Final thoughts
Having never visited a computer chassis or cooler factory before it was impossible for my report to make informed comparisons with other manufacturer's facilities.
Nonetheless, I did come away impressed by several things.
First is the way that machinery is adapted to different products. This results in lower infrastructure costs - industrial machinery of this scale is never cheap, even if you can find it second-hand. It also allows Cooler Master to schedule in smaller job-lots, say for a limited-edition product.
There also seemed to be genuine concern for the workers' well being. We were told that health-and-safety items such as face-masks and ear-plugs are supplied to workers free of charge, something we were also assured is not the industry norm (presumably, in China).
I was genuinely impressed at the level of investment in quality-assurance equipment and test procedures.
A spend of over US$1 million at this one facility alone for such equipment is a clear sign that Cooler Master is striving to keep end-users and customers of all types happy.
And, as a user of the sorts of products that Cooler Master sells, I absolutely do want the comfort of knowing that the chassis and cooler products I buy won't arrive faulty or damaged and will keep on running once they're in use.
My tour of the factory produced insights into what it takes to create high-end CPU coolers and aluminium chassis for today's market-place.
It also brought personal reassurance that the more-expensive-than-average products carrying the Cooler Master brand are well built and likely to stand the test of time - even if they're not necessarily always the best in terms of performance or functionality.
