估計您的風險，計劃，然後外購對中國
由理查・ Brubaker
最近我在責任公司上很多時間花費有當他們外購通過投資保證他們的供應鏈時正直在一個堅實質量管理過程，并且這最近導致一位社論作家華爾街日報送了我電子郵件至於為我的關於以下的評論：
「多數，如果不所有，我看了的覆蓋面在北京和華盛頓需要集中於角色管理者演奏清洗事。 但我懷疑錯過大角色為私人部門。「
「終究沒有很多西部公司源頭是否在中國有一個主要財政刺激強制執行管理者的質量標準獨立？ 他們必須在消費者眼裡保衛他們的品牌名譽在家，是？「
首先，我完全同意他最初的主張它是需要更多焦點從那些的行動在華盛頓和北京。 實際上給出主要決定製作商在採購是從私人部門，責任主要持票人在私人部門(即。 選擇外購)保證物品質量他們的那些人從中國，組分帶來或完成。 通過「保證質量」物品我不簡單地意味著他們看相當好，或者價格對質量區別是相同，但這些產品被生產，他們在美國。 并且被檢查，因為他們在美國。
With regard to the second question, the correlation between quality and brand is without a doubt positive all levels,and what is so interesting to witness is how many firms will add large amounts of risk (knowingly and unknowingly) to their brands when outsourcing. Luxury, midlevel, and low end brands all try to balance brand image, quality, and pricing at some levels, and there are thousands of brand managers spending billions of dollars every year to create brand identities that will lead to customer loyalty as the desired market segment. From the management/ operational standpoint though the decision to outsource to China is a seemingly pretty easy one:
China is low cost, we can save money, and someone needs to fly to China.
Yesterday!
There is no risk assessment or gut check.. WE NEED NEED TO GO TO CHINA TO STAY COMPETITIVE becomes the company mantra and the supplier identification process begins
With this time being the most critical, the logical steps that firms take should include: evaluating supplier capabilities, capacity, price, quality, pricing terms, value add services, etc., and all of these should be considered as part of any final decision. Additionally to this, firms SHOULD be making visits to any finalists and negotiating on site, asking for production samples, running smaller test order, and taking other measures to ensure that the supplier is living up to their promises. Following the successful identification of a supplier, and negotiations, production runs get underway and inspections take place to ensure the product meets specifications and that failure rates are at acceptable levels. If there is a problem, the buyer will have someone who can work through the issues and make the necessary adjustments..
These are the steps that they have taken in the United States in house when setting up their own supplier network there, and it should be expected that the same process would be followed (with more caution) when doing this in China right? After all, with all those news stories about bad products coming from china in the newspapers and shared over coffee at trade shows, one would think that companies would be more cautious right?
Wrong.
All too often, and the recent headlines are proof of this, low and mid-level manufacturers do not take one or many of the steps… For them, their market advantage is on price, and they look for short cuts… they look to save money… they look to cut out middle men of any sort… and do not recognize that by cutting corners on resources, materials, and processes they are essentially adding what can amount to a catastrophic amount of risk into the system.
The choice to move to China is a commercial decision that is made at various levels of management, and it is the role of these managers to ensure that the right supplier is chosen, that the supply chain produces a product no different than it would in their own factory, and that there are the systems and people in place to ensure that should anything go wrong, corrections can be made. Making spot checks, investigating supply lines, monitoring production samples, packing containers in house, performing multiple tests, etc are all views as expenses rather than investments, and as such many will choose to allow their supplier to “get the job done”. Short term, the company saves money, but what these decision makers have failed to understand is that long term they risk everything.
If nothing else, the recent cases show that one bad container can endanger not only one’s brand, but the very consumers who they have built trust with.
This really is a topic that will permeate the global supply chain as it has moved from a commercial issue to a political one. My goal in posting this is not to out any one company, but to highlight that more focus needs to be placed on how companies assess the risks and then take the appropriate steps. The companies that have ended up in the news saved money short term, but what is important to understand is that they not only outsourced their products, they outsourced their brand management, to their Chinese suppliers.
This is a post that will continue…
Richard Brubaker, All Roads Lead to China
September 17th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
This is good Richard..and definately on the mark.
I live and work in China in Zhejiang Province, Taizhou.. I teach advanced and intermediate business english to local clients. Mainly Chinese busnessmen trying to come to grips dealing with western companies - usually American. First basic question; how do I send reports and understand abreviated speech. Second question, how do I handle lead times and shipping information translated from local documentation..Theres a ton of questions. Your advise about short-cuts, definately need to take that on board..This place is not America and they don’t do business like America.!! Small peice of advise to pass on.. if your doing business here, get somebody on the ground here. Don’t expect to deal with it on the phone.. Good luck.. Dave Pearce 再见