
A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won’t Be ‘Assembled in U.S.A.’ - ot
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/technology/iphones-apple-china-made.html
======
swalsh
Now imagine we went to war, and China was not on our side. We have the
headstart, but if we needed to start manufacturing more equipment, we're at a
disadvantage.

I think this kind of supply chain issue is a national security concern.

~~~
javagram
Military equipment is manufactured in the US or allied countries to avoid this
concern I think?

~~~
PKop
Just as one example, China has massive dominance in "rare" earth elements
which are components of many different military and communication devices.

Check this out for full scope of current disparities [0]

[0]
[https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/05/2002048904/-1/-1/1/ASS...](https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/05/2002048904/-1/-1/1/ASSESSING-
AND-STRENGTHENING-THE-MANUFACTURING-AND-DEFENSE-INDUSTRIAL-BASE-AND-SUPPLY-
CHAIN-RESILIENCY.PDF)

~~~
artificial
With regard to Batteries Rare Earth is anything but, it’s more messy than
anything and China wins on price. The States has plenty of capacity in that
regard and a mine just recently reopened in California. Borderline Slave
labor, lax environmental laws and state subsidized shipping make for a much
lower price.

------
mwexler
While I'm sure the requirements of the engineering required custom screws to
meet size and scale needs, I sure hope this doesn't turn out to be a
"protection scheme" making custom screws to prevent user repairs. While an old
article, it reminds us that Apple seemed to really love this approach, at
least in the past: [https://www.wired.com/2012/08/if-theres-a-screw-theres-a-
way...](https://www.wired.com/2012/08/if-theres-a-screw-theres-a-way-custom-
screws-wont-stop-the-diy-community/)

~~~
floatingatoll
Security screws don’t prevent repairs. Glue prevents repairs. iFixit has been
releasing screwdriver kits for Apple for years, but the hardest part of taking
apart modern Apple is dealing with the glue. Hair dryers, putty knifes, and
forcing things that feel like they’re going to snap.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Security screws do inhibit repair (in general), certainly have prevented me
repairing things in the past. I've seen "head stripping" too, damaging the
head to prevent removal (stopped me replacing my multimeter battery - hugely
immoral).

Tri-screws (Nintendo), were one of the first things I had to buy "single-use"
screw-drivers for.

~~~
justtopost
I tend to drill them out and replace them with standard fasteners. Ends up
cheaper than having 3 trays of obscure bits that still somehow don't fit. Pay
close attention to length however. Some laptops will ground out with a screw 1
thread too long.

------
lmilcin
The headline, as usual, is wrong.

The tiny screw shows not why it won't be assembled in USA but why it should be
assembled. Making a phone or laptop requires an entire industry to back it up.
Making those things in US makes it possible that these industries will come
back.

Also, just for US security it is probably not important that the screws are
imported. What is important is that the electronics are not handled outside US
and US retains its ability to make practical electronics and not rely 100% on
China.

~~~
onion2k
_Making those things in US makes it possible that these industries will come
back._

Isn't that a chicken-and-egg scenario though? The industry won't come back if
manufacturers don't bring production back, but manufacturers won't bring
production back until there's a local industry to bring it back to.

~~~
lmilcin
There is an important incentive to manufacture some category of products that
are necessary for security. How do you feel about EVERY single non-trivial
chip and piece of electronics manufactured outside US? Can you, currently, buy
ANY kind of computer that is not being handled in China?

It sure will cost more, but the industry does not grow overnight and people do
need time to get experienced and I think it is vital that some country other
than China supplies electronics, too.

------
detaro
On the other hand, Apple is one of the companies that could make a dent in the
other direction (if they thought it made sense financially and overall): They
have the cash reserves and the option for long-term planning that they could
e.g. have financed better-suited machinery for the screw-maker as part of a
long-term contract (if there's really not enough manufacturing capacity for
custom screws around). They'd probably be able to set up an apprenticeship
program training the numbers of employees they need, with more pull over
other, less well-known companies. Of course for that for that to make sense,
they'd need to commit to building something long-term, and can't just access
an existing pool. (Although I'd assume they spent lots of effort getting the
flows at Foxconn et al worked out properly too)

And I suspect scale matters here a lot, so a relatively small experiment is
going to have supply issues where a large project would create enough demand
that investing to fill it makes sense.

~~~
leereeves
Absolutely.

Manufacturers sent manufacturing jobs overseas thirty years ago, so few
Americans learned manufacturing skills for thirty years, now manufacturers use
the effect to justify the cause. But of course the real reason was simply that
they didn't want to pay American wages.

If manufacturers brought the jobs back Americans would learn the skills.

~~~
lallysingh
I agree.

I think we'd have to make that fiscally worthwhile (large tax carrot/stick) to
make that happen.

------
exabrial
The engineer in me is judging them... why the heck did you make a design that
required 3 weird screws? Screws are standardized parts; creating an esoteric
hardware design in a vacuum with an "oh we'll fix that in production" [literal
meaning of production] seems to be the actual problem.

~~~
Nerdfest
You just used Apple and the word "standards" in a sentence without the
requisite "eschews".

~~~
mitchty
I voted you down, your comment seems to think that the engineers couldn't
possibly have a reason for custom screws.

Without knowing the requirements, you'll never know if they had a good reason
for custom screws. As such this comment is not constructive at best, and just
standard "apple is bad cause no standards" drivel at worst.

~~~
freehunter
Not to mention Apple's non-standard-compliance is a notable exception, not the
rule. The 30-pin connector and Lightning are basically the only proprietary
connectors they've had in recent history, and one is phased out while the
other is being phased out as we speak (for the standard USB-C, I might add).

Firewire, USB-C, Bluetooth, POSIX, etc... Apple doesn't do as much non-
standard stuff as people on the Internet would have you think.

~~~
berbec
I agree with all your points, but have you ever disassembled an iPhone or an
aluminum Intel Mac? Everyone has them now, but when they started producing
them, no one had triwing, pentawing or those microscopic torx bits. And let's
not even start on bricking items repaired by non-"apple-approved" shops months
later.

~~~
freehunter
I would differentiate between "standards" vs "easy to repair". You're not
going to find too many standard parts inside of a cell phone no matter who the
vendor is. Even if Apple supported replacing the battery yourself, you'd still
need an Apple-compatible battery that's not compatible with a Samsung.

------
Animats
Apple only ordered 23,000 screws. That's not enough to justify making the
tooling for production by progressive stamping. Caldwell Manufacturing has
automatic screw machines. Those are general-purpose machines for making things
out of wire and small rod stock. They do good work, but are slower and higher
cost per unit than stamping. If they'd gone to a company that's primarily a
screw supplier, like KD Fasteners or US Micro Screw, they probably wouldn't
have had the problem.

Apple has shot itself in the foot before by being too tough on suppliers. They
want suppliers to invest in production capacity without guaranteeing a big
buy. Remember the sapphire screen debacle.

~~~
mercutio2
Have you actually reviewed the story of GT Advanced?

Apple bent over backwards to forgive late delivery, and GT Advanced repeatedly
lied about what they’d actually achieved.

Apple surely turns the screws on it’s suppliers, but GT Advanced isn’t a very
good example of this, the producers just lied about what their capabilities
(and mid-stream accomplishments!) were.

~~~
Animats
_Have you actually reviewed the story of GT Advanced?_

Yes. They originally wanted to just sell furnaces to Apple, but Apple pushed
them into a deal where GT Advanced took all the risk of making the end
product. The management of GT Advanced should have rejected that deal, but
they took the "fake it til you make it" route, and it didn't end well. There's
still litigation underway involving Apple.

[1] [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gt-advanced-tech-
bankrupt...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gt-advanced-tech-bankruptcy-
apple/gt-advanced-says-fell-victim-to-bait-and-switch-by-apple-
idUSKBN0IR2G220141107)

------
Nasrudith
The screws has to be one of the weakest claims for several reasons. It is more
a "we suck at planning" story on several levels. Even if they went with
Chinese screws doing it in advance and in large numbers would give them the
best price per unit. This isn't even a "we accidentally made it an antenna"
screw up but a "we failed to do basic math and planning ahead".

~~~
scarface74
Yes because the _Tim Cook_ of all people doesn’t know anything about supply
chain management and producing at scale.

~~~
Nasrudith
Fair point. I guess he shoukd have hired someone from a supply chain industry
for that.

------
noisy_boy
Disclaimer: optimistic wishful thinking ahead

I think the scenario is:

\- China has tons of cheap labour \- manual manufacturing in US is expensive
\- most companies have the problem of over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing
\- Apple has tons of reserves

I see this as an opportunity for Apple to invest in more and more
sophisticated mechanization driven by the smarter robotics. It may be
difficult for a machine learning algorithm to tell a bird from another but
equipment/machines are much more defined than fuzzy. Further, Apple being a
sought-after employer in general shouldn't have problem attracting top talent
for this exciting and growing area of work (with all its issues, US still
attracts the best minds it needs for such research).

If they invest and get to a state where they are not only making phones but
smart machines that can make machines that make phones or whatever, they will
open up a new world for themselves and can solve a problem much bigger than
making phones cheaply (while still making phones cheaply).

~~~
shaki-dora
As the article illustrates, it’s not labor cost that drives manufacturing to
China, but competence, or network effects.

Robots may well be coming, to a factory in China.

------
Shivetya
to be honest, this whole article smacks of public relations defense of Apple's
continued manufacturing in China regardless of all the human rights issues,
spying, and trade secret disputes.

sorry, but their actions in support of charities and other rights issues world
wide will always be tainted by their association with the Chinese government.
they are there only because its cheaper to operate and its only cheaper to
operate simply because you have a government which does not respect rights,
property, personal, and in many cases intellectual.

------
HillaryBriss
> _When Mr. Melo bought Caldwell in 2002, it was capable of the high-volume
> production Apple needed. But demand for that had dried up as manufacturing
> moved to China. He said he had replaced the old stamping presses that could
> mass-produce screws with machines designed for more precise, specialized
> jobs._

this looks like yet another example of what US-based globalization promoters
have been pushing as the "prosperous future" of the US manufacturing sector:
custom, high-precision, high-quality, high-end etc.

but this "plan for prosperity" has pushed high-volume, low-cost manufacturing
capabilities out of the US. it should have been obvious to Apple beforehand.

------
samirm
>“China is not just cheap. It’s a place where, because it’s an authoritarian
government, you can marshal 100,000 people to work all night for you,”

I don't understand how she came to that conclusion or what this sentence even
means really.

~~~
DeonPenny
She means the government can force people thousands to work for foreign
companies cheaply because XI is a dictator. For example, if you need to churn
out thousands of custom screws. She came to the conclusion because the CCP has
done just that for 30 years.

------
hourislate
So Dell can make Laptops in TX, Nokia ran the largest Cell Phone Factory in
the world in TX (Alliance Corridor). You have Texas Instruments and probably
dozens of more high tech electronics manufacturers and Apple can't build it's
Macbooks or whatever in the USA because it can't get enough screws, really?

Most of the parts for Apple devices are not made in China.

[https://www.lifewire.com/where-is-the-iphone-
made-1999503](https://www.lifewire.com/where-is-the-iphone-made-1999503)

China is basically an assembly location since slave labor can be used to
maximize profit.

Another trash article from the NYT's.

------
AKifer
Can some top notch hardware be made in USA ? For sure. Did someone made a top
notch hardware, even some prototypes ? Please tell us who. Perhaps the real
issue is that nobody is excited to make hardware anymore in the US as
westerners expect to retain ownership of the working capital in the Chinese
industry, which is getting less and less relevant when China is getting richer
and richer. The western world needs a mental leap as Tesla did with the car
industry if it wants to keep up with China in this ground.

------
pjc50
> “China is not just cheap. It’s a place where, because it’s an authoritarian
> government, you can marshal 100,000 people to work all night for you,” said
> Susan Helper, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University in
> Cleveland and the former chief economist at the Commerce Department. “That
> has become an essential part of the product-rollout strategy.”

Never mind the screws, it's the humans which are important here.

------
kevin_kroe
Did anyone thought about using simpler screws or will we pretend it's okay to
invent am an annoying screw and get it done somewhere just 'cause you want it?

apple always fucks up on that, even usb extensors can have a "dent" so it
doesn't fit regular usb cables.

that part of apple is the most disgusting.

------
rbanffy
Erm... Why not use standard screws?

~~~
timbit42
Then geeky users would be able to fix it themselves.

~~~
rbanffy
If it were a tiny and thin iDevice or a razor thin laptop, I'd understand, but
there is nowhere in that machine that a special screw would be needed. The
space constraints simply aren't there.

------
zelon88
One notable fact that's missing from the article is that China will lie and
bend over backwards to secure business. They have no problem telling a
potential customer that they can meet specifications they cannot meet. They
will greatly overstate their capacity and capabilities and then bullshit their
way to success by "throwing a handful of shit and seeing what sticks." Meaning
they will produce and produce and produce products, ship them to the customer,
and accept whatever they get for RMA's. They barely do any kind of inspection.
They just ship parts and hope not a whole lot will come back.

Here in the USA our companies take liability into account. Our precision
manufacturing sector is much older and more experienced, but also each entity
is smaller due to America being truly capitalist.

Apple is the kind of customer that small American companies don't want to deal
with. Their buyers are demanding, uncompromising, and don't understand
manufacturing. They want to buy 100,000 screws and cannot understand why they
aren't already on a shelf somewhere waiting to be shipped. They don't care
either, they just NEED the screws. If Apple is a customer of yours, you
probably don't do business with many other companies. Apple deadlines and
requirements don't specifically disallow it, they just don't leave enough foom
for it.

Just ask GT Advanced Technologies what it's like dealing with Apple as a
supplier. They signed a contract with Apple, spent all their capital acquiring
Apple approved manufacturing equipment, and then fought with Apple QC about
acceptance criteria that their Apple approved equipment couldn't meet. They
did this until GT ran out of money and went belly up. They spent so much
resources trying to satisfy Apple that they couldn't satisfy anybody else.

------
kevin_b_er
We exported all our manufacturing overseas at the behest of the masters of
business administration as a matter of pure cost cutting. It isn't coming back
easily.

~~~
timbit42
It may require federal regulation.

------
tmaly
I know they 3D print some jet engine parts. Why could custom screws not be 3D
printed?

~~~
detaro
3D printing is generally interesting for things that are made in small
quantities. Making many thousands of the same screw by printing is
horrifically inefficient, and slower and more expensive than whatever they did
to make them.

------
mikelyons
Why does reducing the American cost of living never come up? American workers
have just become too expensive in many industries, which is why immigrants
fill whole classes of jobs. Or maybe that's just Seattle's homeless problem
talking.

------
sct202
They really don't need this level of customization, but manufacturing in China
lets companies do things like this for components that probably could just use
standard sizes.

------
Simulacra
Tiny screws for tiny hands. China’s child workforce is as strong as ever.

------
fxfan
I am okay with giving trump his stupid wall if he can successfully bring back
manufacturing from china. So far the only issue I can support him on is his
(long overdue) war with china.

~~~
DeonPenny
Yeh, China is starting to scare me the more I read. I don't feel good buying
their products.

------
21
As long as they remain "Designed in California", the feel-good is still there.
You are not buying cheap Android China shit.

~~~
pulse7
Android is also "Designed in California"...

~~~
rbanffy
The kernel is most certainly not.

