It's interesting to put the post about MBAs right after the post about China
not being as cheap as we think.
We do purchase parts, boards, assembly from China, and for the most part, it
is cost efffective. As long as you spend the effort (and $$) to use the right
vendors and keep the pressure on, quality isn't bad.
But our MBAs also had a great idea to take advantage of the low labor rates
for engineering. The per hour cost in our China R&D group is a little less than
half our cost in the US. Instant cost saving!
Now to the practical applications Joyce mentioned. Tech in china is so new,
there is no experience available. This is especially noticeable in PCB design,
where there are not many college level courses, knowledge is gained through
experience and continuing education. There is so much opportunity, turnover
is high.
So, for a job that might have taken me 40 hours, I spend about 10 hours
getting them started and providing guidance, they spend 60 hours doing the
work, then another 10 of my hours and 20 of theirs correcting errors. When
we're all done, we get a lower quality job. That's 2x those 1/2 rate hours,
plus 20 of my full rate hours, and lower quality to boot!
One of our (former) Chinese Engineers had a very interesting insight a while
back. He sees two distinct societies in China. The older generation, the
agrarian society, who are conditioned to think and act as they are told. The
younger generation, the techno-boomers, who seek personal gain, have
learned to question everything - including their government, and take
advantage of every opportunity, often in the less than legal way their
government understands business. His thought was that there will be massive
societal changes as more of the agrarian sector dies off. Too much too fast.
We used to outsource software to India. Now they charge a higher hourly
rate than in the US. And good for them, their standard of living is drastically
improved!
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