Even more on the outsourcing thread…

Re: Outsourcing by soulhuntre on 3/5/04 01:53

“No high tech there, I’ve been in there, and I’ve made fixtures for them. Strange how everything there is done the “lo tech” way, and nobody has been able to cut into their business.”

Good for them… see, apparently in some markets a high quality product produced by skilled people is still viable. But weren’t you just telling me it wasn’t possible to do that any more? I guess Basset Wheel is long gone right? No, it turns out they are alive and well. In fact, they seem to use a fair bit of machinery to do their job. The “spin forming” (essentially a lathe) machinery they put in in 1998 isn’t all that “low tech” once you look at the control systems involved unless the deliberately crippled the machinery and ripped it all out – which would be stupid and they don’t seem like stupid people.

“When the wheel is ready for production, a combination of robotic precision and hand craftsmanship ensures each wheel meets our stringent standards…. All centers are machined for a perfect fit, then placed in the rim shell and robotically welded under the watchful eye of a master welder.” – quote in context

Hmm… it looks like the advent of machinery (including some fairly high tech stuff) hasn’t hurt them any. And I am fairly sure their design department uses CAD software – sounds fairly high tech to me.

This is no group of “old school” guys tossing steel the way they did 30 years ago… this is a group of skilled craftsmen adapting to the times and finding a way to compete in a world market. Funny how that works.

In any case, Basset isn’t making custom wheels in production runs of 4 as were the companies I mentioned. Basset is making a fairly limited number of product lines and puts a high (and high tech) R&D process into each one.

The companies that make unique sets of 4 wheels for custom car use wouldn’t be able to exist with out direct CAD to C&C controlled machining systems. Those were the ones I specifically mentioned 🙂

Anyway, thanks for mentioning Basset, they seem like good folks and it’s always nice to see an example of a US company using it’s ability to adapt and it’s skills to succeed in a global market.

It kind of proves my point 🙂

(and no, I am not going to comment on the other “good old days” post. It isn’t really relevant)