I hope they advertise this as “Assembled in the USA from imported parts” as opposed to “Made in the USA.” The latter would be misleading.
Has Apple used made, assembled, or USA in the past, as opposed to Designed by Apple in California?
Never seen Made in USA stuff anymore, other than Babies....sometimes inceptions by foreign bodies, hahahaha
Except that in the summer of 2017, manufacturing output in the U.S. hit an all time peak. It just doesn't employ the number of people it once did because of automation. Apple sold 18 million Macs in fiscal 2018. If one assumes that this machine would constitute 5% of Mac unit sales, that's about 900,000 units needed each year. That means each employee has to build about 36 Macs per working day.
I don't know how much Apple pays factory workers, but if they make $20 an hour (about $40K per year), that adds $20 million a year to the local economy from wages alone.
I hope they advertise this as “Assembled in the USA from imported parts” as opposed to “Made in the USA.” The latter would be misleading.
I did some more research and "Assembled in the USA" is accurate. "Made" in the USA can only be used when the parts are US-sourced; "Assembled" is the term when substantially assembly happens in the US using imported parts. Exactly what Apple is doing.
Assembled in USA Claims A product that includes foreign components may be called “Assembled in USA” without qualification when its principal assembly takes place in the U.S. and the assembly is substantial. For the “assembly” claim to be valid, the product’s last “substantial transformation” also should have occurred in the U.S. That’s why a “screwdriver” assembly in the U.S. of foreign components into a final product at the end of the manufacturing process doesn’t usually qualify for the “Assembled in USA” claim.
Example: A lawn mower, composed of all domestic parts except for the cable sheathing, flywheel, wheel rims and air filter (15 to 20 percent foreign content) is assembled in the U.S. An “Assembled in USA” claim is appropriate.
Example: All the major components of a computer, including the motherboard and hard drive, are imported. The computer’s components then are put together in a simple “screwdriver” operation in the U.S., are not substantially transformed under the Customs Standard, and must be marked with a foreign country of origin. An “Assembled in U.S.” claim without further qualification is deceptive.
That's all fine, but is any of this really enforced? Seems to me there's been a trend away from enforcement of such regulations in the last few years.
No, you can see the Flex logo on the works jackets. Flex was formally Flextroinics and has an assembly facility off of HWY 183 in Austin. It is where the previous Mac Pro was built and I know they used to do work for Cisco there as well though I have no clue if they still do.
They’ve reduced the scope of the buyer market for this new Mac Pro by making it twice as expensive as the prior model. Why does anyone think Apple will sell enough units to justify expanding assembly operations?
Perhaps the Mac Pro won’t be the only thing assembled there in the future. Besides, the new Pro is 10x the machine the 2013 one was, helping justify the cost.
As for Apple I’m more concerned about them leaving China. It would be nice to see some of that come to the USA but the over all goal should be zero business done in China. Right now they are effectively working with a regime that is as bad as the Nazis.
They’ve reduced the scope of the buyer market for this new Mac Pro by making it twice as expensive as the prior model. Why does anyone think Apple will sell enough units to justify expanding assembly operations?
They’ve done what they need to do for the customers it’s aimed at. Remember that Apple consulted with a lot of professionals while working on this design. What makes you think they are interested in people for this machine who won’t spend more than $3,000?
As for Apple I’m more concerned about them leaving China. It would be nice to see some of that come to the USA but the over all goal should be zero business done in China. Right now they are effectively working with a regime that is as bad as the Nazis.
That’s for upgrading the lines. And it’s not an auto line, it’s mostly manual. That’s less expensive. Additionally, this is a high value, but only medium production line.
As for Apple I’m more concerned about them leaving China. It would be nice to see some of that come to the USA but the over all goal should be zero business done in China. Right now they are effectively working with a regime that is as bad as the Nazis.
You can’t, realistically, not do business in china. Google left, and what happened? Small Chinese internet companies grew to be as big as Google, because of the vacuum. We didn’t stop engaging with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
from my armchair, 300m of travel to drop some cards and cables in a box seems poorly planned. i suspect they are referring to the cumulative distance for each part from its volume storage in the facility.
I loved the Mac Pros I had in the past, and I'm looking forward to getting this new one.
I'm especially happy to see Apple continue to expand out of California and into the great state of Texas!! Yeeehaaawww!!
Not really a new "expansion into" Texas, they were doing the prev MP in the same facility.
This may not be an expansion, other than the money expanding and upgrading the plant for this.
but, Apple is building 2 million feet of space in Austin which will employ an additional 5,000 employees when it opens in 2022, and will, when completely finished, employ 15,000 employees. If that’s not an expansion, I don’t know what is. It will cost Apple $1 billion, and result in a lot of jobs during that work. It will also result in the expansion of many local businesses to accommodate those employees.
That's great and I read that story too, but the context of these comments are about the MP facility.
I don't know how much Apple pays factory workers, but if they make $20 an hour (about $40K per year), that adds $20 million a year to the local economy from wages alone.
Can people in that region of Texas live off of $20/hour?
They’ve reduced the scope of the buyer market for this new Mac Pro by making it twice as expensive as the prior model. Why does anyone think Apple will sell enough units to justify expanding assembly operations?
Because this isn't their first rodeo and they know what they're doing.
Wow, this is a much larger operation than what I was expecting, which means one of two things (or both);
Expected demand is larger than I thought (not that my thoughts matter.)
Apple is doing more than just inserting some assembled boards in a chassis.
Either way kudos to Apple. I wish them well and hope this starts at least a small trend to bring some manufacturing/assembly back to the States.
Yes, it looks big! With all the whining about the price, you'd think the total number of Mac Pros Apple will sell is equal to how many can be seen in that pic!
I loved the Mac Pros I had in the past, and I'm looking forward to getting this new one.
I'm especially happy to see Apple continue to expand out of California and into the great state of Texas!! Yeeehaaawww!!
Not really a new "expansion into" Texas, they were doing the prev MP in the same facility.
This may not be an expansion, other than the money expanding and upgrading the plant for this.
but, Apple is building 2 million feet of space in Austin which will employ an additional 5,000 employees when it opens in 2022, and will, when completely finished, employ 15,000 employees. If that’s not an expansion, I don’t know what is. It will cost Apple $1 billion, and result in a lot of jobs during that work. It will also result in the expansion of many local businesses to accommodate those employees.
That's great and I read that story too, but the context of these comments are about the MP facility.
The context is expansion. The Mac Pro is just a part of it. You can’t overlook the whole when looking at a part.
I don't know how much Apple pays factory workers, but if they make $20 an hour (about $40K per year), that adds $20 million a year to the local economy from wages alone.
Can people in that region of Texas live off of $20/hour?
Yup. It’s much cheaper in almost anywhere in the South and parts of the Midwest.
Comments
2) Also hope this Mac includes stickers!
3) I believe the full phrase is: "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China. Copied in South Korea".
I don't know how much Apple pays factory workers, but if they make $20 an hour (about $40K per year), that adds $20 million a year to the local economy from wages alone.
That's all fine, but is any of this really enforced? Seems to me there's been a trend away from enforcement of such regulations in the last few years.
You can’t, realistically, not do business in china. Google left, and what happened? Small Chinese internet companies grew to be as big as Google, because of the vacuum. We didn’t stop engaging with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
And why am I the only one calling you out on this extreme hyperbole?
Yup. It’s much cheaper in almost anywhere in the South and parts of the Midwest.