CHINA FACTS
- Official Name
People's Republic of China
- Capital City Beijing
- Languages Chinese or
Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese),
others
- Official Currency
Yuan
- Religions Daoism
(Taoism), Buddhism, Muslim,
others
- Map
(click here)
- Population
1,274,000,000
- Land Area 9,326,410
sq km (3,600,927 sq miles)
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BUILD A
FACTORY IN CHINA? This may seem
like a crazy question, since you are
obviously looking to do something in
China or you wouldn't be at this Web
site. But what we here at Built In
China .com want to help you to
understand are some of the problems
you may encounter. We want you to
sit back and really look at what the
ramifications are in setting up a
factory on the other side of the
world.
Moving an entire factory to China is
not something to take lightly.
Before you even think of setting up
a factory in China you need to do
your homework. Take a detailed look
into the exact costs of your labor,
overhead and materials. Most
importantly, determine what systems
you currently have in place that
ensure you can produce a high
quality product, on time, at a set
cost. Do you have proper
manufacturing drawings, time to
build for each sub-assembly and main
assembly, material costs and the
labor component for each assembly
and sub-assembly? The biggest saving
in China will be labor. Do you
really know what your labor cost is?
One of the biggest areas that we see
people making mistakes in is the
fact that they have little or no
systems in the first place, or the
systems they have in place are not
refined or detailed enough. Don't
make the mistake of assuming your
Chinese partner will fix these
systems for you. Don't assume that
if a system works here you will
simply work out the details later.
This is a critical mistake that will
cost both you and your partner a
considerable amount of funds and
wasted time.
You have to realize that not only do
your systems have to be 100% in
place, but that they can easily be
converted to Chinese. For example:
- Do you have a step-by-step
process currently in place to
show a new employee how to build
or assemble a product?
- Do you have a quality
control system in place to
ensure that product works as
advertised?
- Does the quality control
procedures deal with defects and
what to do with them?
- Do you know exactly what the
cost of each individual part of
the assembly is?
- Do you know how much labor
is involved in each part of the
sub-assembly or main assembly?
- Do you know precisely what
your overhead cost is?
- Can all of these
procedures, and other
data easily be translated into
Chinese?
You will of course have Chinese
employees come to your country for
training at your factory, but if you
have no systems in place, you will
end up wasting an extraordinary
amount of time trying to train them.
You have to understand even when you
have these employees in your
factory, they will most likely do a
good job at learning how to assemble
while you are there holding their
hand. But what happens when you have
sent them back to China and they
encounter problems? Have you set up
a system to deal with it? You have
to understand, even the most highly
intelligent person will be able to
assemble anything while you are
standing next to them to offer
support. You can't expect anyone to
remember every detail or procedure
to assemble each product. They need
to have back up support like
assembly drawings or step-by-step
procedures.
Besides all of this, you are
communicating in a different
language, and what might seem like
an easy procedure to you in your
language, might be very difficult
for someone to understand in another
language.
What we have described here might
seem very basic, but we guarantee
you is the number one problem we
encounter. Ask yourself, do I have
all the systems in place to take a
guy off the street and train him in
a matter of weeks how to assemble,
do quality control, and make my
product quickly in the most cost
effective way? Do I need engineers
trained in very specific areas, and
can I train them as well? If you
cannot answer these and the other
questions on this page, then do not
move your assembly to China. Find
someone in China to build it for
you.
This where our experience at Built
In China .com will help you. If you
have decided you want to move
everything to China, we will first
talk to you on the phone and see if
this is really something for your
company. Maybe to get your feet
wet, you can try and get just one
product manufactured in China, and
if this works well, then another and
another. Then maybe you will have a
better feeling if you should switch
all manufacturing to China.
Please send us an
e-mail or
call us directly and we will be
happy to have someone walk you
through the procedures of setting up
a factory.
