737 Max

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Now, the replacement parts are mostly Chinese, and people tell me to buy a new machine, apparently Samsung are good.

I remember an incident on a 757 or 767, the stewardess came in with refreshments, and her foot operated a switch which caused an in flight emergency, Boeing had to do some work on it, this was decades ago...so the problem did not come from Douglas, those guys have been klutzes for a long time.

Anyway, wait for more news, the product has been found incident prone...
 
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Conclusion: here, the construction site workers prefer Bosch drills, Makita angle grinders, and Hitachi marble cutters.
I think you missed my point. A modern B&D will serve for decades of normal home owner use where you put up some shelves once a year. A professional needs a tool that will last which is why a single speed makita is 4x the price of a multispeed hammer drill with torque head from B&D. Horses for courses. Having said that and despite not needing it you will need to peel my facom socket set out my cold dead fingers.

What you do see a lot of is companies getting a reputation for quality and then going downmarket to the bottom. Specialised for bike stuff, North face for clothing the list is long. This makes good sense for the business but confuses me as I am a simple soul.

Wow we have gone off topic from doors falling off aircraft as bolts weren't fitted properly...
 
I have a UK made B&D 561, sadly I gave it to a relative, who let a carpenter use it. He was rough with it.
I had to change the armature and chuck...it was bought in 1998, now I think the switch will go soon.
I have used it lightly, not even 1000 holes (I bought a packet of GKW screws, not consumed yet), generally for fixing screws in my house or plant, sometimes my brother in law takes it to his flat.
Build quality is average to poor, I think DeWalt was their heavy duty brand, and maybe Skil was their (or a rival's ) cheap brand.

There is an Indian company called Kulkarni Power Tools, their original licensor was B&D, now it is Ryobi. They also made the 561 model, very popular here.

The relevance...Boeing should build durable rugged planes, or they will go bust, as of now Airbus has more orders, and more relevant, their products seem to be better designed and built.

And yes, bean counters have too much importance at times, particularly after buying out the original owners for silly money, they have to show enough profits...

Unbrako is another case in point, at one time they were the best in their field, after many changes of ownership, it is a brand owned by an Indian company based in the bicycle hub of Ludhiana, that person / group got big by selling duplicate / poor quality material...so Unbrako by those guys is automatically suspect.
What a change in stature...
 
Last year, Bosch 13 mm drill was about 35 GBP, the Chinese Dong Cheng (well accepted here) was 26 GBP.
HitMin /HiKoki (said to be Hitachi) was about 30 GBP

There is little difference in price of similar machines from different makes, the quality of metal and the rest is in the same band.

I think the same applies to the B737 and A320 series, actual price in fly away condition will be within 5% of the rival prices.
Financier discounts, actual operation modes, and many other factors contribute to the airplane's price.
 
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Back to the 737, our friend Juan Browne has a series of YT videos on this subject, of which I think we’re far from hearing the end of.

Even a short dive into the text of the Class Action lawsuit against Spirit Aerospace, and the details of management salaries is beyond chilling.
 
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Corporations have decided that reasonable casualties are acceptable to increase shareholder value.

See: Class action suit against Spirit Aerospace.
"Executives, including Defendant Gentile, Were Informed of Defects and Knew of Pervasive Quality Issues"
 
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The equation for tool price is different here, a skilled mason gets $15 a day in most cities.
I can give him several demolition machines / hammer drills / grinders for the price of one Hilti, and have dual redundant machinery in place.
Festool are even more expensive.

Please bear in mind that semi skilled workers will try to extract the maximum performance, and a truck is a truck...see the price difference between Benz and Mack...lot less than in cars made by the same companies.

737 is made in Kansas, what is happening in the Boeing Seattle plant, now that 747 is finished production?
 
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Please bear in mind that semi skilled workers will try to extract the maximum performance, and a truck is a truck...see the price difference between Benz and Mack...lot less than in cars made by the same companies.
Mack does not make cars. Alongside the Renault industrial vehicle division they are owned by the Volvo Group which sold their car making division to Ford in 1999 who in turn sold it to Geely of China ten years later.
 
Sorry, I thought VW owned Mack...it is Scania which is owned by VW.
MAN is also owned by VW, they are among the largest marine diesel makers as well, and Renk is missing from the list, battle tank & marine engines and transmissions, that was sold in about 2020.
My apologies.

The price difference in trucks with the same specification from different makes is a lot less than is found in cars.

As in jet engines, the same analogy applies to other bought out items like flight deck controls and hydraulic equipment.
 
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Biscuits are produced at merchant factories to reduce transportation costs..they are job workers, often producing them for competing brands at the same plant, or the owners will have another plant in the vicinity.

Think about it, the competing brands and similar products have only flour quality (sieve size, grain type), flavor and sugar content to differentiate them...and prices are similar.

So it boils down to efficient production, the input and selling prices are similar, as are the merchants' margins...only way to make money in a market with wafer thin margins.

And every few years some MBA type comes along and sells or buys the brands, gets a bonus and leaves for another assignment with a feather in his cap...

Same thinking for corn flakes, porridge and so on...even bread, I think.

The local brand Parle has its own factory in Bhuj, and jobbers in Ahmedabad (3!), Anand, Surat and Vapi, within my state of Gujarat...Ahmedabad to Anand is 100 odd km, there to Surat is 200 km, Surat to Vapi is 150 km....they save a lot on fuel and inventory costs.

There is a family in Hyderabad, their plants make about 300 tons daily for Britannia (another local brand), and Parle...two plants, in the same area.

No ties to anybody...
 
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Consolidation has often two results :
  • management and shareholders will benefit by raised stock in the short run
  • the actual enterprise will loose their edge and has to adopt to some blend of products and management habits
Few if any consolidations will increase product portfolio value.
One way to improve stock price and company valuation is to sell off underperforming businesses. Where I worked, the ‘flag ship’ division got outsized R&D and operating budgets but made a loss for 4 or 4 yrs in a row. Absolute prima donnas.

Then we got a new CEO who sold the division and put the money and time into the divisions that had good ROI. A few other dictions/businesses also went in the process and the company never looked back. He also combined operations with finance because the fab guys were always screaming for investment and yet the fabs were under loaded- a lot of stuff was moved to foundry.
 
The corporate castoffs are often purchased by private equity firms at a knock-down price. With a low basis, and some capital infusion they can be made fit again. There aren't many PE firms which are long-term holders, only folks like "family offices" do that.

Another Boeing in Japan had to return to base (Sapporo) because of a cracked pane of cockpit windscreen.
 
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