Fig. 1. Moser projected total cost of ownership (TCO) for a U.S.-made moderate labor content part to be less expensive after five years than its Chinese-made counterpart.


In 10 cases from the TCO data-


base, the U.S. part price averaged 108% more than the Chinese price, but in 60% of the cases, the U.S. TCO was lower. Because the other 40% showed a higher discrepancy between the two countries, U.S. TCO


was on average 12% higher than the Chinese TCO. “Instances where offshoring might


still make the most financial sense include cases where the majority of the product sales are offshore, the product has a high labor content vs. material


content and shipping cost, the product has infrequent design changes and the intellectual property risk is low,” Moser said. For Wiegers, the appeal of sourc- ing to a domestic diecaster is clear. “We are more of a made-to-order company,” he said. “Lead time is big. Our product is 100 days on the water right now. We are trying to reduce our lead time from 10-12 weeks to three to four weeks.” After seven years of sourcing to the supplier offering the lowest component price, Hubbardton Forge is re-examining total cost and taking into account more variables than piece price, freight costs and set-up fees, such as the cost of sitting on inventory to account for long lead times. As suggested by Moser, Hub- bardton Forge modified the TCO estimator to fit its business case by skipping cost factors that were not essential and inputting its own data to make the calculations. It began


38 | MODERN CASTING November 2012


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