Importing from China

[chrisb]

Bought a microscope eye piece usb camera from e bay, it came from china it was cheap, it was crap.

nice one

I use the chinese made tool and for the same reason as prior mentioned, if you loose a £2.50 tool you take another out of the box, loose a £15 and that makes for great annoyance

I did NOT say inferior metal at all so where did that come from? I stated they were made differently and that the stainless will not be of a high grade

Ok test of peoples attitude towards import from china. I go through aprox 12 tones of bees wax per year imported from china. I go through a quantity of british sourced but only about 10% of the china weight.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I go through aprox 12 tones of bees wax per year imported from china.

What do you use the beeswax for.

 

[Heather]

Hell, I cannot get away from China today!!! Trying to get a visa, 2 photos rejected... Jewellery!.. No - very fine chain with cross on (which wasnt in the picture) ears not showing!.. but could have worn a Hijab with no problem... no specs allowed .. but their blurb says ok if no tint AAAAHHHH ..
Going to shave my head and go in photo booth starkers!!!

 

[For want of a better word]

What do you use the beeswax for.

Accordions use beeswax on the valves and Didgeridoo mouthpieces are also made from it

Any other uses?

Yeghes da

 

[Little John]

I can never figure out how to get a Chinese firm to consider making something different to those they already make. Things like yacht-sized Marine Gearboxes and Carver Clamps.

I find their small items - like router bits - are excellent value. Dunno how they make 'em for the price - and don't much care - just keep 'em coming ... British engineering has been neglected for decades - with a major emphasis being placed on financial services instead. You reap what you sow.
LJ

 

[Finman]

... British engineering has been neglected for decades - with a major emphasis being placed on financial services instead. You reap what you sow.
LJ

British engineering goes well. 60 years ago Britain was biggest manufactures in the world. Over 50% out of workforce was in manufaucturing. Now under 5%.

Your economy is something else than makin 1 £ knives. You sell computer systems in all over the world and you manage biggest projects in the world. 300 languages are used in London City.
.
I wonder why you want to do lowest price work in the world.

You unemployment figures are among lowest in EU, 5%. Most countries have 10% or something like that.

.STOP GRYING!
.
( balance of trading economy has been in UK negative 12 years...)

 

[REDWOOD]

Hoffman frame lugs were the opposite way around from China

 

[Little John]

British engineering goes well. 60 years ago Britain was biggest manufactures in the world. Over 50% out of workforce was in manufaucturing. Now under 5%.

If I thought for one minute you knew what you were talking about, I'd make a detailed reply.
LJ

 

[Into the lions den]

I get quite a few things from China. I live with a Chinese lady and she helps me with sourcing.

Many of peoples problems with Chinese products actually stems from the customer rather than the maker, and they are accustomed to the client wanting the lowest price rather than a quality spec instead. Thus they think all we want is cheapest possible, and in many cases they have that spot on.

However, as an example, I have an array of smokers in my office right now from a few Chinese makers. They sent me their standard quality and then a sample of what they can do in response to my spec.

We like the Dadant Big Smoke. It retails in the environs of 50 pounds here (though I did not come down in the last shower of rain and would not pay that kind of figure, so import them by the caseload for under half that ). The Chinese (well several companies actually) do smokers that are broadly similar and have dealt with the weak hinge between lid and body. I responded with specific requests for our own needs, and they then made a special sample. OK, so its still in China and I need to get it here, but the standard large smoker is $4.15, and the one amended to address all my special needs is $4.85. Some of the standard ones I have seen before, branded on the back with western bee supply houses marks on the back, apparently made in their own factories...yeah right....these companies are selling them to the west in container loads....often already branded and boxed ready for retail sale. Think you are buying home produced, yet quite often you might not be.

Hive tools? Many of the ones you see ARE made in China, but they are decent quality spring steel and we like them, even prefer them to many of the European made versions, and in boxes from China cost well under a pound....but that's not worth my while as I can buy the couple of boxes a year I need from a certain Danish supplier at a very favourable trade rate.

The Chinese will make whatever you want, to whatever spec you want, and they will do it well. You have to nail your spec down however. If you don't and they think they can do a better price using a shortcut not dealt with in the spec you might get something less than you expected. Whose fault is that? The bad spec or the cheapest option within the spec?

They are very used to us nailing their head to the floor for the sharpest prices. Do that and you get a product made to the price, so you have to get a quote for a quality and be prepared to pay a little more than rock bottom for the changes. 4.15 for a normal smoker or 4.85 for one that is what you need?

Of course I HAVE to say this lol....or there might be a laxative in my dinner this weekend.

 

[wightbees]

What a great post, just the sort of reply I need really when I next need to order I will bare this all in mind.
Many thanks

 

[chrisb]

What do you use the beeswax for.

majority goes out to candle making, the rest to all sorts from polish making to lubricating wooden spindles.
the British stuff is all pharmacopoeia grade that goes out for cosmetics in the most

 

[chrisb]

I get quite a few things from China. I live with a Chinese lady and she helps me with sourcing.

Many of peoples problems with Chinese products actually stems from the customer rather than the maker, and they are accustomed to the client wanting the lowest price rather than a quality spec instead. Thus they think all we want is cheapest possible, and in many cases they have that spot on.
.

Exactly

 

[pargyle]

What a great post, just the sort of reply I need really when I next need to order I will bare this all in mind.
Many thanks

In a past life I used to export against international tender - the rule was the lowest price within spec .. if the client specified a drill - they got a 1/16 drill - occasionally what they wanted was a floor mounted pillar drill or even an oil rig ... but if it said DRILL then what they got was A DRILL - harsh but that was what the competition did as well ...

Learning to provide an accurate, indisputable, clear specification is the first step you need to learn if you are involved in procurement of any sort.

 

[B+.]

Learning to provide an accurate, indisputable, clear specification is the first step you need to learn if you are involved in procurement of any sort.

I sat on the other side of the table. Although my background was systems development, I became increasingly involved in the "Invitation to Tender" (ITT) process as the powers that be were convinced that outside agencies could satisfy their need better than a home-grown solution (don't even get me started on that!).
Anyway, the majority of the cost was actually in teasing out the requirements and wrapping this up in a specification that an outside agency could understand (a lot of it was complex proprietary information and couldn't be shared) than building the systems. Inevitably, we'd select a supplier who we felt reasonably confident could do the job on a fixed price basis. Then, when we'd let our in-house capability decline to the point that we couldn't even support the systems ourselves, they had us over a barrel and all future work was on a T&M (Time and Materials) basis. Obviously this was a lot more expensive.
I'm glad I don't do that sort of thing anymore.

 

[pargyle]

I sat on the other side of the table. Although my background was systems development, I became increasingly involved in the "Invitation to Tender" (ITT) process ...

Anyway, the majority of the cost was actually in teasing out the requirements and wrapping this up in a specification that an outside agency could understand ....
I'm glad I don't do that sort of thing anymore.

We eventually persuaded some of our clients that a pre-tender proposal specification and target costing was a better option to start with - our clients were not capable of writing the tender specs themselves but we (as the tender participants) were ... We got paid more on a fixed price basis for doing that and letting everyone else drag every last cent out of the proposed specification than we were making out of winning tenders ... But not every client could see the benefits of a clean specification - and they continued to get 1/16" drills ... You can take a horse to water ...

 

[B+.]

You can take a horse to water ...

I was a bit smarter than that. I got IBM to do it for free (without guaranteeing they'd be awarded the contract).;-)
My point was that the problem analysis is the costly bit. When the solution is designed, you can "negotiate" on price...there are always more people out there looking for orders (or rather salesmen/women looking for commission). However, if you run down your own in-house capability, you're scr*w*d! It costs far more than if you'd done it all in-house in the first place.
Anyway, I stayed in that role for so long I saw the whole make-buy idea go around in circles (several times). It's all very well explained in Charles Handys' excellent book "The empty raincoat".

 

[chorrylan]

Yes and No
the china one is stainless steel and will be the lowest grade of such.
the thorn one is chromed hardened and tempered steel so totally different tools

Do you know that or are you assuming that?

I like the idea of locally made but "bought in a local shop" does not necessarily mean "locally made" or even "well made".
It might be different down here in oz but we destroyed our local industry many years ago so the stuff in the shops is often the very same "made in china or somewhere else" product as the one on alibaba.




Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

[chorrylan]

Bought a microscope eye piece usb camera from e bay, it came from china it was cheap, it was crap.

I bought a microscope from the USA.
It wasn't particularly cheap but it was Crap.
It appears the crappy product itself was made in china but three quarters of the price and the freight and 100% of the crappy service and support was the American value add.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

[Curley]

Have a look for the Land Wind on the t'internet. Wouldn't mind importing one of those

Might be cheap but still a gas guzzling kiddy killer

 

[REDWOOD]

As one economist said, learn their language and culture