Originally Posted by
Kopsis
The notion that people outside the countries that led the industrial revolution can't or won't do good work without constant babysitting from a "westerner" is completely wrong (and insulting, and borderline racist). Speaking as someone who has actually helped stand up an off-shore facility, I can tell you that when the people are treated as first-class employees, the work ethic and pride of workmanship can be every bit as good as the domestic operations. The only thing sometimes lacking (and what "luggage-draggers" like me are there to help provide) is the tribal knowledge and decades of experience that the new operation needs to accumulate before it can be self-sufficient.
When a company stops trying to provide best value to the customer for the sake of maintaining some false facade of "old world craftsmanship", that indicates lack of care.
I think you've misplaced my contempt. I have no contempt for the people who do outsourced work; what I have contempt for is absentee owners and companies who dismiss
significant parts of their business as not important enough to have in the same building with them, literally or figuratively, and insist on keeping their names on work for which they've had no real responsibility. Heck, I think it would be great if western manufacturers could produce a legacy of quality bicycles in China, but it won't have happened until we start buying bikes with Chinese names. And I'm sure it will happen eventually. Germans managed to leave a fine legacy of beer brewing in places like China, Mexico, and other places, but it's Tsingtao, Bohemia and the like, not Bitburger
(with "brewed in China" in small print).
Meanwhile, I didn't mean to suggest that wheel bearings are all that significant.....
Originally Posted by
WalksOn2Wheels
We're talking about bearings from China here. It's probably from a manufacturer that makes really damn good bearings. It's not as if they said "Ok, we need the cheapest possible bearing here because we can't be bothered to make these wheels work." It was probably more like, "Hey, these bearing are as good or better than our current bearings and we can get them for 60% less if we bulk order them from China."
You're quite right, of course. I've just gotten carried away with generalities, trying to defend the notion of corporate identity.