SureFire's Production?

Hi guys,

Does anyone know anything about SureFire's production process?

Their lights seem to be in very high demand, yet they are often backordered. Seems like they would have increased their capacity a long time ago.

Do they make lights in house, or what? Anyone know the process?

Scott

YES, THEY MAKE ALL THEIR LIGHTS "IN HOUSE"
EDIT

1. Where was my flashlight made?
   In the U.S.A. SureFire is proud of the fact that it has not joined the outsourcing trend, and maintains manufacturing, assembly and test facilities in Southern California.

So, why the constant delays?

Scott

See #1 above.

It probably takes most of their employees at least a half day to get to work on our "freeway" system.

TENMMIKE said:

YES, THEY MAKE ALL THEIR LIGHTS "IN HOUSE"
EDIT

1. Where was my flashlight made?
   In the U.S.A. SureFire is proud of the fact that it has not joined the outsourcing trend, and maintains manufacturing, assembly and test facilities in Southern California.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about this, and I'm not sure I understand. SureFire makes battery carriers, bulbs, electronics, metal components, tape switches, holsters from several different materials. . .

They can't be making ALL of that in house, can they?

I mean, machining equipment is easy enough to understand, but you'd also have to have leather workers, high-pressure plastic molding equipment, electronic assembly, even miniature Italians blowing the glass for all those special bulbs. It is one thing to not outsource to China, but quite another to do all of those things on one piece of ground.

Scott

P.S. And, we all know that "made in the USA" does allow for quite a bit of leeway.

It would definitely make business sense to have outsourced some parts, especially the plastics and perhaps even some parts of the Pxx lamp assemblies like the reflectors which are awfully similar to the copies produced overseas but for the metal label placed on them.

beezaur said:

I was thinking about this, and I'm not sure I understand. SureFire makes battery carriers, bulbs, electronics, metal components, tape switches, holsters from several different materials. . .

They can't be making ALL of that in house, can they?

Click to expand...

SureFire seem to manufacturer in batches rather than a continuous stream of every single product.

The bulbs (but not the lamp assemblies) are made by a bulb manufacturer for SureFire - the majority of the bulb production is in a USA plant although sometimes in the past the bulb manufacturer had to use it's Mexico plant to meet demand.

SureFire specifically makes all it's own tape switches - I've seen them. PK is proud to be able to source practically everything from either inhouse or from American companies working and manufacturing in the USA.

Working with a scheduled batch system can mean having to wait quite a while for the next batch to be completed.

Typically I understand that SureFire's emphasis shifts to meet the demand of the US Military as a priority which can put the production & assembly of other models back.

Al

SureFire seem to manufacturer in batches rather than a continuous stream of every single product.

Click to expand...

I can understand this, as they can use one CNC machine to produce many different products with minimal changes to the tooling and setup. (IE. Only changed when the manufacturing batch is changed from one product to another.)

I guess part of their sales strategy is to steer customers to stocking dealers, which serve as an inventory buffer.