Barato o de valor añadido
Por Richard Kaye
El error mucha gente hace cuando contratar fabricantes o los productos que compran a China es pensar barato. El precio coste-más bajo más bajo, descuento del descuento del descuento. Hay un alternativa y mucho mejor que los comerciantes no están explotando actualmente.
Por ejemplo deja la toma al par de zapatos. El casi 50% de todos los zapatos vendieron en el Reino Unido originan en China. Ahora los costes implicaron en la fabricación de un par de zapatos incluyen el coste de materiales, IE. el cuero, el coste de empaquetado, el coste… del alquiler de arriba clasifica el etc eléctrico, el coste del trabajo y de la gerencia y por supuesto el coste de envío. Sin embargo, piense en esto… que el aspecto de trabajo de los costes combinados es probablemente menos de el 10%.
Imagine tan un £10 por de los zapatos donde está menos el coste de trabajo que £1. Qué si usted dobló el coste de trabajo permisible y animó a gente que pasara dos veces el tiempo en producir un producto de una calidad perceptiblemente mejor. Imagínese que la gente de la artesanía y del orgullo admitiría su trabajo e imaginar su vuelta en la inversión para eso £1 adicional pasó. Más trabajo usted puede agregar a un producto manufacturado chino el más valor que usted puede agregar a los ojos del consumidor. China puede todavía no ser llena de artesanos y de artesanos finos, pero será un día mientras que este acercamiento llega a ser más frecuente. Las compañías comenzarán a invertir enorme en habilidades permitiendo a su mano de obra agregar la calidad que los consumidores occidentales valoran. La reputación de China como productor del bajo costo de productos producidos en serie cambiará a uno de una mano de obra enorme de los fabricantes altamente expertos de la calidad. Western luxury goods producers should beware and take action now and for those of you in highly skilled low volume production jobs, beware also as the move of manufacture of these products is inevitable.
A similar principle can be applied to almost any product currently manufactured in China. However the principle does not apply to western manufactured products where the labour aspect of costs can often be as high as 30%.
So whether buying or manufacturing in China the rule should be go for expensive, better produced, quality goods with a huge amount of added value. This is where your opportunity for profit will come from and is also likely to differentiate you from the many other operators in China who are still thinking Cheap.
Richard Kaye, For Sale in China
March 17th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Is there a formula you can apply to working out how much to spend on labour?
Is this something that can be taught, or something that can only be learnt?
Would be really interesting to see some real life examples…
Paul
March 18th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I agree. There’s far too much emphasis on just getting the job done these days. What happened to taking a pride in the workmanship of what we do or own? Would be nice to see things made to last again.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Definitely a different view to take on the whole situation, but I think the idea of products designed cheaply so that they’d break quickly (and for this to be considered acceptable by the general public) is probably one of the biggest success stories of the industry today, spending that extra £1 could mean losing a further £8 in a years time.
However it would be great for a few new players to come in and do things right again.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I guess most of European entrepreneurs expect Chinese labour to be dirt cheap, and most Chinese manufacturers know this is what we expect and fulfill our expectations. I wonder why nobody wants to aim higher…
March 20th, 2008 at 11:05 am
You make a very good point. I think the reason is many years of indoctrination and obedience has led to a propensity to acquiesce to others expectations.
An entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to surface among modern Chinese and this will gather pace quickly. As markets open and Chinese entrepreneurs become aware of the opportunities out there in the wider world, greed and desire, two important commodities in driving success, will prevail, expectations will rise, and this will filter through to the very structure of the current business establishment. The commercial world had better beware because this changing state is only years and not decades away.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Is there a formula you can apply to working out how much to spend on labour? Is this something that can be taught, or something that can only be learnt?
Yes. Absolutely yes! There are several formulas that can be used to calculate labour costs - what they are in terms of business profitability and what they should be to manage the business properly. You can use the same formulas in reverse to calculate a basis for what your labor costs “should be.”
Cost of Labor $
This is the total cost of labor.
Cost of Labor %
Here we divide the COL dollars into gross sales to achieve the COL percentage. Again we want to understand the percentage and total dollar amounts.
Cost of Labor Target of 25% with Variance in %
In this column we take the actual COL percentage against a targeted 25% COL (or goal). The actual COL percentage will change due to many variables such as, vacations, holidays and your shop’s labor efficiency.
Cost of Labor Target of 25% with Variance in $
You will want to understand not only the percentage variance but also the dollar variance. These numbers should be reviewed over a period of time to watch for trends.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Richard - I am an entrepreneur considering importing goods from China for sale in the UK. You seem to know your stuff (an excellent article) so is there any general advise you can give? I have also seen your website (www.forsaleinchina.co.uk) where you mention the importance of Guanxi. How important is this?
March 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
As a Chinese girl, I know the Guanxi is very important. Just for an example, you want to get a special license for exporting wood,then you know some right people in right dept of government, you don’t need to wait ten days to get but several hours. There is a saying in China,You have guanxi, you can make everything go smoothy.