Why do most people preferred other brands than China made equipment?

[komatpillar]

Many manufacturers in China offer us their equipment products. A lot with different brand names and cheaper prices for the fact that it was wholesale offer. But almost all of the customers we offer it to, does not want China-made equipment. Why? What's the problem with those equipment guys? I think we must not look into the equipment's brand to judge it's quality.

komatpillar.com

 

[AtlasRob]

does not want China-made equipment. Why? What's the problem with those equipment guys? I think we must not look into the equipment's brand to judge it's quality.

You used the most important word............ quality!

Cheap is not best if it only lasts a fraction of the time of another brand.

I am not saying that all Chinese products are **** but it takes only one bad experience to tarnish a reputation and that is one of the problems that Chinese manufacturers have.

For example a new tyre and tube fitted to my machine. ( not my choice or cost ) After about 3 months the tube failed. It was not punctured, the tube failed where the valve stem is vulcanised / glued, to the tube.
The tube and tyre are from China.

About a year ago, against my better judgement I ordered and received a bluetooth headset from a chinese supplier ( via Ebay) as the model I really like is no longer available here. It lasted less than a month before it literally fell apart.

Any good reputable manufacturer in China ( and I dont doubt there are some ) is fighting an up hill battle against a tide of opinion that is built on experiences like mine.

The other serious problem that Chinese producers have to compete against is National pride. Some people will never buy a Chinese product due to something in thier own history.

 

[Squizzy246B]

Rob sums it pretty well. I cringe when I hear ridiculous comments that all chinese stuff is sub-standard. Its just not the case. In the real world you can hardly touch a consumer item or machinery for that matter that doesn't have some chinese manufactured component in it. You might think its all made in Germany, for example, but you would be wrong. Its a fact of life wether you like it or not. I remember when I was growing up the resistance to (and the often sub-standard) Japanese manufactured goods & machinery. Now the Japanese are seen as global leaders in quality equipment. How things change. The chinese have produced some sub-standard stuff for sure, but its only a matter of time, things will change.

I look for Australian manufactured stuff wherever I can but we have limited options:beatsme

I saw a consumer magazine that stripped down a heap of domestic items found in Australian garages like lawn mowers, weed whackers, excercise equipment, white goods, tool kits etc. They had components manufactured in 28 different countries as far as they could tell. Its called a Global Economy.

 

[CM1995]

I remember when I was growing up the resistance to (and the often sub-standard) Japanese manufactured goods & machinery. Now the Japanese are seen as global leaders in quality equipment. How things change. The chinese have produced some sub-standard stuff for sure, but its only a matter of time, things will change.

I too remember the time when "Japanese Junk" was the term for anything coming out of Japan and nobody wanted one of those "tin cans" to drive (like a Toyota or Honda), how times have changed....:cool2

Having traveled to China twice and visited manufacturing facilities (unfortunately not heavy equipment - electronics), I will say the efficiency, cleanliness and worker dedication - not only on the floor level but all the way through management, is impressive. I went to a clean room in Tiawan that made micro chips by the thousands, that was pretty interesting. A CNC manufacturing facility in rural China that makes the CNC machines themselves for PCB (circuit boards). It was a 5 floor plant, 1st floor was solid slabs of marble, 2nd floor machine shop for the metal parts, 3rd floor computer controls, 4th floor assembly and 5th floor trouble shooting and finished product.

But China has it's own set of quality perception as noted above. It's the whole "One bad apple spoils the bunch". Due to the shear size of China's manufacturing base allows a lot of corruption to enter the system from suppliers, manufacturer's and gov't officials all along the product chain. This is a rather large problem for China that will take time and effort to weed out if they want to change their products global perception.

The first picture in this thread is from an upper floor at the CNC facility -
https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=2806&highlight=Chinese+Pictures

 

[Steve Frazier]

How can you not judge a machine's quality by brand??? Don't most manufacturer's strive to make quality equipment? Look at any advertisement for a machine, their attention to quality will surely be mentioned at least once in their ads. Quality is something to be proud of, if your machines are of high quality you surely want your consumers to know that.

In addition to what the others have mentioned is dealer support. I continue to stress how important this is when you earn your living with machinery. If the machine goes down, how quickly it goes back on line plays a big part in the value and quality of that machine. You could easily lose your business if you have to wait two weeks or more for a part to go back on line and that can be the case with Chinese manufactured machines.

 

[Hendrik]

I guess they have to prove themselves, both in machine reliability and availability of spares.
From what I understand the Chinese machines use a lot of parts from other places, like valve bodies, engines and other hydraulic components.
I do know that Kobelco has an assembly plant in China, which is located near where that big earthquake was and they donated a couple of machines and some money to help rebuild.
Whilst they may be cheaper to buy initially, you are going to lose that when it comes time to trade.
However I am starting to see a few Sumithomo(?) machines around the place, I am guessing they are made in the PRC.

 

[komatpillar]

Okay, so you've explained it very well guys, Thanks a lot. :beerchug
Maybe those Chinese manufacturers that indeed has good quality equipment needs to really work hard to prove themselves to the world. To at least change the bad reputation they had gotten because of 'some' that degrades quality.

As CM1995 puts it "One bad apple spoils the bunch". :iagree

As some of the guys here said, "things will change". But it depends on the efforts and determination of the Chinese manufacturers on how to uplift their reputation about their products. And this must be continuous. For if only a few will value quality products and services, it's still no use. The bad ones will still overpass the good ones.

www.komatpillar.com

 

[RocksnRoses]

However I am starting to see a few Sumithomo(?) machines around the place, I am guessing they are made in the PRC.

You might have to have another guess, Hendrik, remember the Sumitomo wrestlers. Sumitomo hve been around for a long time and are manufactured by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Japan. BT Equipment sell them. http://www.btequipment.com.au/equipment/excavators/sumitomo_excavators.html

Rn'R.

 

[Hendrik]

You might have to have another guess, Hendrik, remember the Sumitomo wrestlers. Sumitomo hve been around for a long time and are manufactured by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Japan. BT Equipment sell them. http://www.btequipment.com.au/equipment/excavators/sumitomo_excavators.html

Rn'R.

Must be thinking of another brand and I have heard of Sumo wrestlers but don't recall Sumitomo wrestlers.

 

[Hendrik]

Reputation for quality is hard earned and easily lost
There are other factors that go into a decision to purchase a machine, such as brand loyalty, loyalty to your country, being friends with the local dealer, perhaps in the case of the PRC some might not like buying stuff from a socialist country.
As a side note, I bought a motor for my ex that was made in China and is an exact copy of an Yanmar unit. So far so good and the reason I had to replace the motor was that the original Yanmar had a crack in the inlet manifold and let a whole lot of crap into the motor. Now I don't know what caused the crack as I suspect it has been there a while, perhaps someone stood on the air filter, however Yanmar is pretty much the world leader in compact Diesels and as such I would not expect it to break due to faulty design/build?
Cost to rebuild a one cylinder Yanmar Diesel about AU$2800, cost to buy a single cylinder Diesel about AU$3000, cost to buy a Chinese knock off motor about AU$500 plus 100 to have an adapter made up.

 

[Speedpup]

Your mean Communist China? You know the one that is pouring a huge percentage of it's GDP in to weapons and sells them to rouge states? They have at least 50,000 industrial spies in this country. I try to spend my money elsewhere. Those people need to be free in China but the world greed has propped up the cruel government. The gov that kills thousands of coal miners in China because the 150 dollar death benefit is cheaper than safety,

 

[CAT D8 N]

They brake down before you can get them to the job site....

 

[RocksnRoses]

Must be thinking of another brand and I have heard of Sumo wrestlers but don't recall Sumitomo wrestlers.

Later on in the day, after I wrote that, I was thinking, hmmmm, I think I stuffed up, but Sumitomo is Japanese.

Rn'R.

 

[joispoi]

China has a few quality products. Aside from that, they unload mountains of government subsidized cheap crap upon the world:

This is what I comes to mind when I think of ''made in China'':
:throwup
toys containing lead
poisoned pet food
gypsum board made from industrial waste that leaves houses uninhabitable
electronics devices that don´t last or just don´t work
and the latest

Why the hell would I want to try my luck with their cheapo equipment deals??

 

[stock]

don't forget the plastic laced baby food or the drill bits that bend,the 15mm spanner that fits an 17 mm nut ,I recently bought an automatic level and most suppliers offered a cheap Chinese unit but wouldn't recommend then for any serious use, so I bought a Swiss made one.

 

[swampdog]

Agreed that much of the Chinese made stuff is junk. Unfortunately, top quality products often are much more expensive so we end up buying the Chinese stuff.

Two weeks ago I needed to buy a 36 mm box end/open end wrench. The made in China version was $12.95. A name brand (not sure where it was made) was $200.00. Which one would you have bought?

 

[qball]

i feel it is wrong to support china when in doing so we ruin america.
china is going to bury us and we are digging the hole.
and i, for one, am sick of it.

 

[Hendrik]

Agreed that much of the Chinese made stuff is junk. Unfortunately, top quality products often are much more expensive so we end up buying the Chinese stuff.

Two weeks ago I needed to buy a 36 mm box end/open end wrench. The made in China version was $12.95. A name brand (not sure where it was made) was $200.00. Which one would you have bought?

The other day I went out to get a pair of vise grips, two types on the shelf, the original made in US of A and the Chinese one for half plice. Seeing as I like tools to last a lifetime and beyond I went for the :usa one. However I read a while ago that the vise grip company in the US is going OS, with the resulting loss of jobs. Why? Because we live in a short term view society.
However in order to build my ex thumb I needed a couple of big drill bits and got a couple of cheapies that are crap but do the job..........just and yes they are bent but can be straightened easily enough.
Far as China is concerned, what do we do? Lock them out of the world economy or try and build up a big middle class that perhaps eventually will demand more rights?
Don't know if this is working as China seems to have really rich people and really poor people and now has money, manufacturing capacity and technology.

 

[bill5362]

I think the lead paint in the kids toys and the tainted baby food recently. As well as all of the cheap tools made in china, people purchase them because they are cheap and gripe when they don't last like the expensive tools. Just my too cents.

 

[swampdog]

The other day I went out to get a pair of vise grips, two types on the shelf, the original made in US of A and the Chinese one for half plice. Seeing as I like tools to last a lifetime and beyond I went for the :usa one. However I read a while ago that the vise grip company in the US is going OS, with the resulting loss of jobs. Why? Because we live in a short term view society.

There certainly is no comparison between the name brand vise grips and the Chinese knock offs. I don't mind paying double for quality tools, but when the good quality stuff is ten or twenty times the price of Chinese tools, who can afford the good stuff?

Maybe the North American and European (and Aussie) manufacturers need to look at ways to become more competitive. Much of the retail price difference between the Chinese and non-Chinese tools happens because of the outdated wholesale and retail distribution system that we have in North America. Places like Harbor Freight and Princess Auto bring the stuff in from China in large quantities and sell it cheap. In contrast, name brand tools can pass through two or three middlemen, and each one marks up the price by 50 or 100%.