Axiom has two factories. One in Canada and one in Shanghai China. It should be noted that they actually own the factory in China, which is quite unusual and was a feat that took Ian a great amount of time and effort to accomplish. They make all the components at their factories, right down to the wire connectors. During our last customer counsel meeting, we discussed this and it was noted that Axiom does not advertise this fact and they should consider doing something in the future to explain it in more detail; as this thread shows, - people care about the subject.
Without going into a very long winded philosophical discussion regarding the concept of “quality”, in which my views mirror’s Robert Pirsig’s, quality of goods manufactured is most greatly influenced by the management and oversight of the facility and personnel performing the work. Just because a product is manufactured in China, does not necessarily mean that the product is, well…junk. Junk is manufactured right here in good ol’ North America too. Because Axiom does own the factory in China, they have control over the facility proper, including the environmental conditions, cleanliness, machining, etc. Ian spends a great deal of time at this factory as well. China’s boom in manufacturing the past decade has outpaced its ability to establish or adopt a globally recognize quality standard, such as ISO 9000. They will eventually and the price of goods will rise with it. But…that does not mean that you can’t buy a product made in China that does not have a very high level of quality. You just need to do your homework.
