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Military gear manufacturer Tactical Tailor has gone from being one guy with a sewing machine in a barracks to a 55,000-square-foot design and manufacturing operation employing hundreds of people. Everything from big-ass Sumitomo injection molding machines (with re-grinders to re-integrate the sprue, eliminating waste), Gerber cutting machines and a veritable army of seamsters and seamstresses populate the space, processing the $2.5 million of raw materials constantly on hand to fulfill the never-ending flow of orders.
In this meaty 18-minute video, Director of Sales G.W. Ayers shows us "where the sausage is made," and points the way towards the future success of American manufacturing: Make affordable, useful and high-quality products that people need, and don't rest on your laurels--continue to innovate and refine the product (as seen with their lightweighting Fight Light initiative).
Comments
Your point, of rebuilding American manufacturing skills/capabilites, is well taken. Thursday's Minneapolis StarTribune ran this article about a local Twin Cities effort to train future workers in the "stitching" trades:
http://www.startribune.com/business/186801631.html
Soft goods design is catching on because the manufacturing investments are not as substantial as machine-based manufacturing like autos or injection-molded products, but still require local labor with the necessary skills. Programs like this one are beginning to spring up and are part of society's rediscovery of the "hand made".
Bruce
Industrial Fabrics Association International
In the video you speak about American manufacturing, why do all the people in the background look Asian?
@Nick, because not all Americans are white people.
AKA hahaha good one. At my old company most of the production workers were Asian or Latino. Helps with training and everyone getting along.
I'd love to see a similar piece on Crye Precision or Ops-Core, both American manufacturing companies, working in defense industries, started by industrial designers.