I'm going to take a guess here but for the most part people in todays world for the most part have absolutely no idea what is involved in the manufacture of any product. I've actually heard people say how come "x" doesn't come out with a car like "y" did last year. They have no conception of the amount of engineering resources required. They have no concept of the lead time involved in putting the manufacturing equipment in place much less the amount of equipment needed to produce something like an engine or transmision. The machining line for just the block of an IC engine can easily be close to a quarter mile long. For a v-type with OHCs that's rwo machining lines. Add in the equipment for connecting rods, pistons, crankshafts, camshafts. On top of all this you have stamping equipment for body panels, patterns and mold making equipment for parts made of cast iron. Die casting machinery and their related molds. Injection molders for plastic components. Glass making. And we haven't even gotten into brakes, electronics, both vehicle mangement and sensors along with radio/navigation systems. Sure a lot of it can be outsourced. You also have the skilled labor needed to build the machinery, manufacture the tooling and maintain it. And d ont even think of saying " but all we have to is program the CNC out it comes". It does not work that way. I have been involved in manufacturing for over fourty years and even with the amount of automation here is still a lot of manual labor that goes into poducing a product. The company I work for now produces dewatering machines for the municiple waste treatment markert. Sounds simple right. Pump the sludge (that's what waste is called after the digester get done with it) into somethingb that spins and the solids settle to the bottom. Now you have to get them out of a machine that might be generating 3000 G's. Simple in concept. The execution is the hard part. I personally like to think i do more for the environmdnt every day at work than 95% of the environmentalists. GBefore that I worked for a pharmacutical company in a support shop. That was nice, all machining work. Before that 30+ years in the automotive industry working in an industrial Tool Room environment. So I think I have a pretty good idea of goes into manufacturing a solid real world product. I'd be interested in knowing just how many engineers we graduate from institutions of higher learning each versus say english majors. There used to be asystem in this country were industries would grow their own talent inhouse. They were called apprenticeship programs. When I was going through mine I can state for a fact that as far as the State of Wisconsin was concerned going through four year program was worth more than a BA and a lot of BS's economically. I'm not being critical of a university education. I loved going to school but unfortunately life got in the way. But we have kids coming up today who are not suited to a college environment. Yet they may be just as bright and talented as their college bound peers. Their talents simply lie in other directions. These are the kids that got shuffled off to the shop classes. But the shop classes are going away in todays schools. Don't these kids deserve a future too. Just remember everytime you buy a coffee maker made in China or Indonesia much less a refigerator, air conditioner, furniture whatever you ( I'm guilty too) are condemning somebody to a bleak future.
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