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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