Why Hardware Development Takes Longer in the West Than in China (Video)

This was originally going to be a second video about the Popup Factory Demo we talked about last Wednesday. But this section of Tim's lengthy interview with people from the Popup Factory seemed like it would be of broader interest to Slashdot people -- and your coworkers, bosses, and friends who may be involved in device production or prototyping. There are some hard words here, because David Cranor is talking about problems that go way beyond the usual perceived Chinese advantages such as low labor costs and a lack of environmental regulations.

Comments

tl dr

[netsavior]

It takes longer in the west because you have to pay your workers, pay attention to environmental impact, and provide for at least minimal worker safety. Yeah, but I am sure co-location is a huge win, way bigger than free-ish labor, and no accountability.

Re:tl dr

[tnk1]

That is starting to change.

China has been very canny about how they do things. Their deals generally are done in such a way as to make sure their own people get not only licenses to build products, but also that their own people are trained how to make them, and the factories are built in China.

Yes, they're playing copycat and have been for decades, but they're also amassing actual experience which they are starting to use to build some new things.

This is where we will see if China can move forward while maintaining its particular brand of not-Communism and top-down rule by a Party elite. If someone else is giving you the plans and training you can build anything. If you have to be creative and think outside of the box, that could cause issues for a country where the centre wants to maintain control.

The Chinese, like any other humans, have the capability to succeed and be creative and not just be copycats. The only reason they would not be would be due to either their government or culture, or both. If they can do all of that in spite of those things, then you may find Western democracy might be given a run for its money on its own turf.

Re:tl dr

[epyT-R]

Also, quality takes time.

Re:tl dr

[Darinbob]

There's not much control from the center in practice. The local party bosses tend to be given completely free reign, until there's a scandal or someone dies. Laws are broken left and right. It's top-down rule in name only, except before any internationally visible event.

Because

[sexconker]

Because the west isn't concerned about whatever the business does, the west is concerned about the business of being a business.

Everything from politics to marketing to "corporate culture" are all ancillary bullshit that has nothing to do with getting anything done, yet this bullshit mires every single western business. If you want to make and sell Product Z, but marketing is saying you can't do that because it will cannibalize Product Y or doesn't mesh with the new branding, or HR says you need to wait to get a more "diverse" pool of people working on it, or the PHBs are stifling it because they want the middle manager involved to fail so they can kick their ass out on the curb you're not going to get shit done.

Re:Because

[drooling-dog]

For the most part, corporate executives are schooled in business, not engineering. They know planning, reorganizing, finance, merging and acquiring, and (maybe) marketing. Their path to success is through doing those things. Initiatives that originate among the engineers have a long wait to see the light of day -if they ever do - because they first have to be championed by one of the aforementioned executives. That's why innovation in larger companies is done by acquiring products and technology from the outside, and usually not by developing ideas from within. The silver lining is that it creates opportunity for smaller companies that are more focused on their customers' needs and the technologies for satisfying them.

no duh

[FranTaylor]

If you're in Shenzen you can take a walk and pick up all the components you need for your prototype project in the morning and assemble them in the afternoon.

Here in the US we have to order the components from china and it takes weeks to months.

Re:no duh

[MountainLogic]

If you're in Shenzhen you can take a walk and pick up all the components you need for your prototype project in the morning and assemble them in the afternoon.

The poster is more right on than the off hand language might suggest. Working with Chinese vendors has taught me that they are business people first and engineers second. Just the opposite of most US start-ups. Several times I have been chatting with a Taiwanese/mainland vendors, when I incidentally mention a design/manufacturing/supply problem only to have them say that they have a [brother|cousin|friend|associate] who can sell me a solution. While I've often found that these referrals were off the mark or just a ploy to get a commission they have taught me that in China folks do build and maintain relationships. In the US there is a whole industry of head hunters just to get resumes to HR departments because far too many US engineers fail to build those networks to keep themselves employed. Conversely, there are places where China fails miserable. Theses weak points include design innovation, marketing, prototyping and importing (importing into China - good luck getting parts/tools quickly through customs and into China). A number of times I've seen Chinese contract manufacturers ask US customers to supply partial or full prototype parts for pilot production runs because they lack the infrastructure to work in short runs nearly as fast as a US company can have made in the US. Shenzhen and Taiwan are indeed unique manufacturing clusters much as San Jose is for development and Detroit used to be for automotive. The US need to nurture and regrow our manufacturing base to remake our manufacturing clusters.

Colocation

[gringer]

Why does this video spend 5 minutes saying fluff, when it could have been explained in a single word, "colocation". In fact, this was used in the first 20 seconds.