4 ms·

>they will do what they are told and they are usually told “make this as cheap as possible” by whoever is paying the bills It's more complicated than this. His

>they will do what they are told and they are usually told “make this as cheap as possible” by whoever is paying the bills It's more complicated than this. Historically, Chinese manufacturing has been notorious for quietly undermining the quality of the product to improve their margins over time, in a way that the commissioning brand doesn't notice. If a Chinese manufacturer quotes you a price too good to be true, they're probably quoting you at-cost and will build in their margin later, once the orders start flowing in.

epolanski 5mo ago
People should realize China is huge and manufactures one third of world's goods. You're going to have excellence and crap across such a gargantuan amount of production and companies, a high amount of variance.
- King-Aaron 5mo ago
  A really good example of this is the luxury watch market. China manufactures a heap of shitty knockoffs. They also manufacture a heap of the high end legitimate brand watches. And they manufacture some nice and obscenely expensive high end luxury watches.
- dumb1224 5mo ago
  High amount variance of quality is a daily reality and as any chinese consumer we are very used to that since the beginning of e-commerce. However there are multiple aspects to the quality feel. Production of high quality items is one thing (e.g one can do better QA etc), what I heard from some local car garages in China is that standardisation in the industry is still quite poor. E.g Parts to replace and bolts and nuts are not as standardised say as the German counter parts (purely from a mechanics point of view). Having said that a lot of German car suppliers are in China, and the German car manufacturing industry evolved over a significantly longer period of time.
  - handle584 5mo ago
    Also the enforcement of standardization is really poor, almost to the point nobody cares. Chinese manufacturers can make quality stuff and can be rather honest to work with once you show certain knowledge of the field, they will even tell you which products are to avoid.
snthd 5mo ago
"Quality fade". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quality_fade https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quality_fade
UltraSane 5mo ago
The most infamous example of this is hip implants made in China that had to be recalled due to being made wrong. This is also why Chinese structural steel is rarely used in North America and Europe.
- tw1984 5mo ago
  [flagged]
  - slaw 5mo ago
    EU has ASML, Airbus and their suppliers left.
    - tw1984 5mo ago
      the key component of ASML is invented and manufactured by the US, that is how the US can force ASML not to export its EUV machine to China. it is an American tech. Airbus is not the result of high tech manufacturing, it is the result of setting up regulations to stop others to join the competition. The entire EU is not capable of building any 5th gen fighter jet on its own, that is the best proof that its aerospace industry is about 20 years behind China's, same as the space industry.
      - speleding 5mo ago
        The US-made Ultra UV light source is important, but there is quite a bit more than that to a $380 million lithography machine. (Otherwise someone would have created a competitor by now.)
      - rbanffy 5mo ago
        > Airbus is not the result of high tech manufacturing I LOL'ed. > The entire EU is not capable of building any 5th gen fighter jet on its own Saab is, but there has been no need to develop 5th gen fighters if there are reliable international partners that can provide them. Recent development made it clear the US is no longer a reliable partner and the European aerospace industry is working on reducing the dependence on US equipment.
rasz 4mo ago
>Chinese manufacturing has been notorious for quietly undermining the quality of the product to improve their margins over time Famously Gemtek Technology (https://www.gemteks.com/en/about/about https://www.gemteks.com/en/about/about), Apples small obscure modem OEM at the time, when presented with contract to manufacture 1999 AirPort Wifi cards made first batch of complete duds because factory owner saw picofarad smd caps and decided it will be more profitable to for him to GLUE tiny plastic rectangles instead, after all picofarad is like nothing so nobody will tell the difference. https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102737980/ https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10273798...
- raven12345 4mo ago
  Gemtek’s headquarters is established in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
  - rasz 4mo ago
    Republic of what?

epolanski 5mo ago

People should realize China is huge and manufactures one third of world's goods. You're going to have excellence and crap across such a gargantuan amount of production and companies, a high amount of variance.

King-Aaron 5mo ago
A really good example of this is the luxury watch market. China manufactures a heap of shitty knockoffs. They also manufacture a heap of the high end legitimate brand watches. And they manufacture some nice and obscenely expensive high end luxury watches.
dumb1224 5mo ago
High amount variance of quality is a daily reality and as any chinese consumer we are very used to that since the beginning of e-commerce. However there are multiple aspects to the quality feel. Production of high quality items is one thing (e.g one can do better QA etc), what I heard from some local car garages in China is that standardisation in the industry is still quite poor. E.g Parts to replace and bolts and nuts are not as standardised say as the German counter parts (purely from a mechanics point of view). Having said that a lot of German car suppliers are in China, and the German car manufacturing industry evolved over a significantly longer period of time.
- handle584 5mo ago
  Also the enforcement of standardization is really poor, almost to the point nobody cares. Chinese manufacturers can make quality stuff and can be rather honest to work with once you show certain knowledge of the field, they will even tell you which products are to avoid.

snthd 5mo ago

"Quality fade". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quality_fade https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quality_fade

UltraSane 5mo ago

The most infamous example of this is hip implants made in China that had to be recalled due to being made wrong. This is also why Chinese structural steel is rarely used in North America and Europe.

tw1984 5mo ago
[flagged]
- slaw 5mo ago
  EU has ASML, Airbus and their suppliers left.
  - tw1984 5mo ago
    the key component of ASML is invented and manufactured by the US, that is how the US can force ASML not to export its EUV machine to China. it is an American tech. Airbus is not the result of high tech manufacturing, it is the result of setting up regulations to stop others to join the competition. The entire EU is not capable of building any 5th gen fighter jet on its own, that is the best proof that its aerospace industry is about 20 years behind China's, same as the space industry.
    - speleding 5mo ago
      The US-made Ultra UV light source is important, but there is quite a bit more than that to a $380 million lithography machine. (Otherwise someone would have created a competitor by now.)
    - rbanffy 5mo ago
      > Airbus is not the result of high tech manufacturing I LOL'ed. > The entire EU is not capable of building any 5th gen fighter jet on its own Saab is, but there has been no need to develop 5th gen fighters if there are reliable international partners that can provide them. Recent development made it clear the US is no longer a reliable partner and the European aerospace industry is working on reducing the dependence on US equipment.

rasz 4mo ago

>Chinese manufacturing has been notorious for quietly undermining the quality of the product to improve their margins over time Famously Gemtek Technology (https://www.gemteks.com/en/about/about https://www.gemteks.com/en/about/about), Apples small obscure modem OEM at the time, when presented with contract to manufacture 1999 AirPort Wifi cards made first batch of complete duds because factory owner saw picofarad smd caps and decided it will be more profitable to for him to GLUE tiny plastic rectangles instead, after all picofarad is like nothing so nobody will tell the difference. https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102737980/ https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10273798...

raven12345 4mo ago
Gemtek’s headquarters is established in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
- rasz 4mo ago
  Republic of what?