Getting caught up on this thread ... apologies for the delayed comment.
Nevertheless, I watched (most) of the above video and something out of left field struck me:
... to what degree was the 2013 Mac Pro's manufacturing facility really intended for something else?
There is very little in the video that supports the conclusion that all of those steps happen in one building under one roof. Or that was the same contractor in all the shots.
The major unstated theme in the video was that these are USA folks. Not some Chinese chop shop. That is why they are showing the people. The context is early 2013 and the "country is doomed" has been very much in play in some major political circles ( as somewhat still is ).
The final assembly shop if recall correctly was originally built to do contractor work for Dell ( and others). I'm not It had already existed long before the Mac Pro rolled out.
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/1...neration-desktop-computer-likely-new-mac-pro/
[ odd the link to the Austin statemans article is broken. This is another story after secrecy lifted.
"... Flextronics noted it already employed about 2,500 people at its various Austin facilities and, according to building permits, has spent well north of $50 million to renovate and upgrade its Northwest Austin factory, in part for the new Mac Pro production lines. ... "
http://www.statesman.com/business/a...-built-austin/uUYYpTFj3rwrbKHi29J9sL/amp.html ]
I'm not sure at all why someone would hire Flextronics to do metal stamping at all. As much as the video rants on Apple for a goofy Mac Pro, painting in same building as making logic boards is just about as goofy.
... so to what degree might the US factory for fabbing Mac Pros really Apple doing a small scale piloting of how to run their own fabrication & assembly plant - - - with minimized touch labor - - - for making something *other* than a Mac or iPhone? Say, an automobile?
Errr, no. Major components of automobiles are shipped to final assembly plants. Yeah there are huge paint shops , but major electronics are not made there. Engines and other major body parts typically are not either. It isn't Apple doing the work. If they wanted a car they hire one of the car specialist contractors, Flextronics.
The specialized jigs and assembly tables for the Mac Pro were special to that Flextronics plant, but Flextronics probably could "retool" that building into other stuff over time. Or even share another space with another production line as the number of MP assembly tables went down.
Now if there only was an announcement this past week, of, say, an intent to make a $1B investment in domestic manufacturing (+jobs)...does anyone really think that $1B would be way too much money for merely a Mac fab line?
-hh
When Apple was using Samsung for fabs the chips were made in Austin and then the final package assembly might have been done elsewhere. Taiwan/China/SoutEast Asia. There are those kind of manufacturing jobs too. Not just grinding metal. The is electronic device "tool and die" in addition to mechanical device 'tool and die' that Apple could be investing in that could soak up a healthy chunk of the $1B. When Apple complains there are no tool & die folks in the USA it really isn't old school, mainstream tool and die.
[ Honestly seems like Apple could do some additive manufacturing on some of these Mac cases.... instead of all this grinding away at blocks. ]
Apple has other stuff to make. Headphones. Maybe an Alexa clone.
When AT&T was flush with money they funded Bell Labs ... which did several really revolutionary basic science breakthru things (i.e., Nobel Prize winners...... not invites to the NY Museum of Modern Art. ) Apple sits on almost 1/4 of Trillion dollars and relatively does not very much at all. They have no dedicated long term, basic research lab (as opposed to MS Research or Xerox PARC back in the day.) . They are soooo busy being Scrooge McDuck that long-term infrastructure is killed off.
