
Unobtainium - Thevet
https://literaryreview.co.uk/unobtainium
======
csours
See also: [http://www.autoblog.com/2016/01/29/gm-import-cadillac-
ct6-ch...](http://www.autoblog.com/2016/01/29/gm-import-cadillac-ct6-china/)

China has done a terrifyingly good job of capturing the production stream from
raw materials to components. This makes it very attractive to move product
assembly to China as well.

Developed countries backed themselves into this situation, largely by
established companies failing to continuously improve their production methods
and quality[1].

Disclaimer: I work for GM, any opinions are solely my own.

1\. [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/561/n...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/561/nummi-2015)

~~~
tgb
Why was this downvoted? If there's a factual error it's better to explain it
as readers like myself won't know about it otherwise. Everything started here
seems to be supported by the article.

~~~
csours
Maybe downvoted because both links were about the company I work for - so it's
kinda spammy.

I originally wanted to link steel and textiles, but I don't have actual
sources for that. Both steel and textiles went overseas for price
considerations, but I think that if US management and labor would have focused
on improving quality and cost for each of those they would still be in
business in the US (and Britain, etc).

In the 1970's GM and Ford started the steps of getting out of the vertical
integration business. This meant that their components could come from
anywhere - competition was based on cost and quality; but mainly cost. Some
perverse metrics here meant that internal suppliers drove themselves out of
business because they did not improve quality.

For example: for a very long time, automotive components were produced on an
Inspect and Reject scheme, where a large lot of material was built up at one
site (internal or external) and then inspected at point of use. The manager at
the component production site was compensated based on number of units
produced, effectively driving down quality. The manager at the point of use
was also compensated based on number of units produced, again driving defects
into production units as bad material was used in production.

People who work mainly with code would do well to remember that physical
production is _hard_. Also, incentives will _always_ have perverse outcomes
over a long enough timeframe. There's no way to list all of your assumptions
when you set up incentives.

Anyway, I'd love to hear stories like this from other physical products (like
textiles and steel for instance).

~~~
rhodin
It had a disclaimer, so should be fine.

Regarding the competitiveness of the US car industry: Vaclav Smil makes a
slightly different case in "Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American
Manufacturing", where he points out that "For too long the machines stayed too
large, too inefficient, and, on average, too unreliable." Add two oil crisis
to that, quality problems and high prices and you get a perfect storm.

The NUMI story from This American Life was a great listen.

------
mattnewton
Did it seem weird to anyone else that this was slipped in?

"...Abraham’s main message is that we need products that can be improved or
repaired (rather than having an in-built ‘death clock’, like most Apple
devices) and that we should recycle more assiduously what are actually
valuable materials within that old computer or phone."

I thought, (anecdotally as the owner of a iPhone 5 running fine) that apple is
actually ahead of the curve here. Maybe on MacBooks where battery replacement
is hard? Even then my MacBook has outlasted any other laptop I've bought.
Seems weird to call the battery degrading a "death clock."

Is this a common sentiment or known fact I've missed?

~~~
chestnut-tree
" _apple is actually ahead of the curve here_ "

I'd argue that old-fashioned desktop PCs were (and are) ahead of the curve. No
need to wastefully throw everything away, just upgrade the components you
want. A reasonable level of standardisation has allowed this to happen.

Desktop PCs might not have the polished, all-in-one usability of an Apple
device, but the ability to add or remove components from a PC make them very
amenable to re-use. For example, I have an older hard drive (HD) that I
removed from my desktop PC and put into an external HD case. It's now used as
a backup and storage device.

~~~
Zigurd
Only a tiny percentage of desktop PCs are ever opened after being
manufactured, never mind being upgraded. Retail components also have a high
return rate. I would not bet that an analysis of desktop PC resource
utilization and upgrades would tell you that upgrade-ability results in lower
resource utilization.

------
13of40
> When Gustave Eiffel built the tower that bears his name, he needed seven
> thousand tons of steel.

It's famously made of wrought iron, not steel. I wonder if that mistake comes
from the book or the author of the review didn't want to have to explain the
difference between the two.

------
iamthepieman
The "Buy from our store" link opens an email and the title of the book is
mentioned nowhere in the article (although the subtitle is)

So here's the authors page
[http://www.davidsabraham.com/](http://www.davidsabraham.com/)

where he has a link to purchase the book.

