Some of my friends wrote in about a previous post, ‘Biased Broadcasting Corporation’ saying that I was ignoring the fact of inferior Chinese quality.
I think they missed the point of that post. I was not denying that many Chinese products are very shoddy in quality. What I was trying to show was the one-sidedness of a telecast from a news corporation that has, or at least had, a reputation for balanced reporting. To devote 19 minutes of an approximately 25-minute news program to problems with Chinese-made toys in the U.S., when there were so many news stories of equal or more importance, seemed like a misplaced sense of priority. Or was it bias? Considering the spate in the number of recent reports on product quality from China, one could be forgiven for thinking that there is more to it than meets the eye.
Anyway, while there is no denying that many products coming out of China are of very poor quality, in some cases other people, not just the manufacturer, must share the blame for this.
While there are factories producing the ‘thirty-day wonder’ – if it lasts 30 days it’s a wonder – there are also factories producing top-of-the-range quality. Products coming out of these units are at par with anything elsewhere in the world. Even within the same factory the quality offered will depend on the price paid.
This is a fact ignored, or covered up, by China bashers and ignorant or biased journalists.
Many years ago when I was in business I made a trip to Australia to meet various buyers for my leather products. At one meeting with a big importer in Melbourne I was shown the product line that they were sourcing from China. The quality ranged from adequate to awful. Each item had ‘genuine leather’, or for additional snob value, vrai cuir or cuoio reale, embossed on it. The only genuine leather in each item was that particular part which carried the stamp. In most cases this was the most visible external component, while the rest of the product was made of imitation or synthetic leather. Often too, the leather portion was made from split, that part of the hide which is of poorest quality.
When I showed them samples of bags and small leather goods manufactured at my factory there was no reaction from some of the people in the room, while others remarked on the excellent quality. Then I gave them my prices and they were taken aback. I knew my products were being retailed at 10-15 times of what I was wholesaling them at.
They gave me sketches of a range that they would be running during Christmas that year and asked for samples and quotations. Weeks later we met again and they were very impressed both with quality and price. We waited for the boss, one of the persons who had shown no reaction at our first meeting, to arrive. When he came into the room he examined the goods and looked slyly at one of his assistants. He asked the prices and then told me that they were much too high. I knew that the price I was offering was at least a tenth of what they would eventually be retailed at but asked him what he thought the bags should cost.
He quoted prices that were 30% to 50% lower. I didn’t even bother to negotiate. I stood up, collected my samples and told him that he couldn’t afford my quality.
He tried to get back at me by saying that my prices were acceptable only for Italian products. I told him that I realised why quality manufacturers in India thought Australia, and the U.S., were the bottom end of the business.
That incident comes to mind nowadays when I read reports on ‘inferior’ Chinese quality.
The quality of products made in China depends on the prices that foreign buyers pay to the Chinese manufacturer.
Airbus and Boeing supposedly have Chinese suppliers for some aircraft parts. Surely they would not put passenger safety at risk by buying sub-standard components. I’ve just purchased an expensive iPod made in China. I’m sure Apple didn’t pay peanuts for that quality.
When many manufacturers closed down their factories in other countries and moved production to China, they did so to cut costs. Did they pass on those lower costs to the consumer? And in cutting costs did they turn a blind eye to cutting corners?
And what of the others who are culpable for the poor quality coming out of some Chinese factories. Most foreign buyers maintain well-to-highly paid quality control inspectors on site. In most cases to avoid compromise and corruption these inspectors are non-locals. Why weren’t they doing their job?
There are also other reasons when buyers accuse manufacturers of poor quality. Some of them are: products ordered have not clicked in the marketplace; competitors have similar products at lower prices; and the worst of all, trying to squeeze extra discounts from desperate suppliers with cash flow problems who are already operating on wafer-thin margins.
COMMENTS
Jan
Once again Aaron..you have hit the nail on the head!
The buzz words in industry and commerce are now “downsizing”, “shareholder value”, profit maximizing”, just to name a few. The consumer / end-user does not even feature in this equation, except as a stupid consumer, tricked via “clever” marketing and “swanky” advertising into buying sub-standard products at a premium price.
China is currently in “focus” because of basic US fear that their entire manufacturing industry has slowly but steadily been relocated abroad – Mexico, China, India and even an erstwhile “enemy”…Vietnam.
As ABBA sang money, money, money….
PS Let’s just hope that these sub-standard Boeing parts aren’t installed in any planes that I board!
PPS Well argued and written…keep up the good work!
Jansan
Peter
I agree Percy. People like Apple for example are producing all their products in China because it’s cheaper, but, they also insist the best top quality. I guess Mr. Job’s is paying the Chinese for their experience at making quality goods???? He makes a point of telling the press this when he is being bashed by the press for getting Apple’s products made in China. I must say that the Chinese can produce top quality goods if they are paid good money. It is a human fact of life – if you are paid well you produce better quality.
Good posting Percy. Keep it up.
Peter Markham
Peter
For all your readers out there, a “must read” book…
The State of the American Empire – How the USA Shapes the World, by Stephen Burman
(University of California Press, Myriad Editions, 2007)
Deals basically with “the militarisation and economic subjugation of the global community and its commodification by corporate governance and by the American government.”
Jansan
© Percy Aaron
Wow Laos 