There once was a man named Dr. Deming. He had some radical new ideas
about how to manufacture things after WWII. The US was selling
everything it could make no matter how crappy so they didn't bother
with Dr. Deming.

Japan had just had their manufacturing base severely damaged or
destroyed and needed something new. MacArthur got Dr. Deming over
there and the Japanese listened.

First the Japanese made little crappy stuff and the US laughed. Then
the Japanese made better and better stuff for less and less money.

Machine tools are the heart of manufacturing so it was one of the very
early areas of focus for them. The Japanese look at the whole thing
including the way tools are made and used and the people who use them.


Now the Chinese are doing the same thing and the Japanese are going to
be in trouble.

Here's how it works in real life.

I used my last $500 to start a business brazing carbide 25 years ago.
I worked my ass off and put whatever I could into R&D. Six years a go
we figured out how to braze ceramics so you could use them for saw
blades. We were told it was impossible for several reasons. We had
some demo blades built to prove that they do work and that they are a
real bargain. We tried to find a US company to work with us and no
one was interested. We went to Atlanta and exhibited and still no
interest. Several told us it was impossible. Some tried to do it and
said it couldn't be done. Some made saw blades and they didn't
work well.

Now we have a company in China making really good ceramic tipped saw
blades. The saw blades are in tests at Sears, and many other similar.


The Chinese are listening to us and are brazing and grinding the way we
tell them. They are painstakingly careful in what they do and they are
willing to do new things. That's why the Chinese are going to make
saw blades for Sears.

There simply wasn't an American company that wanted to try and that
was good enough to do it.

Tom