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Chinese Manufacturing, Part 1: Getting It Wrong
Capitalism says that competition will yield the best results for consumers. I like that concept and can get behind it, even at the expense of my own country, the U.S., since playing that game well is what made the U.S. successful to begin with. If a developing nation like China can manufacture goods superior to American goods at a cheaper price, the market should reward them. What bothers me is when an organization can succeed by making shoddy goods at a cheaper price and still be rewarded.
Pictured up top are three spoked balance wheels that fit on vintage and antique Singer sewing machines. One was made in America circa 1900. Another was made in America circa 1920. The third is a replica manufactured in China in the 2000s.
All three are made from cast iron and intended to be heavy, as they serve a flywheel purpose and need to be weighty enough to store momentum. All three are made the same way: They're sand cast in a foundry, and a hole is subsequently machined into the center, as the wheels are intended to fit onto a spindle on the rear of a sewing machine.
A thin, leather (or these days, rubber) belt is then placed into a groove on the inner surface of the handwheel. The belt is driven by a foot-powered treadle and the handwheel rotates, driving the shaft.
A cursory examination of the Chinese replica features several glaring flaws.
The edges are sharp, including the parts meant to interface with human fingers, and the paint is badly bubbled, with a sandy quality.
More importantly, the hole has been bored well off-center.
This means that when you place the handwheel on the spindle, it spins with a wobble. At each rotation, then, the stress placed on the leather belt increases and decreases accordingly, leading to uneven wear.
In contrast, the American-made Simanco (Singer Manufacturing Company) wheels from the early 1900s are smooth-surfaced, with rounded edges on the spokes and smooth, even paint jobs that, though slightly dulled by time, have lasted a century. And crucially, the hole has been bored dead-center.
When either of the Simanco handwheels rotate on the spindle, there's no observable wobble or eccentricity in their rotation. From a functional standpoint they are perfect.
It seems ludicrous to me that a company using machines designed 100 years ago could manufacture something of superior quality to a 21st-Century factory, but that's the reality for this particular product. The Chinese factory that makes these has no competition and no incentive to get it right; there is no American manufacturer who can produce these handwheels, whether flawed or perfect, and turn a profit.
My initial knee-jerk reaction is to avoid Chinese-made goods altogether, drawing the simplistic conclusion that Chinese factories are just no good. As we'll see in the next two parts of this series, the full story is a bit more complicated.
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we are interested in these items.so you are requested to please send us specifications alon with price list.
I don't think the author intended some kind of anti-chinese statement. I think he's pointing out that goods used to be manufactured in the same economic community in which they would be used. Now people think that's impossible.
Except in reality, competition has all sorts of benefits, unless you weren't taught as a child that it's OK to lose, so long as you find the opportunity to better yourself. That's how things get better you know - through competition. If there was no incentive to achieve, why achieve? Some people are driven to do so, most are not. Who pays for those who do not seek success? The achievers.
Sorry, but you'll have to find your free meal someplace else (like China.)
This author has a serious US vs THEM war mentality going. The Chinese are NOT thems, they (those we) are part of us. Those us's are us's who are located on a different part of OUR planet. US vs THEM crap is an old outdated capitalism competing disease... and is done and gone. Author... are the people on the other side of YOUR yard fence... US's or THEM's? I bet you think of those us's as THEMS instead of thinking of those us's as US.
Programmed. Sad. Oh well. Not everyone understands how cooperation is healthy and competition is unhealthy. The awakening comes at different speeds for different us's.
When they're only willing to pay less and less for products"
Maybe they can only *afford* to pay less and less because all the good manufacturing jobs are gone, and everyone who isn't an "information worker" has to work in the service industry now. It's all connected.
To illustrate, I would be happy to make you a high quality flywheel I estimate it will cost you $8,500, the disconnect is, you are not prepared to pay for the quality, but you expect it to be there in the cheaper price. If you were prepared to pay for the quality, someone needier than me would probably say $8,500 what are you thinking I'll do it for $6,000. And so on until you find someone who will do it for $30 (all risks included) and that is amassing.
The Chinese company stays in business doing it because most vintage Singer sewing machines are used for decoration anyway, if you wanted to actually do sowing on a productive scale you'd go out and get a new machine, hell I'll give away a 1970s Singer to anyone who will pick it up. It may not be as skookum as the 1900 model but it is a darn side more practical, it is electric and uses standard parts.
As consumers we are basing value on relative purchasing power. That purchasing power is in turn based on amassing technology and innovation that leverages industry's production power. I am in the middle of reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and to draw an analogy from a 14th century peasant farmer, If he worked hard he could produce enough food to support himself and a wife and pay 10% in produce to his land lord. Today a single farmer through leveraged technology can produce enough calories to feed 10,000 people. (I am glad he isn't using a 1900's plow) In tern of the 14th century peasant farmer to afford anything he didn't make himself he would have to produce more than he needs to be able to feed someone who would provide other goods. Given the modem farmer could feed 10,000 people, the work from of those 10,000 people then works its way through the economy providing all other needs. The bottom line is there isn't a need for high quality flywheels, which justifies all the necessary work to make it. (if you go to the factory where it was made you will see the guy who made it is not a crafts person, he is the equivalent to the first or second generation farmer of the 14th century, leaving a life of subsistence farming.)
No offence meant by the post. As a Designer, almost everyone I interact with forgets, Designers are not a crafts people or hobby artist, Industry Designers are not over paid and yet there services are not affordable to the average executive who wants to make a new type of toothbrush holder for their designer bathroom. I live a very frugal existence but still consumers of design service think they should cost less. The bottom line is you get what you are prepared to pay for. In your case you need a huge market to justify the investment to make it at a reasonable price.
Unfortunately the guy working in the foundry probably can hardly see the difference, and the same is true the things that are important to him, you may think of as insignificant. (to illustrate: I think of a $1.12 sample as the cost of doing business, but the guy in China insisted a pay for a $1.12 sample despite the transfer fees being $50 and the shipping on top of that. To me it was infuriating, to him it was a day's wage)
Or you could go down to Walmart and get a whole new sewing machine for $50 - or better yet, hire a tailor for a couple hundred and get even better quality cheaper!
They should be ashamed to sell such poorly made products. Where does the feedback loop start? Consumers? Distributors? Manuafacturers?
When they're only willing to pay less and less for products, it's no surprise that the average quality decreases due to price competition.
I think cost also plays an important factor over here. Walk into any departmental store and you can find a hammer without any grip which is cheaper and not easy to use; and at the same time there will be a piece which is all thought about, yet expensive. Chances are that both of them were made in the same place and may be by the same organization !
Like the person before me said, there's crappy stuff made in the US, Canada, Europe, you name it. As well as there is top quality products manufactured in Asian countries.
I mean, haven't you seen any Apple products? I believe all are manufactured in China.
Also, what did you expect from a replica manufacturing company?
I think it's the consumer mentality to expect to buy a lot of crap for cheap. (Walmart anyone?) Naturally retailers support that kind of behavior. But consumers are growing up today with the attitude that it's OK for things to break after a single season's use. They don't realize that it wasn't long ago that things were made to last, and they don't know to demand more of their consumer goods. Unfortunately this trend just yields a lot of wasted energy and landfill. (Plus it's just a really pathetic reflection on the state of our culture).
Often times as consumers we aren't given a choice to buy quality. (I realize this is mainly an aspect of WHERE we shop). But in cases like this, as the author pointed out, it's not like there are a lot of companies making this replacement part. Sometimes we're stuck.
Maybe that's why all these 'watch-them-make-it' videos of well-crafted products are cropping up more and more. I find them absolutely seductive. It's a kind of counter movement in response to this situation.
My wife and I are all about doing more with less: fixing things when they break, buying used. And when we need to buy something new -- pay for quality.
(just my thoughts)
It's not as clear cut as China-made = "crap" and US-made = "excellent". That's getting nationalistic and it's an over-simplified rush to judgement, as noted in the end of the article.
I've seen plenty of shoddy garbage made in this country (USA), including front bicycle sprockets where the spindle's bore hole was out of concentricity by a wide margin.
If a part comes out of a manufacturer and it is poorly made (regardless of the plant's location), then the blame rests with the design and engineering staff who chose not to reject the part, and/or ignored searching out a more suitable factory for production.
You could make an awesome sewing machine flywheel in Antarctica if you were given the right equipment, technical know-how, and manufacturing constraints.