Home > Work > Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game
1 " Somewhere along the line, Made in China began to sound like a bargain. (...) When an importer told a retail buyer that an item was quoted at 65¢ and made in the USA, the buyer figured it could be purchased somewhere cheaper. When the same product was quoted at 65¢ and was said to have been made in China the buyer figured it could not be found for any less. "
― , Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game
2 " Zealots are rarely ever weakened by disbelievers; in fact, they are encouraged by them. "
3 " China manufacturing was a game played on a field without referees. "
4 " Appearance over substance was a cultural theme in China "
5 " They believed that the customer's exact wishes mattered only as far as they were necessary to capture the initial order. Beyond that, they figured, what an importer didn't know couldn't hurt it. "
6 " Many deals that initially seem too good to be true in China, like a low price, often end in tears and disappointment. "
7 " Chinese manufacturers did not think in a linear fashion; they saw business as multidimensional. Importers were thinking checkers, while manufacturers were playing chess. "
8 " He knew that the venture was not a success, but at the same time, he wouldn't admit that it was a failure. The venture at least gave him bragging rights back in New York and New Jersey. While the joint venture did not generate profit, he could tell everyone how wonderfully well things were going for him in the Far East. The result of such a pattern of behavior was that even more foreign companies were jumping onto the bandwagon. "If those guys can do it, then so can we," the competition would say to itself. "
9 " I had come to China to help foreigners get to the truth; it had never occurred to me that some of them might not want to know it. "
10 " China watchers were suggesting that quality would improve in time, and that as the country developed, there would be fewer problems. My own experiences suggested the opposite—that things were getting worse, if only because factory owners were picking up more tricks as they went along. "
11 " it didn't matter if a person was dishonest, just so long as you got what you wanted out of the deal. "
12 " I worked with these colorful characters. Never mind the entertainment value, these were lessons you didn't get in business school. This notion of a company knowingly putting out things to be stolen was a riot, though I didn't like the rest of the implication—that I was in some way naive. "
13 " Engineers knew precisely what each part should look like, and there was a small surprise when the supplier was found to be taking metal out of certain components. One key part that weighed about 48 kilograms was coming in at less than 90 percent of its intended weight. The factory had taken the weight reduction as a cost savings for itself and had passed only the resulting product risk on to Build "
14 " Manufacturers I worked with got away with whatever they wanted, and importers did not have the leverage to pressure their suppliers to behave in an ethical fashion. "
15 " Those who were in charge of buying at the retailers didn't like surprises, and if they discovered that we made changes without their prior approval, we were finished. "
16 " Supplier relationships were almost never better than they were at the very beginning. Manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their product, and at the same time, they found small ways in which to ratchet up prices in the short term. "
17 " Some said that the answer to China's quality challenge was to test more of its products. The problem with this solution—at least in health and beauty care—was that it was too expensive. For many product categories, Johnson Carter earned not even 10¢ per bottle. If there were 20,000 pieces in a 40-foot container, the importer might earn only $2,000 in profit, and then the laboratory wanted to charge more than $200 for each separate test that it might run. Testing just one bottle for the presence of five different toxic substances could run more than a thousand dollars. "
18 " Maybe it was just my changed perspective from having lived in China for so long, but it seemed that Chinese companies were more aggressive in engaging the broader world. In the United States, the growing trend was to ignore a rival when a better strategy might have been to take the threat of competition as a welcome challenge. There was something about China's economic rise in any event that was causing American companies to lose confidence. "
19 " In China, there was no penalty for getting caught in any production scheme. "
20 " Donald looked at some examples and noticed a logo on the back label of one of the bottles. It was a small outline of a rabbit and around the cartoon figure were the words: No Animal Testing. “That's good,” he said. “You don't test on animals.” It was a nice logo, and it was truthful. We didn't conduct any tests on animals. Then again, we didn't do any other testing either. King Chemical ran some basic checks to ensure the general stability of the formulation, but they were not the sort of rigorous tests that brought anyone any real comfort. We did not test for toxic chemicals or bacterial contamination, for example. The factory had just a small laboratory located in a back room. The equipment was basic. Most high school laboratories in the United States had equipment that was more up to date. In any case, no one was checking on the factory to ensure that it produced a quality product. "
