June, 2013
www.us-tech.com Production in China Still Provides Great Benefits By Peter Parts, President, Peter Parts Electronics, Ontario, NY
world and a location that has an important role for many businesses, but working with China can change almost every day. Keeping up with those changes is vital to achieving a successful manufac- turing operation in that country. The word “crisis,” written in Chinese, it is composed of two charac- ters: one of the characters represents danger and the other symbolizes opportunity! This representa- tion of the one word is an appropriate summary for the complexity of working in China: just as produc- tion in China seems to fit some plan or strategy, the rules for running a manufactur- ing operation will change and become more complicated. A great deal is changing within
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China in a relatively short time- frame. A middle class is growing quickly in China, especially along the coast from Beijing to Shenzhen, and high-rise housing continues to spread rapidly in that area. The large num- bers of construction cranes are evi- dence of the rising middle class in that area. Housing prices continue to rise, although not as fast as during the past few years. This growth in housing is not unique to just Shenzhen, but is taking place in all major cities throughout China. A goal shared by many Chinese is to own their own flat or apartment. On top of this, China is now the largest car market in the world: a traffic jam in Shanghai can make traffic on the Los Angeles freeway light in comparison. China is a rapidly growing consumer market. In China, the demand for imported products continues to increase, especially for products like clothing, music, movies, cowboy
A rising middle class
and rising housing prices all lead to rising costs of production, but it’s still possible to obtain super-high quality.
boots, and steak restaurants from the United States, wine from France, cars from Germany, and handmade products from Italy. In addition, these consumers are willing to pay for quality.
Keeping Pace Production facilities in China
are improving and have expanded to keep pace with growing consumer demands. Quality control (QC) rooms are growing in sophistication, expan - ding and improving their levels of incoming and outgoing inspection. The use of robotics on Chinese pro- duction lines is also growing. In one metal-stamping plant, for example, an entire line of workers had been replaced by robots. The factory man- ager at that facility proudly pointed to improvements in quality and repeatability from these production- line robots. Across the country, Chinese
component factories are improving the quality of their products, includ- ing such parts as electronic compo- nents, plastic parts, metal parts, and small custom assemblies. They face the challenges of convincing local Chinese manufacturers to use their
www.goepelusa.com
hina has been an important manufacturing location for this company, with an office in China since 1989. It is an active part of the
components, following thorough customer testing and approval, rather than bringing in parts from around the world. The pricing is more competitive for these local components, and lead times for com- ponent parts are dramatically reduced by procur- ing those parts from local Chinese suppliers. There is also a great deal more flexibility available in customizing these parts when specifying them from a local Chinese supplier.
Danger and Opportunity In terms of the “dangers” associated with the
A TFT LCD production line in China.
Chinese character for crisis, one might begin with Continued on page 53
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Optical Quality Assurance for THT Assemblies now available in the U.S.
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