This article is composed by Sino SCM Expert. With many years of working experience in procurement solutions for factories of famous German companies in China, we'd like to start with a different perspective for discussion and hopefully make some efforts to bridge the barrier of understanding and learning between two cultures in manufacturing, how do you think of the difference between Made-in-China and Made-in-Germany ? Please take your time with this blog.
Because of China's relatively inexpensive labor force and its potential as an emerging market, more and more foreign companies are sourcing parts in China and even moving the product line to China. It includes actually also many German companies.
From our experiences, the multinational enterprise takes a global approach to foreign markets and production. For example with two famous German enterprises their European factories are using parts from China, although the finished product will be made in Germany or made in US. At the same time, many of the German-owned brands made in China, still have good quality and market reputation. A fact is that some imported cars which are sold in Chinese market, the inside of the sheet metal and machining parts probably produced in China. All the more so for domestic market but foreign-branded cars.
Regardless of the design factor, purely from the perspective of manufacturing capability, there is no huge difference between Chinese manufacturing and German manufacturing. We have contacted a lot of domestic manufacturers whose equipment are world-class brands and the latest models. Some China’s state-owned enterprises keep even high-end standard on machines, facilities etc. Compare to a handful of small manufacturing companies in Europe and the United States we had visited, the foreign owned equipment are relatively simple for purpose of cost saving, some production equipment are even in use after many years, however, the general maintenance is very good, polished shiny and no oil leakage or sewage flow out in operation.
China's economy has developed for decades which has trained a group of professional managers and highly skilled engineers. In the manufacturing companies we have contacted, the expensive and precision equipment is basically guaranteed to be used at full capacity. There are, of course, highly publicized 4.0 Industry, we have been visiting some demonstration enterprises in recent years, were impressed by the high level of automated stages in production. In fact, every manufacturer spares no effort in the investment of automation equipment.
From manufacturing capability point of view, Chinese manufacturing and German manufacturing which is superior to another? Actually both of which can compete with another. Where to produce, it’s subject to the market that is constantly optimizing the allocation of resources. We did a lot efforts in getting the resources allocation done for our customers which we must admit it was quite challenged.
The impression from many people on " made-in-china " stays a concept of being commodity on the shelves in the open markets. These relatively inferior products as an overflow in the market was constrained on development level of the country. The proportion of Chinese people who can enjoy the reliable quality from the product which is well-designed and expensive is still limited.
If you talk about the difference, for example you touch a door handle in the house, although beautifully designed, still have the possibility to be scuffing by the sharp edge and burr on the surface. Most of German factories are skilled in performing detailed process. This can lead to additional cost in production procedure in the end. In terms of application experience, there's obviously a big difference. Of course, if this question is replaced by how the "China design" to achieve the level of "German design", we fully agree with the question before your answer. This is some part related to the educational system and the culture of living environment.
Most German engineers carry on the work of their parents or grans, father or grandfather is mostly the predecessor of their career path which is very different to the Chinese new generations. Most Chinese professionals from today’s manufacturing industry are of 1980s, who encounter just new economic era in China and in the world. Most of the young Chinese people’s parents are poor and who are from the countryside with the work as farmers. They have limited education and experience to instruct the younger generation on career development, not to mention special techniques. It’s still common but not absolutely in China. From agriculture to industry, some new technologies are emerging, production efficiency has been greatly improved. We believe the situation that our next generation faces is completely different. The rich engineer community environment and the parents' occupation, will have the very deep influence to the next generation.
One of the emerging tech-enable companies like Xiao Mi, advocating the design of ‘ Temperature Sense ‘ who believes high quality technology doesn’t need to cost a fortune, from the product actual appearance the effect is already pretty good. When someone struggles with the combination of the Iphone 6 screen with the design border to get into one superfine hair, more mobile consumers in China need only a mobile phone with basic talk and simple functions of electronics entertainment, and the size of the indirect seam of the phone is completely irrelevant. But speaking about the sales price, the two mobile phones are really in big difference. Although Xiao Mi is well known as a cost-effective at one thousand RMB price mobile phone, the expense has already been a half month or one month salary of most manual workers in China.
Compared German manufacturing technical level and management ability with China’s, the differences are less and less. Whether Chinese designers can create more humanities of the design concept, and if more people can afford the extra cost of "a design in temperature sense" , is the question we should ask.