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Rough Guide to Outsourcing In China
zentec writes, "An article in Design News chronicles WiLife's outsourcing project to China (they make consumer surveillance cameras). It's a tale of a language barrier, misplaced EEPROMS, backyard engineering, incorrectly assembled parts, sloppy engineering, and flaring tempers. That, and an initial defect rate of nearly 80%." In the end WiLife seemed happy enough with their outsourced manufacturing. This is a nitty-gritty account of life under globalization.
With the apparent lack of quality control, seems that the job has to always be monitored. With all the extra time, you might as well send the work to a country that is a bit closer to the US/Western EU and get the job done right the first time. While worker-friendly countries also make mistakes; there is a better chance of getting it right with well-paid, US/Western EU workers than some country that treats its own Rust Belt worse than anything you would see done to the Appalachians or steel workers.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
When it comes to quality they know what they're doing, the management understand the value of getting it right. Of course by that I mean Japanese companies, rather than specifically japanese workers.
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http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/tophundred.html
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as long as Germany's Jews made cheap lamp shades for America, free trade apologists would be in favor of letting the Nazi's own all our debt and our jobs.
What with China's political purges (50 million dead there), harvesting of political prisoners (millions dead there) for body parts, the citizens slaughtering their baby girls (200 million dead there), China is in every POSSIBLE way worse than Nazi Germany.
Welcome to the world of globalism and free trade: for America to compete, we need to go back to the days of sweat shops, factories falling apart, workers being chopped to death by faulty machinery, superpollution, and collapsing mines...er, wait a minute...
Oh and before you neo cons say it, no, there isn't a new thing for misplaced workers to retrain for. Biotech is going offshore. Alternative energy is just going to replace traditional energy jobs. We're not going into a new era of explosive job growth - except, oh maybe the tourism, cashier, waiter and janitor industry. Got belhop hat?
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Having worked with many people from the area of Taiwan/China in engineering, I have found that many of them don't understand the concept of craftsmanship and maintainability. They're still building crap. I've talked to people who have worked with engineers from the former Soviet Bloc who are the same way. At a company I worked for, a Russian hardware engineering manager bought basically black market Broadcom ethernet PHYs which had some bad bugs. Broadcom also refused to support us because the chips were supposed to have been destroyed. I think Communism killed the concept of quality in these countries.
Right. So now that I accept that I'm in this global economy I would like to purchase my camera directly from China and cut out the R&D. Companies tell me all the time that this is for my benifit (or that they're going to have to lay people off). I want direct from the factory prices on my camera, laptop, G.I. Joe (with the kung-fu grip), etc.
5. You get to see your product knockoffs on the streets of Hong Kong that much faster because you just handed them your designs. They don't even have to spend the time to reverse engineer it.
We experience the same kind of issue with our foreign employees (consultants):
* Not very hard workers
* Always on a leave
* Snack and coffee every 30 minutes
* Think they know better than you
* Surf and chat most of the time rather than to improve their competency in the offering
* Request business class for a 8 hours flight because else this is too painful
* Most extended expense sheet you can imagine
By the way we are a German software company with an office in the US....
I should not reply to cowards but....
Is that really how you think? That the only measure of gain and loss is by examining each one of your interactions in isolation?
Anyway to answer your question...
Yes he won. I shopped there, his profits increased, my spendable income decreased, the money I could have earned in interest by saving that money decreased, the money I could have made by investing that money decreased.
He won, I lost. I lose everytime I pay interest, I win every time I make interest.
evil is as evil does
I suppose it depends on the specifics of "protectionism". I mean realistically, the whole cheap labor thing in the US has been made illegal for good reason. Child labor, sweat shops, and don't forget "company towns". All of these terribly unethical practices are illegal here stateside, but not illegal in many of the cheap offshore places...in fact, in quite a few that is what makes them cheap. I don't think we should ban offshoring, or even penalize it. I think we should just enforce standards on the companies wanting to offshore. You will make sure that your offshore business partners aren't doing the things that are illgal here or we nail you too. I mean after all...its ok to go after 'sex tourists' for going over seas and sleeping with kids because its legal there, why turn a blind eye to companies effectively engaging in the same types of quasilegal behavior just because they turn a buck doing it.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
I was in China for a training in Guangzhou and i wish to add/differ the following:
1. Hotels and restaurents are not that clean. McDonalds fries are the closest thing you get to clean cooked food. They prefer to just dump living animals in boiling water enough to kill them, not cook. This approach is not to our liking. And it smells horrible.
Hotels are aquariums, and you can see the waiter move to the next table with a live Lobster, put it in boiling water for a few seconds to kill it and then server it. The diners would cut up this live lobster while its writhing trying to escape and eat it off.
Enough to make you and me throw up.
2. Take enough ready-cooked food with you (Batchelor soup packets, noodles), etc.
Chinese food is NOT chinese take-away in US. You would be surprised at what they eat.
3. Take some mandarin language visiting cards of your Hotel address for Taxi. Taxi drivers can't speak or understand English and if you show the Mandarin card they will drop you exactly at Hotel. Else be prepared to spend about US$50 on taxi wandering alone.
4. USD is NOT universal currency here. RMB is their national currency, and they don;t accept USD at all sundry shops. Don't expect the Hotel to change your USD.
5. Banks do change USD to RMB but be prepared have official delays, lunch, etc., Be prepared to spend atleast 2 hours in changing money. If you are flying through HK, please change USD to RMB in HK itself. Saves lot of trouble.
6. Carry your passport ALL along. Be prepared to answer Police queries at any time. Address the cop respectfully unlike here. Loss of face is very important here and if you abuse or insult the cop, be prepared to have a very hard time. OTOH be respectful and bow as you hand over your passport, you can expect a quick wave over. Its not just arrogance, its their culture. You can argue respectfully, without being angry. If still having problems, ask for written orders from his superior. That will stop them in their tracks like anything.
7. Hand over cash/visiting cards with BOTH hands. This signifies respect. Expect the same.
8. Make sure your contact there is a high-ranking official who has subordinates reporting to him. That way you can be sure he would assign some subordinates to "guide" you around. These people are your only friends in China.
They would buy you lunch and dinner as they would be instructed. Do Not stop them and offer to pay as its an insult.
9. Bargain at electronic shops a lot and visit malls WITH a Mandarin-speaking local.
10. Do NOT think it is easier to rent and drive a car in China. Roads and highways in Guangzhou are very broad and much better than here, BUT the similarity ends there. The drivers are horrible and buses/trams/cars go at 60 mph inside city lanes. If you have the mentality of Genghis Khan, you can drive your own car.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer