Green Amphibian

That has to be one of the nicest and cleanest ones in Asia I have seen. They are usually much cruder and nastier than that.

Herman

gyrate

i work on the floor all the time

it makes dropping screws and pins a snap. drop a screw from the table, it and travels 400 feet, never to be recovered. drop a screw.. off the floor onto the floor.. it stays there. so i totally understand the lack of tables

herrmill

Please don't take this the wrong way but may I ask how many manufacturers have you visited here in Asia? Attached are some examples of one that I have known quite well over the past 16 years. Its not far from Ningbo & could easily be ranked as "one of the nicest and cleanest ones in Asia". Granted, its not an Intel fab plant but neither is it a toy tank factory & should be considered as a bench point towards what can be considered as a quality workshop.

Ronan87

Big difference in the type/level of manufacturer plant of what you posted Herrnill...

YHR

Truth is the tank market is small, and we should be grateful that anyone is producing them. Surviving on tank sales alone would never allow you to build one of these nicer facilities

Green Amphibian

You are right Hermill, that is a great looking factory. I was referring to the benjo in the other post.

Herman

herrmill

Total asset worth shouldn't be a factor, nor should facility size IMHO & experience. You folks seem to be missing the entire point when it comes to what makes a quality supplier here.

I have purchased from many small shops who do an excellent job in terms of quality but those are the one's who are organized. With workshops like the one portrayed in the earlier photos - Heng Long photos that Bill posted, notwithstanding - I would not trust anything coming from that place since its a chaotic mess. Fuyuan nor KY Model resemble anything like this - I've seen both & can attest to it.

Arkmodel / Hooben, suffers from the same issues due to poor management & worker training but his current shop looks like an operating theater compared to this. Still problems occur - a friend of mine just sent back one of Ark's new Kilo kits since it was so botched up it was impossible use.

Attached are are some photos of a small manufacture & a proud laoban to prove that you don't need to be a million dollar manufacturer to offer a quality shop.

Ronan87

I'm sorry but i can't take this post seriously...

You HONESTLY don't think total asset isn't a factor? What about starting asset?

You aren't going to go spend 5 million dollars in equipment to make toy grade r/c tanks for a VERY small market. I highly doubt those chinese companies are looking at those kind of profits. This only happesn when already established business partners are 'in'.

Also the photos you JUST posted are AGAIN in a different lead than the one's you posted before. You are all over the scale mixing your fruits and vegetables...


I'll let you in on some stuff to help you understand:

Your first post was of a higher end assembly plant. You are comparing a MUCH bigger company to a MUCH smaller one.
Your second post was of a model ship assembly plant. You NEED workbenches to assemble those ships (because of the detail/tedious work). This is plain logic and efficiency move. Nice 1990 computers in the background too...

See the differences? The second one would be equivalent to not having a soldering iron or glue to assemble the taigen tanks... of course they have that, they need it. I also think they need workbenches, but apparently not... they seem happy working the way they are and the one's that ARE doing tedious work like soldering and glueing small parts... can be seen working on a workbench.

gyrate

and you both are missing everything combined.

if you know atomic (formerly atomicmods), you would know they started small, and their shop was always one to envy. 12 years later not much has changed in the way their shop looks and operates, even if their business is now 3000x the size it was when they started.

the argument of size and scale is mostly invalid. the tools needed to make 1 or 3000 are actually the same. everything else is personal preference.

herrmill

All I am saying is that I value clean, organized shops with proper assembly whether they be conveyor lines or benches. Where are photos of the injection workshop or even examples on their QC? The photos of Heng Long's facility a few years ago certainly conveyed some semblance of how a factory should look & last time I checked, I do believe that factory produces "toy grade r/c tanks for a VERY small market."

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_64...tm.htm#6421808

http://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/forum...php?f=1&t=3256

Ronan87

gyrate

no you are missing it. you seem to think you can produce something without the tools needed and all that matters is shiny walls.

nonsense.

scratch build some models and you'll know what i mean. whether you are making 1 or 300, you need the same tools. the investment is the same. if you make enough, you will outsource final production so economies of scale kicks in then. but to be able to make the RnD you will have to do it in house (have you checked costs for outsourcing rnd? i have, it isn't pretty), so again, you need the machinery to produce the cam workable cads that fit together. how many scratch built models have you made? i reckon 0

you however are hell bent on assuming.. not even sure what you are assuming.

Ronan87

You are miss-interpreting what i said.

Go re-read what i posted... i even made it a POINT of saying that tools/machines are needed, including workbench, etc.

I get the vib we are talking about the same thing and only disagreeing because we aren't understanding each other...

STO_118

I think I can see where my recent ordering problems with TaiGen have come from. Although it is worth pointing out that Heng Long have a marginally better assembly line and have the same issues. Baron that is not "top notch" nor is the Tiger II new. With one days labour I could almost double their efficiency.

Herrmil is correct in stating assets worth or value have no impact on the organisation of a work floor. I have far less value as a business and yet my stockroom and bench is far better organised. Creating an efficient work space is not about money, although it helps, it is about training, experience and knowledge. I've improved efficiency and safety of industrial units with equipment and assets in the hundreds of thousands with spending nothing more than a few bags of concrete and less than 20 bodies. If you think you need bags of money to make improvements then you are wrong.

Just for the poor country people, I've worked in Western Companies in the Oil and Gas field that had warehouses look like that. It is actually fairly common.

From experience I would point out the majority of workers prefer working from the floor, it was an enormous task to switch Thai workers from squatting on the floor using tools like bench mounted circular saws. They find it much easier to squat and have much better balance doing so than us expats ever did. The majority of toilets are like the one pictured, on the floor although that is a nicer looking one. It is also common to see Western toilet seats with foot prints on them.

Oh and Apple manufacture nearly all their products in China by the way.