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In terms of bike manufacturing I know Taiwan seems to be the place with Giant, Maxway and the rest.
What about China though? I know there are manufacturers there, particularly carbon fibre but is it seen as lower quality? Is it cheaper?
Curious on perceptions etc.
A lot of China factories were started and are owned/run by Taiwanese.
I was at one of these on Friday last week - Chinese pricing but with Taiwanese development and QC.
Output depends more on the diligence/expertise of the factory rather than the location in my experience.
Thanks. So wholly possible to move from Taiwan to China, reduce cost, maintain quality?
Are you a product designer btw?
Taiwan factories generally deliver better quality product, China a better price. In my experience and a massive generalization the Taiwanese factories listen to process / design improvements the Chinese dont!
As Barn said a lot of the Taiwanese factories I deal with are expanding into China, Vietnam, Thailand. Taking their knowledge and utilizing the cheaper labour
As Barn said a lot of the Taiwanese factories I deal with are expanding into China, Vietnam, Thailand. Taking their knowledge and utilizing the cheaper labour
This is what I was wondering, specifically in relation to bikes.
I know a lot about manufacturing in China (I help companies outsource supply chain) but not in relation to bikes.
So, curious.
"Taiwan factories generally deliver better quality product, China a better price. In my experience and a massive generalization the Taiwanese factories listen to process / design improvements the Chinese dont!"
I'd agree, other countries are catching up with quality, e.g Sri-lanka and Bangladesh , but getting them to take improvements on board is quite tricky, they all nod, seem to be listening at the time and you go back 6 months later and you have to tell them the same things again and its usually silly and obvious things as opposed to major things, but it is getting better as each factory responds to their customers QC expectations, so every brand benefits in a way.
Strikes and long component leadtimes seem to be the bigger threat to the industry nowadays, the workers are now earning relatively good wages, $100 per month as opposed to $60 2 years ago, so there is seemingly an unwillingness to work overtime, weekends etc. Strange times!
Interesting blog post via twitter;
[url= http://shedfire.posterous.com/checking-china ]http://shedfire.posterous.com/checking-china[/url]
Yes saw that, will be interesting to see if Brant / On-One try to manage up quality standards and see if they can get a quality Chinese frame.
The cost savings were interesting - at half price worth the investment into quality I suspect.
wwaswas that really is behond belief and surely there must be a safety issue if this pile of crap is being sold in bike shops.
It was quite a surprise. But dissapointing.
It's the Chinese factory of a Taiwanese company too.
foxyboy - Member
wwaswas that really is behond belief and surely there must be a safety issue if this pile of crap is being sold in bike shops.
POSTED 28 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
You would be amazed which brands are out of where.
The key thing it indicates to me is that we have a brilliant partner in our trading company taking care of things for us which I'm very pleased about. And that I need to go out there more than the six times I have in the last year.
Find someone to do similar thing and manage quality/supply from China?