Re: [tlug] OT: interesting NY times article:High-Tech Japanese, Running Out of Engineers

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

Edward Middleton wrote:
> CL wrote:

> > You are thinking too much.  Maybe 90% of what constitutes "sensitive 
> > technology" is ... or was 30 years ago when I was just starting out 
> > working for Japanese companies the first time around ... anything that 
> > allows me to make the dollar you could make if you could set up your 
> > factory to operate the same way mine does.
>
> Well we are clearly talking about different things then.  How much 
> consumer level manufacturing is carried out in Japan now?  My impression 
> is that it is not a lot.

That which is done here is either highly mechanized, has high return on 
investment, and/or involves the use of methods that the Japanese do not 
yet wish to share with their overseas manufacturing facilities or 
partners.  Honda recently closed all motorcycle production in the US and 
will produce all two-wheeled Honda-badged vehicles at a highly 
mechanized plant in Kyushu.  They have reached a point where robots work 
cheaper, more reliably, and do not mail in their UAW postcards.

--
CL