When will I have a long tassel?

"The Chinese have shown us their strength in machine tool development, and Chinese machine tools, like their other products, have the advantage of low prices. If the technology provided by the Chinese is used, the Baltimore factory's production line transformation investment can save 40 million %, which is very necessary to alleviate the company’s financial pressure.”

At the headquarters of General Motors, Vigor introduced what he saw at the China Machine Tool Exhibition to a group of senior executives. He was the first to defect and is now trying his best to persuade company executives to agree to introduce automobile production lines from China.

"I saw relevant reports on TV. According to the reporter, the machine tool that processed the terracotta warriors and horses Waltz statue was independently designed and manufactured by the Chinese. Vigor, can you confirm this?"

asked Brandley, the paunchy corporate vice president. He is exactly the kind of retired Wall Street elite that Tang Zifeng said. He used to work in investment banking. He only moved to industrial companies after the financial crisis and knew nothing about industrial technology. All his knowledge about this China Machine Tool Exhibition only includes the Terracotta Warriors Waltz and the Dahe Drone Show.

"The Chinese developed the largest seven-axis five-linkage vertical machining center in the world a few years ago. This achievement was reported in the "Machining" magazine. It is not technically feasible to use a machining center to manufacture a metal statue. It’s difficult, and it’s not surprising that the Chinese can do this.” Carlos, the company’s technical director, answered this question.

"I know that such technology is not difficult for American companies, but it is very difficult for the Chinese to do it." Brandley said, "Chinese companies lack general creativity and they only have the ability to imitate Western products. capabilities. I think the machine tools they displayed should also be copies of Western products, right?"

"Maybe." Carlos shrugged, too lazy to argue with Brandley.

After this Wall Street tycoon came to the company, he made countless jokes. He obviously knew nothing about manufacturing, but he wanted to show that he knew more about manufacturing than the senior engineers in the company. Carlos and his engineers had quarreled with Brandley several times over technical issues. Brandley's point of view was that Carlos and his team were too outdated and lacked modern investment thinking and Internet thinking.

Brandley's understanding of manufacturing is the fourth industrial revolution, data-driven, 3D printing and so on. It’s not that these concepts are wrong, it’s just that anyone who has actually spent time in a factory knows that these concepts cannot be achieved overnight. For example, additive manufacturing, known as 3D printing, does represent a new manufacturing method, but at least for now, traditional cutting processing, that is, subtractive manufacturing, is the mainstream.

Brandley's understanding of the division of labor in the global manufacturing industry is entirely based on books. It should be noted here that the books he read were published 20 years ago. Brandley also has another source of information, which is various social media. He often used some articles on social media to "popularize science" with Carlos and others. Those articles were full of unrealistic boasts about American technology and unrealistic criticism of China.

In Bradley's mind, China's manufacturing level is at the same level as India's, no, it should be said to be one level lower than India's. There was no way. The circles he was in contact with were all telling stories about free market economy. China, as a regulated economic country, was rejected by his circle. Everyone sincerely hoped that India could surpass China. Since in reality, it did not If they haven't transcended it, then what's the harm in making up a few stories about how they've already transcended it to anesthetize themselves?

After drinking too much of the poisonous chicken soup brewed in the circle, Brandley took these stories as reality. Every time Carlos couldn't help but tell Brandley about China's technological development, Brandley would shake his head reservedly and said: "Mr. Carlos, I think you may have read the Chinese official website Those propaganda that whitewashes the peace, right? I suggest you take a look at the truth revealed by several conscientious scholars in China who risked their lives, such as a scholar named Qi Muden..."

Such a Wall Street elite, who was so proud that his eyes grew on top of his head, was finally moved by the terracotta warriors and horses carved by the Chinese with machine tools. Although he stubbornly believed that Chinese machine tools must be replicas of Western machine tools, he admitted that the Chinese were already able to do this.

"Judging from the technical indicators introduced to us by the Chinese, the automotive flexible production line developed by China Linji Group can basically reach the level at the end of the last decade. If our four factories choose the production lines they provide, the technical level will be among the best in the United States. It will be the leader among automobile factories, and this lead can be maintained for at least 10 years," Vigor said.

"Compared with the Germans, what are the obvious advantages of the Chinese production lines?" Brandley asked.

Vigor said: "The most obvious advantage is of course their price. This price is not only reflected in the one-time equipment purchase investment, but also in future equipment maintenance. The Chinese said that if our four factories are Using their production line, they will establish an after-sales service center in the United States to ensure that any maintenance needs we have can be responded to within 48 hours."

"Including weekends," Chosit added.

"Including weekends?" Brandley snorted from his nose: "Chinese companies are indeed accustomed to infringing on employees' right to rest. Western companies will never require their employees to respond to customer needs on weekends."

"But what's wrong with this?" Vigor couldn't help but choked.

Boss, are you mistaken? We are Party A, and the other party promised to respond within 48 hours. What’s the harm to us? As for employees’ right to rest, isn’t it normal for manufacturing companies to work three shifts? The factories below us also have to work on weekends. If an employee works on weekends and can take the rest during the weekdays, is this a violation of the right to rest?

In fact, Brandley just habitually criticizes China. It is not uncommon for Wall Street analysts to work overtime on weekends. The global financial market is subject to jet lag. It is their daily routine to wait for the Japanese stock market to open in the middle of the night. Who can say What kind of infringement of the right to rest?

"Another advantage of the Chinese production line is its fast delivery. The sales staff of Linji Group promised us that they can complete the debugging of the production line within half a year after signing the contract. It will only take eight months at most before the production line can be put into production. . In comparison, Heimsat promised us a delivery time of one and a half years, which means we lose an extra year."

Josette continued.

"Heimsat's production line is also somewhat outdated. The main equipment is from the 1990s, and only a few equipment are technology after 2000." Carlos said.

"What's going on?" Brandley frowned, "Just now Vigor said that the Chinese production line can reach the technical level at the end of the last decade. Doesn't this mean that the Chinese production line is more advanced than Heimsat? advanced?"

"This has been the case in the past few years." Carlos said, "China's machine tool technology updates very quickly. The mainstream models in the Chinese market are basically newly launched in the past 10 years. The Western machine tool market is relatively speaking. It’s relatively quiet, although there are some new models coming out every year, the mainstream in the market are still products from the 1980s and 1990s, which at best only have some control system upgrades based on the original models.”

"Why is this?" Brandley was a little confused. He said that the Chinese would not innovate, but how could it be that in the machine tool market, the Chinese technology was more advanced.

Vigor said: "This matter is also very simple. The current global manufacturing center is in China, so China has also become the country with the strongest demand for machine tools in the world. The upgrading of machine tool technology is affected by demand. Take automobiles for example In terms of machine tools, China's automobile production has fully doubled in the past 10 years, and its local automobile production is now more than twice that of the United States.

"Moreover, China's automobile production capacity has been recently increased. They build at least 10 new automobile production lines a year, while the United States can only update one or two production lines a year at best. The situation in Europe is similar to that of the United States. How many Heimsarts are there? It takes years to get an order for a production line, so why do they need to upgrade their technology?”

"How could this happen?" Brandley's mind was a little confused. Such a situation was something he had never heard of on Wall Street. China's economy has developed rapidly in recent years, and Wall Street analysts are of course paying great attention to China. However, their focus is only on China's real estate industry and the emerging Internet industry. Traditional manufacturing industries such as machine tools have been out of the sight of financial experts for a long time. What Vigor and Carlos said is simply a fantasy for Brandley.

Carlos sighed: "Actually, before I went to Chicago to visit the China Machine Tool Exhibition, I didn't know much about the development of Chinese machine tool technology. I had seen papers published by the Chinese in some journals, introducing their achievements in machine tool technology. Progress, but in my impression, what they have achieved should only be some point-like breakthroughs, and the overall level should still be very lagging behind.

"This China Machine Tool Exhibition is really shocking. In just a dozen years, China has achieved disruptive progress in machine tool technology. They have not made breakthroughs in certain types of machine tools. But there has been overall progress.

"Indeed, in terms of high-precision machining, there is still some gap between Chinese technology and the West, but there are not many strongholds that the West can hold. In the field of automotive machine tools, Germany's Heimsaert and Japan's Someno have both lost Improved competitiveness. I can foresee that in the future, global automobile companies will rely on the Chinese to provide processing machine tools."