China, US to boost quality control

Julien Roger, Managing Director of our sister company, China Quality Focus, sent me this short article on a declaration of China’s commitment to improving quality control.

Now the cynic in me would like to make a snarky comment on the pointlessness of such government pronouncements right about now, but I won’t for two reasons:

1. Many of the quality problems pinned on Chinese manufacturers are at least 50% the fault of foreign buyers who fail to define expectations, perform proper due diligence, establish effective quality control regimes, etc., to say nothing of those clients who expect the vendor to do the engineering for them. Then when the design fails, they blame the vendor instead of themselves. PassageMaker exists to help our clients avoid each of these pitfalls and it is the reason why we created our Endorsed Service Provider network. The reputation for poor quality is a major issue for China, and the government is dead serious about rectifying the situation.
2. As with so many areas of their society and economy – industrialization, intellectual property law, financial infrastructure – there has been astounding progress in just a few short years. Certainly there is still a long way to go, but the improvements are real. When I first went to China, I had to buy our vendor basic measuring devices like calipers, height gauges, surface plates, etc., and train them how to use them. Now there are numerous testing laboratories in every major city and companies like China Quality Focus and PassageMaker thrive by providing customized quality control and quality assurance solutions. The net effect of our efforts and those of the Chinese manufacturers is a measurable improvement in a short period of time.

China is still a darned challenging place to do business, and I don’t see that changing. If I didn’t believe PassageMaker had a bright future ahead of it helping our clients succeed on Planet China, I wouldn’t waste my time here. But I do see the progress China is making, and have to give credit where credit is due.