I was reading today about the many reports of Chinese companies ‘thrifting’ in materials, coatings and platings, more so when they occur on interior surfaces, on in internal components, where testing is more difficult.
The PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) and APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) cascades down the part and commodity chain, production values are problematic in some Chinese companies
On average, it takes China 17 separate parties to produce a product that would take us three. Unlike Japan in the 1980s, little companies drive China’s economic growth, not big ones. China’s industries are composed of hundreds of thousands of tiny factories and farms — plus traders, brokers, haulers and agents, all of whom take control of the goods and materials but add little value to the product. With every additional player in the chain, the cost, risk and time grow. Effective quality control in this environment is difficult.
So is effective cost control. Despite cheap labor, making goods in China is often more expensive than in the U.S. Far from being a bottomless ATM of cheap consumer goods, China is a risky, costly and time-consuming place to do business.
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