to lull us into a false sense of security that outsourcing to China has any long term benefits
I'm typing this from a thinkpad x201, and have failed to see any issues. Design wise very little has changed on it since the owership changed.
Some people could consider it stagnation, but I consider it "don't fix what isn't broken"
It still has all the features nobody else is willing to do in a single package, like a quality nub, reading light, waterproof keyboard, etc.
The connectivity options are impressive, not only the usual wifi/ethernet/cellular but it even still comes with an in-built 56k modem.. on an i5 :)
This is a small plant, so really only suited for assembling from parts, not creating new parts. Think batches of desktops assembled to spec, in the tens or hundreds, not thousands. If laptops, probably limited to swapping out keyboards for a different layout, change the hard drive, add more memory, or perhaps other warranty replacements.
Beyond that, the strong points of thinkpads were quality build and eclectic design focused on getting things done, like non-glare high-resolution high-quality 4:3 screens. That's not something fixed by swapping out a few parts in a laptop.
Alright, a different keyboard is easily swapped in, provided you have better quality ones in sensible layouts--like the lack of windows keys that was a feature for the longest time, leaving ctrl and alt nicely accessible without looking. But if you have better keyboards available, or other higher quality parts, why not stick'em in right away?
So, in a word, no, this isn't likely to magically improve the thinkpad range. For that to happen, lenovo has to realise that just the brand name isn't enough; you have to differentiate yourself. Instead, they've moved to become more like the rest, not less. Thus lessening the brand name in the process.
But they also have a line of desktops. I expect this plant is about order configuration management close to delivery, probably mostly for small bulk orders, likely desktops and perhaps some laptops too.
Did the US government do anything to incentivize Lenovo to make this decision or did Lenovo make it all on their own? What I'm wondering is whether the gov't is doing more than just talking about doing more manufacturing in the US.
> the perceived need to bring product manufacturing back to the United States
Why would the act of bringing any sort of employment back to the states be considered a 'perceived need'?
From what I have heard there is a consensus that Thinkpads used to be much better back in the days. Before they got branded/involved with Lenovo.
Maybe they are going to be better built now?
The 'ideapad' line is more or less the same schlock you'd see from any other consumer facing brand. Thinkpads see the occasional controversy(I remember the T43 being considered rather a disappointment compared to the T42, among others, and it hasn't been entirely immune from the "Why would you possibly want a high resolution 4:3 panel when you could have a 1366x768 'HD' 16:9?" disease that took the industry by storm.) Overall, though, Lenovo seems to have realized that there wasn't much point in buying the Thinkpad brand and then fucking with it, and they were the OEMs behind many of the IBM Thinkpad models so it wasn't a fundamental shift in manufacturing...
I'm posting this anonymously to protect the guilty.
I work for a company that makes great products, but isn't exactly a cutting-edge manufacturing powerhouse. I had a suspicion that the pendulum was starting to swing the other way when we moved our manufacturing to China.
It makes sense: their U.S. HQ is a stone's throw away in RTP.
Hopefully the stones are made in the US.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Yeah, 'cuz the South never got no Federal money....hey wait.....
Dell opened a plant in NC some years back, pocketed the tax incentives, ran it a few years and then abruptly closed it. It wouldn't surprise me if Lenovo did the same.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
LMOL yeah 'cuz China doesn't subsidize their industries that enables them to dump cheap products on US markets....dumbass.
Well, Rock Creek (nearby town is Whitsett), where Lenovo is locating, has another tenant of note: Red Oak Brewery. Probably within scootering distance, too. A small family-owned Italian restaurant near there sells pizza by the slice. Only the slices come from pizzas over 3' in diameter.
Oops, make that more like 6'. The slices hang off the sides of large pizza pans.
This is true for states like Texas. I don't know that I've ever heard anyone brag too much about North Carolina tax structure. I didn't look it back up but if I recall correctly they're kind of middle of the pack to high side for a US state if I recall.
This is China offshoring to USA.
"LMOL"?
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
My wife replaced her government issued laptop recently. She was free to get whatever laptop she wanted, as long as it was not made in China. So she ended up with a Dell assembled in Ireland with parts manufactured in China. I assume the NC facility will be mainly a federal government procurement facility to comply with the "not from China" policy.
Is there a 9 pin rs232 serial port?
Would be way more useful to me than a 56k modem.
where we are grateful to our Asian overlords for considering us worthy of manufacturing jobs. Disgusting. Ross Perot was right in '92 about this and about NAFTA. He said there'd be plenty of jobs, alright on both sides of the broder, both paying $7.50 and hour
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I bet cheap land and low cost of living has even more to do with it. Just wait until those areas get built up. Then the companies will move to the next backwater.
Texas is from what I can tell a terrible place to live. You can't even walk to the bars since everything is either 6 lane or a dry county. I don't mind go there to hunt or visit my family, but I could never live there.
Even if it's just for PR points, some domestic manufacturing employment is a good thing. The reason why isn't nice, it's not politically correct, but it's the facts:
Not everyone is intelligent enough for knowledge work.
In my opinion, if we continue the way we're going, we're going to spiral into a society with three classes -- business owners, knowledge workers and a huge swath of working poor. If everyone has to complete at least a masters' degree to secure a place in one of the top two classes, that completely ignores the other 75% of the IQ distribution.
Think about the way society was organized in the 50s through the 70s:
- Only the highly intelligent and/or well off went to college. They typically inherited a business, got a technical, science, engineering or other kind of knowledge job, or became academics. Each one of these outcomes guaranteed a stable job for life because that's what business ownership, academia or large corporate employment did back then. This is still the preferred path, minus the guarantees of course.
- For the high end of the medium-intelligence scale, there were plenty of paper-shuffling jobs in corporate environments. Remember that before computers, automation and email, large corporations had to employ thousands of file clerks, secretaries and layers of management that just routed paper reports around. Because US companies were doing so well, and things couldn't be outsourced and automated, a huge upper middle class thrived.
- For the low end of the medium-intelligence scale, there were millions of factory jobs. They were all simple, stand on a line for 8 hours and perform a single task or set of tasks. Because of unionization and a lack of global competition, even those jobs were stable and paid reasonable living wages. This was the bulk of the middle class, and I grew up in a Rust Belt city in the early 80s so I got to watch it all unravel live.
- The screwups, dropouts or just plain dumb people wound up doing menial labor. But even at that end of the scale, there was less downward pressure on those wages, so they were able to scrape by for the most part.
The problem is, in 2012, you can locate a factory anywhere, employ thousands of people for a fraction of the price that 100 would cost you, and pump out products just as quickly as before. All the secretaries and paper routers lost their jobs in the late 80s/early 90s automation and downsizing waves. So now, where do all those people who used to have solid incomes go? They either end up permanently unemployed, or go work menial jobs for just above minimum wage, no security and no benefits. So you have a huge class of working poor, working at Wal-Mart, as a home health care aide, or something else.
It's a really tough problem that might have a very bad ending in the next 40 years or so -- we need to find something for everyone to do and someone to employ them. Conservatives love to tout entrepreneurship as our savior, but do they really think a factory guy whose job was bolting the same two parts together for the last 20 years is going to be a successful business owner? Thinking like that will mean you have a class of bankrupt working poor instead of just working poor as all their little ventures fail.
So yes, I hope manufacturing comes back. And I hope it can be something that someone can build an entire career on, not just a string of $10/hr temp jobs.
From what I have heard there is a consensus that Thinkpads used to be much better back in the days. Before they got branded/involved with Lenovo.
Maybe they are going to be better built now?
If you ask me this is bullshit.
My last "IBM" thinkpad (T41) died from the infamous ATI BGA packing defect after only two years of use.
Before this CFL tube on my "IBM" thinkpad ??? blew after about the same time.
Current "lenovo" T400 with LED backlight and switchable graphics has been with me for more than 4 years now including origional 4-cell (small) battery still providing >1.5hr. This machine is used every day with no problem of any kind.
Case is solid, keyboard is great and internal magnesium frame in "lenovo" T400 is more substantial than "IBM" T41.
While Lenovo also makes cheap crap you can still get real thinkpads if your willing to pay the slight premium or pick up an older model and save $$$.
As always YMMV, antidotical evidence cuts both ways and is best ignored outright. The assertion there is a consensus that lenovo is worse than IBM is bullshit in my not so polite opinion.
I love it. IBM sells Lenovo to china. China decides to come back to the states and build here and people scream. Yet most of the screamers drive a toyota or nissan or volkswagen and have no qualms about supporting these foreign companies. Because... they have factories in the US? Or do they really believe they're US companies?
Wuddooeyeno? IITYWYBMAD? Like nuts? eclecticallyincorrect.com
Doesn't fat float?
More Twoson than Cupertino
So, you're suggesting we should be in a race to the bottom and just eliminate all taxes on businesses?
Yes. Businesses should not pay income tax on their profits. They will either pay the profits out to their stockholders, who pay tax on the income, or they reinvest it to generate more jobs much more efficiently than the government would. By taxing businesses, we are just discouraging companies from investing and pushing jobs overseas.
Currently dividends are taxed at a very low rate (just as Mitt Romney) but that is because they are already taxed at the company level. But by taxing at the company level we end up taxing a poor shareholder saving for their retirement at the same rate as a centi-millionaire like Romney. If we let it all fall through to the individual investor, we can fix that.
...to use for labor in North Carolina?
:-)
Oh, right, there's an election coming
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
Didn't Boeing try to build there?
Pretty sure Boeing qualifies as an American company.
Maybe not, the American government squashed them.
Maybe the problem isn't necessarily business leadership....
No brain, no pain.
The 787 is built all over the world. They brought a harvard MBA from GM that said that by outsourcing, they could solve all of their issues. The 787 is such a disaster in terms of time delays and screw-ups, that it is now officially worse then the 747 was (and that was cutting technology).
However, Boeing DID open a plant in NC to assemble aircrafts and it is going even now, as we speak. So, no, it is the f'ing business idiots.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, it does not. Last time that W did this, the companies were suppose to invest it here. They simply diverted their local money to paying 100% of the dividends and then used the tax-free money for doing the local development. IOW, the money simply flowed into tax-free dividends.
Out best bet is to put rescind W's/neo-cons tax cuts and apply it to all of the money that is offshore. In addition, roll back the ability to subtract the offshore taxes from our taxes. IOW, if they are going to offshore, fine. They simply have to pay here and there.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Most of their T series have moved to the gum square keyboard that Apple made popular. The keyboard was the main go-to feature to tout about the ThinkPads. I decry the day when they stopped making 3x4 screens and went with the widescreen nonsense. So I'm stuck with my T61s.
The feel good squishy governor Bev Purdue and the Republihacks in the state legislature have stood around for years watching the unemployment rate in NC exceed the national average by a large amount. At this point they're probably happy if someone hands them a hundred jobs as long as they can continue doing nothing.
Thankfully though we have the highest taxes and costs in the entire south so there's that. YAAAAY the Tarheel State!
Well this will not change that they are still a subsidiary of IMB, just that it costs more to hire people to manufacture them.
If anything you would think that this will reduce quality, if you cannot cut costs in the employees then you might in the product/materials.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
use the expresscard slot?
The usb to rs232 adaptors might typically be really shite, but the expresscard ones seem a bit better. If you need proper oldschool on board rs232 likely better off just running a headless ancient p3 or some other lowish power system.
My single biggest gripe with new laptops is the placement of the battery, sure it allows faster/easier switching and on the thinkpads it allows oversize massive batteries, but it would be nice to have a back panel for extra ports again. Having a back panel would likely be the only way you'd ever see 9 pin serial and other ports make a come back on laptops.