Lexus: Made-in-China Qlty Is Not Good Enough

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wemay

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2...a-frets-quality

“There’s too much quality risk in China to produce there,” Takashi Yamamoto, executive vice president of Lexus International and an engineer who’s worked at Toyota for 33 years. The company also still has to improve the brand’s awareness and standing among consumers. “When that difficulty is gone, maybe local production is likely to be launched in China, maybe several decades later,” he said.
 
Originally Posted By: KGMtech
I think his opinion will be proved wrong in the next decade.


Good news for Lumber Liquidators.
 
Originally Posted By: KGMtech
I think his opinion will be proved wrong in the next decade.


The article goes on to say that very same thing. Lexus advising they will revisit the China option when they deem quality has improved.
 
I think the people at Toyota/Lexus know what they're talking about. It may be that they are tempering it a bit for public relations considerations. Inside the company they may be saying NFW.
 
Originally Posted By: KGMtech
I think his opinion will be proved wrong in the next decade.


LOL! I'm with Lexus in this case.

Q.
 
I wonder if the made in China lack of quality as far as Lexus is concerned is due to catering to their upscale better educated buyers?
 
With the Chinese this "quality" issue covers a lot of ground, indeed, in many cases, it is code for business-cultural problems.

I speak in terms of business practice, call it business integrity. It is not politic for the man from Toyota (or from a lot of other places) to say out loud that the simple fact is that the Chinese, by and large, can not be trusted to maintain practices that they say they will maintain.

You will have a business agreement with them today and it won't be interpreted the same way tomorrow. You can negotiate a contract until midnight, get an agreement down and then at 8AM the next morning the documents will have been changed to your detriment in hopes that you will miss the changes. Your proprietary processes will be passed along to their guanxi (their business and social network) to curry favor if not sold outright to some other company.

While agreeing to technical specifications drawn up by and agreed to by both parties there is a tendency to start short-cutting the quality process and production at the earliest convenient (to them) time.

And on and on. Will these shortcomings moderate over time? Maybe, even probably, but our man from Lexus knows what he's talking about. Until that "quality" issue changes, only send them you lower technology work and not your crown jewels.
 
I was talking to a Chinese guy at work a few years ago and was told that it was not unusual there to buy a knockoff locally made cell phone and have it break within two weeks...and, there was no question of returning it, you just bought another one. Of course, the things were dirt cheap.
I'm sure things are improving there, but people in China basically expect to be ripped off on locally made products.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi

I'm sure things are improving there, but people in China basically expect to be ripped off on locally made products.


If it's expected, then it's not really being ripped off
 
I remember as a kid hearing from everyone how "Made in Japan" equaled "cheap and poorly made." The Japanese learned; witness Lexus among others. It may take China a while.

It worries me that many of the future models of Buick (as I've read here) are apparently slated to be manufactured in China. The Regal/Insignia will have units made in Europe, and the LaCrosse will come out of the U.S., but others, like the Verano and its convertible variant the Cascada, are supposed to be made in China. Maybe it's time to grab a 2014 or '15 Regal while he grabbing is good.

ETA: Oops, no; the Cascada will be from Europe.
 
I think Toyota is more concerned with sharing their technology with the Chinese more than the quality. That's part of the deal when you want to open up the shop in China. You have to partner up with one of the state owned manufacturers and they take your technology, manufacturing processes, quality processes and other IP materials.
Most companies from the West have a false sense of security thinking that patent or IP protection laws will protect them. They will not, not in the Chinese market and not the companies owned by the state.

In essence we're giving them our knowledge and experience in exchange for the cheap labor and manufacturing costs and Toyota is fully aware of this fact.
 
Michelin has a factory in China.....

MICHELIN Group, one of the top Fortune 500 companies is the world leader in tire technology and innovation. Michelin has established more than 68 factories worldwide and its business covers more than 170 countries, has about 115,755 employees. With its fast business growth in China, Michelin has established two plants in Shanghai and Shenyang, a Research & Development Centre and head office in Shanghai as well as sales offices in Xian, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang, Shanghai and representative office in Hongkong since 1988. Till now, we count approximately 5500 employees in P.R.C.
http://www.michelin.com.cn/overseerecuiting/
 
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Japan and China do not have a good relationship, so I am not surprised by this.

There is no doubt China can manufacturer high quality products, it's just a matter of what is specified.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude

There is no doubt China can manufacturer high quality products, it's just a matter of what is specified.


I see your point and agree they have and will have more capability to build "quality" over time. But such statements reveal an erroneous attitude we too often hold. We assume everyone is just like us, adheres to acceptable standards and all backed up by clearly understood practices and law. Well it just ain't so. Read the above entries on business practices and see what far too often happens in reality. With China at this point in time it unfortunately is rarely ever "just a matter of what is specified".
 
Originally Posted By: DeepFriar
Originally Posted By: dishdude

There is no doubt China can manufacturer high quality products, it's just a matter of what is specified.


I see your point and agree they have and will have more capability to build "quality" over time. But such statements reveal an erroneous attitude we too often hold. We assume everyone is just like us, adheres to acceptable standards and all backed up by clearly understood practices and law. Well it just ain't so. Read the above entries on business practices and see what far too often happens in reality. With China at this point in time it unfortunately is rarely ever "just a matter of what is specified".


Exactly, I have seen many major brand products with supposedly high quality level requirements and guess what??? Even with that supervision the level of quality is just NOT there, and also the uniformity and consistency is far lower with everything made in China, the ethical bar for quality is far far lower than Japan.
 
Originally Posted By: wemay
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2...a-frets-quality

“There’s too much quality risk in China to produce there,” Takashi Yamamoto, executive vice president of Lexus International and an engineer who’s worked at Toyota for 33 years. The company also still has to improve the brand’s awareness and standing among consumers. “When that difficulty is gone, maybe local production is likely to be launched in China, maybe several decades later,” he said.


Toyota and Honda said the same thing about building cars in the US in the 80s. I think they may have something of a point here though; Chinese manufacturing seems to occasionally be quicker to take shortcuts.
 
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