When will I have a long tassel?

The Twigg factory manufactures small home appliances. The electronic components and some standard parts in the products are all outsourced parts. In the past, they were purchased globally. There is not much difference between shipping to China and shipping to Vietnam. Of course, Vietnam's port throughput capacity and customs clearance speed still lag behind China's, but they are still within a tolerable range.

In addition to purchased parts, the Twigg factory also needs to produce shells and some structural parts, as well as assemble the products. The shell is stamped, which involves the issue of stamping dies. The manufacturing of molds requires some special equipment. Of course, Twigg Factory cannot build a mold workshop by itself. The molds it uses have always been provided by professional mold factories.

When we were in China, there were dozens of professional mold factories in Ruigang City, where the Twigg factory is located, with very advanced equipment and many years of mold manufacturing experience. What kind of molds does the Twigg factory need? Just make a phone call and someone will come over immediately to understand the specific needs. At the fastest time, qualified molds can be sent to the production line within a few hours, which can be said to be almost seamlessly connected with the entire production process.

Because of this, Hensley never felt that molds were a problem worthy of concern. As long as he said "there must be molds" in the office, molds would appear in front of him.

Hansley was blinded when he came to Hou Ban Industrial Park. Not to mention in Houban, even in the whole of Vietnam, he could not find a few mold factories with high enough standards. To order a set of molds in Vietnam, the lead time is long enough for Hensley to build a new company to manufacture these molds.

With no choice, Hansley could only ask his production manager to contact the mold factory in Ruigang, China, and ask them to provide molds. Some molds that have been purchased in the past are just fine. The other party can produce them based on the original drawings. Some new product molds require engineers from the mold factory to come and measure them on site, which can be troublesome.

Not to mention the travel distance from China, the visa process alone will take several days. For a set of molds, manufacturers really don't want to spend this time. Of course, if Twigger is willing to pay several times the price, it is okay for someone to make a reluctant trip.

There are more than a dozen companies in the park that have the same mold needs as Twigg. Everyone appeals to Ruan De every day, asking Ruan De to introduce a mold company to provide services for everyone.

Ruan De studied for a long time and finally understood the necessity of a mold factory for an industrial park. Even if the mold factory is not within the park, it should at least be around the park to provide timely services to the park enterprises.

After understanding this, Ruan De arranged for someone to introduce a professional mold factory. Nguyen Duc cannot count on domestic mold factories in Vietnam, because mold production is in the upper reaches of the industrial chain. With Vietnam's industrialization level, it cannot reach this level. Ruan De is still targeting China.

The investment recruitment personnel sent by Ruan De encountered numerous difficulties in China. Those Chinese mold companies are not very interested in setting up factories in Vietnam. Their reason is that Vietnam's industrial scale is too small to meet the basic production requirements of mold companies.

Molds are consumables in the production process. A set of molds can produce tens of thousands of products, so companies do not replace molds frequently. The processing of precision molds requires the use of a variety of equipment, including casting, forging, cutting, and heat treatment. The investment for a complete set of equipment is very considerable.

Under a more specialized production system, mold factories will also outsource some production links and hand them over to more professional companies. For example, some mold factories do not produce mold blanks themselves, but hire specialized companies to complete the casting and forging process of the blanks, and only do the later cutting. This also requires a complete supporting system.

There are not many companies entering the Houban Industrial Park, and the demand for molds generated is very limited. However, the surrounding industrial park cannot provide supporting facilities related to mold manufacturing. Any mold company that wants to build a factory in Houban must invest a lot of money to establish a self-sufficient production system. The recovery of the funds will be a Huge problem.

In the end, Houban Industrial Park only introduced an inferior small mold factory from Jingnan. The reason why this factory was willing to come to Houban was that Ruan De agreed to a bunch of preferential conditions, such as tax exemption for several years, free land rent, preferential loans, etc. This factory, as Hansley said, is actually just an agency. It can make some simple molds on its own. For complex and high-end molds, it can only claim to go back to the "headquarters" to make them. In fact, I just went back to China to find other mold factories to place orders.

The good thing is that at least Hensley doesn't need to run back to China. Although the production equipment of this small mold factory is not very good, it still has mold production experience and can understand the specific requirements of each company for molds, thereby reducing the communication cost between the production company and the mold factory in China. It can be regarded as partially meeting the needs of various enterprises.

Molds are only one of the supporting issues involved in production, and there are countless similar issues. For example, if the production equipment breaks down and only one screw needs to be replaced, in the past, the maintenance workers in the factory would go to any shop on the street and buy a replacement screw, but in Hou Ban , this becomes a problem.

There are two standard parts stores in Houban Industrial Park, but the goods are extremely scarce. Most of the time, the parts needed by Twigg Factory cannot be purchased here. Of course, you can't buy it anywhere else either.

The owners of both standard parts stores are Chinese and their service attitude is very good. They told Hansley that because there were too few companies in the park and the demand for standard parts was small, they did not stock some relatively niche standard parts.

However, as long as the company puts forward specific specifications, they can order it from China immediately, and it will take only three to five days to ship it.

What, waiting for use on the machine, can't wait even a day?

Oops, aren't you in Vietnam now? You can't always look at things from the perspective of when you were in China.

It doesn't matter if the machine lies down for a few days. The worst it can do is delay production for a few days. Labor costs in Vietnam are so cheap. Even if you pay workers for a few days in vain, you won't lose much money, right?

Also, if you want to order from China, the price is also an issue. You have to add some shipping cost, right? 100 yuan for a screw is not expensive, right? Calculate how much it will cost just to order express delivery. Vietnam... is not a free shipping area.

"I regret it, really!"

Hansley transformed into Xianglin's wife and always said:

“I only knew that labor in Vietnam was cheap, but I didn’t realize that cheapness comes with a price. When I was in China, I didn’t need to worry about any production issues. I could play golf every day without affecting my work performance at all. When I came to Vietnam, I had to deal with all kinds of inexplicable problems every day. Even the problem of purchasing a roll of sealing tape would become a bottleneck in production.

"The additional costs incurred due to delayed work are far more than the labor costs saved. This does not include the losses caused by the work errors of these local workers. The yield rate of our products is lower than that produced in China. In the past few months, we have received more customer complaints than in the past ten years combined. For this matter, I have been warned several times by the headquarters.”

"Yes, I also think that moving the factory from China to Vietnam is a huge mistake."

This was the sentiment of another American business executive who came to Houban Industrial Park at the same time as Hensley. There is a very American-style cafe in the park. On weekdays, executives come here to sit and pour out their bitterness to each other, which can be considered a kind of comfort.

As soon as this topic was brought up, everyone’s complaints came out:

"This is all because of our commander's imagination!"

"Isn't that right? If he hadn't claimed to increase taxes on products originating in China, why would we go to Vietnam to produce them?"

"Isn't this also our own choice? We covet Vietnam's cheap labor. This is the main reason. I remember everyone here complained that China's labor costs are too high."

"I don't care about labor costs or anything like that. I just feel that the preferential conditions offered by the Chinese are becoming less and less, and they are not as generous as the Vietnamese."

"...Maybe so. I think my previous dislike of the Chinese was wrong. They are very hard-working and very smart, and they are entitled to enjoy the fruits of their development."

"No, no, no, Mr. Hensley, I think you are just jealous of the Chinese."

"However, you have to admit that they have taken away job opportunities from American workers, and their companies are growing very fast. Many of the traditional advantageous industries in the United States have been occupied by them. Last year, the U.S.-China trade deficit reached 300 billion U.S. dollars, consumer goods in the U.S. market are all made in China, but the U.S. sells natural gas and soybeans to China. Who is the developing country, us or China?"

"Wake up, Hensley, have you been brainwashed by the leader's speech? You are just a professional manager. What you need is to be responsible to the board of directors, and the board of directors needs to be responsible to shareholders, job opportunities for American workers, and What does it have to do with you? Besides, even if the Twigg factory moved out of China, you did not move back to the United States, and American workers still have no job opportunities."

"Move back to the United States? Are you kidding me? With the salary standards of American workers and their habit of going on strike to protest at every turn, who would dare to move the factory back to the United States?"

"Isn't this right? So, Hensley, have you ever considered the possibility of moving the factory back to China?"

"I think... this may not be an unacceptable choice."