中国企业如何改善他们的产品质量?
What Can Chinese Companies do to improve their quality?
这是许多人强烈推荐让我发表意见的话题之一。这是一个非常热门的话题,我们甚至可以在接下来6个月的时间内去讨论它,但是在这里我为大家分享一个非常棒的例子,从而对这个话题做一个概述。
几年前,当我还在美国生活的时候,我在我们总公司的一个石材分公司工作。那时有一个针对美国市场的销售计划需要采购非常大量规格为45cm×45cm的洞石。
墨西哥是全球洞石最大的出产国家之一,仅次于土耳其、伊朗等国家。在墨西哥,有两个主要的洞石产区,一个是在墨西哥北部,产量95%出口,另一个在南部地区,只有15%的产量出口。
北部地区生产的石材在外观、密度以及颜色上和南部出产的几乎是一样的,但是价格却差别很大!北部出产的产品至少比南部地区的高出25%,但北部地区还能够有95%出口量,而南部地区虽然拥有25%的价格优势,但只有15%的产品出口。所以我们不禁自问,为什么有这种事情发生?
于是我们去到那里寻找答案!我们在那里的所见所闻,绝对是我经理人职业生涯中所遇到非常有意义的事情之一:那就是有关产品质量的问题!
当我们在墨西哥南边的时候,这些产品的观感看起来是很好的,但是包装确很糟糕,而且没有打磨成斜角。
当我们要求这些公司去改进包装和材料斜角打磨的时候,我们得到了一个很奇怪的答案,这绝对是在很长时间内所听到的最奇怪的答案之一。他们对我们说,他们不愿意这样做是因为他们之前从来没有这样做过,没人会要求这样的事。于是我们问他们,他们一直都是以这种包装和处理来销售的?没有纸板保护,只在木框上放置一些碎片来垫着,粗糙地磨边甚至都没有打磨斜角。
这是他们奇怪的答案:
他们说:是的!当地市场并不要求这么做。他们不需要我们采用更好的包装以及打磨斜角,并且墨西哥城(世界最大城市之一)能够消费掉我们生产的大部分的产品或者说产能,我们真的没有出口的需要,而且这样会导致我们提高自己的标准,但现在的市场没这个需求。
这就为我们解释清楚了为什么他们在要求非常严格的、需要更好的包装和材料倒边的需求旺盛的美国市场只有15%的出口率。
哇!我们非常惊讶啊!
这个故事告诉我们,对于提高我们生产产品的质量,一个非常简单的出发点是:态度问题!我们是真的下了决心要去改善提高我们对产品的标准。
我觉得类似这样的某些情况同样发生在中国。这个国家的内需市场是如此的巨大!或许真的不太必要去将产品出口到一个质量要求与设计要求十分严格的市场,很多企业只是着眼于国内的市场。
一个最好的例子是现在的产品全部被导边。为什么大多数(至少99%)的公司只生产导边的产品而不是原边产品?
答案很简单:因为生产不规则边的产品比收边产品质量要求更严格,包括原材料控制、生产控制,等等。
当情况变得比一些企业面临的现实情况更严厉的时候,他们将面临作出不可避免的决定,是改变他们对待质量改进的态度,还是干脆关闭企业。
What Can Chinese Companies do to improve their quality?
This topic was one of the ones recommended to me to talk about. This is a very hot topic and one that we can discuss for the next 6 months but I am going to summarize it with one great example that I would like to share with you
A few years back when I was living in the USA and working for the stone division of our company we had the need to buy a dimensional stone (travertine) 45x45 cm in big quantities for the USA market for a national sales program
Mexico is one of the largest producers of travertine in the world after Countries like Turkey and Iran. In Mexico, there are two areas that produce this stone, one in the north of the country that exports 95% of what they produce and one in the south that only exports 15% of what they produce.
The stone from the North is almost the same as the south in appearance, density and color, but the pricing is very different. The one of the North is at least 25% higher price but nevertheless is exported 95% and the one from the south is only exported 15% of the time despite the fact of being 25% lower in price. So we asked ourselves why is this possible?
So we went there to find out! And what we saw and heard was one of the most interesting things that have happened to me in my career as a business manager, and it was all related to QUALITY!
When we were at the South plants in Mexico the product look good but was packed in a poor way and was not beveled.
When we requested the companie(s) to improve the packing and bevel the material we received one of the oddest answers we have ever received in a long time. They said to us that they would not like to do it because they have never done it before, that nobody ever demanded such thing. So we asked to them if they were selling it this way? With no cardboard protection and just on a wooden crate with loose pieces and just poorly rectified and not even beveled.
And this was their odd answer:
They said yes!, the local market does not demand that. They do not require us to pack it better or bevel the stone, besides our market in just Mexico City (One of the biggest cities in the world) consumes most of the stone we manufacture or most of the installed capacity of the stone producers and we really do not have the need to export and that would also make us improve our standards that are not needed in this market.
That explained clearly to us why they were exporting such a low % to a very demanding USA market that required much better packing and the material beveled.
Wow we were sooooo surprised!
Where I am going with this story is that in order to improve the quality of the products we make or in general it needs to start with one very simple thing: ATTITUDE! With us taking the decision of really improve our standards.
I feel that somewhat the same happens in China in some ways. The market in the Country is soooooooooo big that there is not a real big need to export to a more demanding quality and design market and most companies just focus on China.
One of the best examples is the material being all rectified. Why most (At least 99%) of the companies produce only rectified material and not non rectified material?
And the simple answer is: Because it is a lot more difficult to make non rectified products that demand a lot better quality control, raw material controls, process control, etc.
When things get tougher than they are now and the companies face the reality of the situation they will face the inevitable decision of changing their attitude towards quality improvement or simply close their business.
XIe Xie
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