BBC News On Lenovo Production:

Interesting article from BBC News.

Enjoy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6675739.stm

 

So from now on.. all Thinkpads will be made in the same factory as the domestic Chinese machines?

I wouldn't be surprised if quality goes down the drain..

 

Dont be surprised that products made in China got good QC Control.

 

Quote from the article:

Factory quality control manager Steve Gul says that one problem is that Lenovo is slower to despatch custom-ordered computers than its rivals, despite the fact that most of its component suppliers are located within the Shanghai region.

Gee no kidding

 

Not an enjoyable read.

 

Yes...

And it says chinese corporate culture discourages employees from questioning processes or making suggestions. The exact opposite of the culture of, say, Toyota.

It smacks of a central authoritarian culture, like the old communist party.

I don't buy into the whole "china rising" thing as much as the press touts it. All they have is cheap labor. Poor management. Wait and watch for china to crash later this decade. Smart hedge fund managers will make a killing by short selling chinese equities.

My .02

 

Actually some of our electronics are already made in China.

 

Uh... ThinkPads have always been made in China, by Lenovo, long before Lenovo acquired them from IBM.

Most of our electronics are already made in China, the big difference is whether the product was designed for markets outside of China, and is only manufactured in China. Or if the product was designed for sale in China, in which case the quality would be much much worse.

 

but it says production is being shifted from the thinkpad plant in shenzen to the lenovo plant in shanghai.

Shenzen was known for better production & QC. It's also much more expensive there.

I wouldn't want a thinkpad from the old lenovo plant.

Thinkpads look to be perhaps going downhill fast... crappy warranties now and soon crappy laptops too maybe.

May want a fujitsu next time.

 

I never saw what was so great about Fujitsu. My mother works for Fujitsu, and trust me, there's still no brand loyalty here. The laptops are extremely expensive, their build quality can be hit or miss, and their designs aren't exactly the most attractive. They're just not that appealing.

 

Then why did my 760xd say it was made in Mexico?

 

Oh come on people. You are all being so judgemental. I have seen superb quality products from China, it just depends on how much the company is willing to pay to get the goods manufactured. If Lenovo decides to cut corners on the Thinkpad, THEN you will get real problems. However, if no such cost-cutting is made, then I believe the Thinkpad will still be produced the way it is. I don't think Lenovo will be that stupid to surrender market share to HP, Dell and Acer (especially Acer).

 

Right, maybe not "always", but for a long time. My first ThinkPad was made in Japan.

 

HAHAHAHAH I CONCUR!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

It's not just Lenovo being willing to spend money to keep the quality up. A lot of it has to do with the experience the production managers have. I have had the privilege of being able to spend some time with guys that have dealt with outsourcing manufacturing to China and the story is always the same.

Right now China does not have the infrastructure to meet delivery demands reliably. If there is a heavy rain sometimes it will wash out roads and the factories only option is to suspend shipments until the roads are back in service... this can be a huge supply problem (which Lenovo already has).

There is also a consistent QC problem with products manufactured in China. I've seen companies that had fantastic yields on the electronics they were manufacturing; then they outsource to china and the yields go into the dumps.

Then there's also the huge cultural problem of not encouraging innovation. I know they want to but there is such a culture of ingrained respect and deference to superiors there is little room to question stupid processes and little room for creativity. The article acknowledges this one.

All this isn't to say that Lenovo cannot overcome these obstacles; but they are definitely concerns. I don't think that this is me being judgmental I am just not optimistic about the future of the thinkpad... I hope I am wrong as I don't really like many of the other laptops available out there.

 

What a dire picture......

 

just by having factories in China doesn'tmean the qualities will go down the tube, that's the stereotype. it's entirely within the american companies' powers to choose the factories they work with.

i have an uncle who runs a large mail order business in the US, imports their own stuff from china and they tour factories there to select the good ones to work with. They found that there are tiers of factories, the highest being usually taiwanese run, extremely high quality factories that produce specific products, to more generic factories that may produce lower quality general products, and finally chinese run low end factories that churn out 99 cent products.

All the components in computers, ipods, dvd players come from Taiwan and China, and many HQ factories in China are taiwanese run. Your apple, sony products are made in China too, but the American / Japanese / foreign companies make the factories meet the companies' quality standards otherwise they wouldn't use them in the first place. If the computers suck, it's more likely that the foreign company is not selecting high quality components and not implementing quality control properly, rather than just simply because chinese factories churn out low quality stuff.

 

Birdguy, what you are saying is completely true. However, I believe they meant quality of Lenovo products. As Lenovo is run by Chinese end from what I can tell.

 

lenovo is a chinese company at the end of the day, but for now, as shown in their acquistion of the thinkpad brand, designs, and people, they know they need the Thinkpad people's expertise in marketing and design to help Lenovo become a true global brand. i don't think Lenovo will become synonymous with bad laptops just because they're a chinese company. Their current CEO is american after all.

 

found this fascinating researched article that talks about the state of PC industry in 2004. much more informative than the fluffy, inflammatory BBC news.

http://www.computer.org/portal/site...omepage/0706&file=cover1.xml&xsl=article.xsl&

 

But where are the pictures? The BBC gave us pictures!

 

see the dive on the chinese stock market today?!! ouch!

you know this is gonna end badly, just like nasdaq in 2001/02 - but worse!

 

I actually just got back from Beijing and I visited the lenovo factory with my group. The factory was extremely high tech and modernized. I've never been to other computer assembly plants, but lenovo's was impressive.

 

I thought that lenovos were made in Shanghai and thinkpads in Shenzhen