Something that I've noticed on the new board so far has had me wanting to put my 2 cents worth in...
Chinese scopes, Chinese rifles, all of these coming into Canada and the rest of the world seem to vary across the spectrum from high quality (think Apple) to diamonds in the rough (think QB and Industry Brand airguns) to absolute mung.
From a manufacturing standpoint, China is all over the map regarding quality. When they do things well, they do them very well... Internally, their manufacturing is actually very good. For export is a different matter. One of the reasons major vendors have a better time with Chinese manufacturing QC is that it's in the contracts. If a Chinese company gets reported to the government for not abiding by a foreign contract, the penalties are harsh. On a personal level. (Jail time for example...) If the companies cheat the government, heads roll. Literally. The Powdered Milk scandal is a good example of the government meting out punishments.
If a company like Bushnell wants 100,000 scopes, the manufacturer makes 250,000. 50K are likely scrap and are refurbed. 100K are sent to Bushnell after they pass QC... The last 100K which have already been QC'd tend to be rebranded and sold under other names. Different silkscreen, same part. Just watch out for the refurbs. If it makes money, they'll do it.
What people here don't grasp easily is that labour in China is cheap. I don't mean minimum wage cheap, I'm talking human ottoman for your feet with a pair of hands holding your drink cheap. With 1.3 BILLION people and a low cost of living, it is easy to replace a skilled worker. Here in NA, we don't have the numbers of people, and so, as a commodity, labour costs are astronomical in comparison. We compensate with specialized labour and machinery, but for the most part, you can train anyone to do almost anything... Whether they can do it well is another matter.
What we do here by specialized machinery can be compensated for by sheer masses of humanity. A company in China typically cannot afford the startup machinery that people here can (if only barely). So, they turn to human labour - which is a rather diverse and capable machine. Eventually, when a company in China raises enough capital, they can start to replace manual labour with machines and expand operations for larger profits. The point though, is that startup costs are very low compared to here.
Below is a playing card factory. This group of people cost less in the short run than buying a card packing machine.
In a case like this, the company will likely evolve into packing machines when they can generate sufficient capital...
Compare and contrast with Bicycle...
Below is an example of a stamping shop from over 4 years ago.
And contrast with this...
And how about this...
It costs more to redesign and rebuild the die and add the necessary automation than it does to use 6 men sitting in wooden chairs.
Eventually, the cost of living and labour and wages will rise in China. It is already happening. In time, what will happen is the cost to manufacture and ship here to NA will reach a tipping point... And manufacturing will move somewhere else yet again.
The great negative is that manufacturing here is taking it on the chin. When a fabrication company here cannot pay the bills, all the expensive hardware they had to pony up the cash for at startup, and couldn't pay for, goes on the auction block. Banks take a hit, rates go up, jobs are lost, manufacturing costs go up because there are fewer shops to do the fabrication... We've seen what happens.
Canada is being pushed by government into a service oriented economy. Services are cheap, and have little in the way of startup costs. Manufacturing is expensive - lots of hardware is required because labour is expensive.
Recently, the government of Ontario was surprised that there were almost no Tool and Die Makers graduating. In fact, for a couple years, there were no courses being offered at all due to government belief that we didn't need any because all those jobs were in other countries... So funding was cut. St Clair College had an awesome facility for Manufacturing and training. They filled it, promoted it, had the most advanced manufacturing training facility in Ontario, if not Canada...Then, they shut it down and sold all the machines. Now, the government is scrambling because perhaps they realize how critical a shortage they have.
Tool and Die Apprenticeship programs used to have 40 students at a time, three times a year. My graduating class had 7. The only reason my class actually ran was because I signed up at the last minute. The class itself had been postponed at least 8 months due to insufficient numbers, and there is little hope that the college I attended will run another LV3 Academic portion of the Apprenticeship program any time soon.
We don't see cobblers or farriers anymore. There are some, but they are few and far between. My point to this whole show is that ultimately, the skills of a Tradesman are becoming rarer and rarer. If anyone here has the interest, they should look into the trades, if only for a hobby.
Quality, accuracy and precision take time. I firmly believe that China will eventually get there across the board. They will evolve like Japan did from the end of the Second World War... But first, they have to have competition (which will happen sooner or later) and there must be a demand for said quality.
Cheers!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by maecolis
