From the Editor

Made in the USA?

Tom Inglesby, editor
tom@editor7.com

I have spent the past 25 years as a journalist covering a variety of subjects. However, most of this time was on the manufacturing beat — I observed and wrote about the rise and fall of Japanese quality and productivity in the 1970s and '80s and the rise and, to some extent, fall of U.S. quality since then.

I recently received an e-mail from Ric Hubbard, president of Hubbard Jointers, Cheney, Wash., that brought back some memories. Specifically, the movement of manufacturing offshore to the low-cost labor markets such as India, Malaysia, the Philippines, the People's Republic of China, and even Mexico under NAFTA.

Hubbard started out telling me about how his now 95-year old father developed his own tools as a mason — he started laying brick in 1927 — and found a ready market for his high-quality, hand-made instruments among a growing swath of masons. He formed the company in 1960 and ran it until selling it to Ric in 1986.

Lately, things have changed, Ric tells me. "Four years ago, one of the largest tool distributors in the United States contacted me. They said they wanted to distribute my tools. I was flattered. I provided them with the engineering data on my tools so they would know what a great tool they were buying. They took the information to a company in China and contracted with them to copy The Hubbard Jointer. The company in China immediately sent a sales force back to this country and started selling the imitation tool to other distributors."

The Hubbard Jointer Company started loosing sales to the imitation tool. "Recently, we learned that one of our largest and most steadfast customers has decided to carry the Chinese copy," Ric recalls. "They admit the copy is very poor quality but they can buy it for so much less — less than it costs the Hubbard Jointer Company to produce the tool! I can not possibly compete.

He continues, "There is no way even the Chinese can provide the imitation tool to distributors in this country at the price they are asking without experiencing losses. I believe their price is artificially supported with the intent of destroying companies like mine. I also believe their prices will begin to reflect true costs after we are unable to compete."

The threat to his company comes from more than price competition. The imitation tool appears so much like the Hubbard Jointer that the craftsmen who are accustomed to buying Hubbard's tools are often unaware the tools they are purchasing are not his product. "Unscrupulous dealers are more than willing to buy the cheap imitation and provide it, often at the price the craftsman is accustomed to paying for the quality of the original Hubbard Jointer," Ric admits. "The switch is only discovered when the poor quality of the imitation disappoints the craftsman and he realizes the tool he received is not the tool he thought he purchased. Worse, now he does not know where to get the quality tool he was accustomed to using."

What angers and frustrates Ric is the fact that the tool his father invented and perfected is being confused with a cheap, poor quality tool. "We, as Americans, are becoming willing to exchange high-quality, well-crafted products for poor quality at a lower price. Possibly, we are forgetting what quality means. Are we also forgetting that 'Made in America' means 'Made in America by Americans?' That label is getting increasingly difficult to find. If my read on the economy is accurate, based on my own tiny piece of the action, our politicians will soon have our economy equal to that of everyone else. We, too, can look forward to living in cardboard boxes and earning fifty cents a day."

Strong words. But look around and ask yourself, "Am I becoming used to throw-away tools because they are cheap, instead of quality tools that last?" And are your clients saying that about your work, too?