Hello from Australia/China

[laurence]

Hi to all,

My Name is Laurence Gonano. I have been working in the Australian electronics design and manufacturing industries for around 20 years. My main areas of experience are in the design and manufacture of mains frequency toroidal power transformers, power electronics, salt-water chlorinator power supplies, and safety and environmental gas detection systems.

Around three years ago we set up a factory in China which produces Toroidal transformers, EI transformers, power supplies, and offers contract manufacturing services.
My longer term interest in the forum is to gain a greater understanding of the US electronics market. Eventually it would be good to set up some distribution channels in the US for our transformers, power supplies and contract manufacturing services.

If anyone feels they can benefit from my experience or has technical questions regarding transformer design and application, please feel free to throw some questions my way. Only too happy to help.

Thanks,
Laurence

 

[(*steve*)]

Hi Laurence. Welcome to Electronics Point.

You sound like you have a lot of valuable experience which could prove valuable should you decide to answer our member's questions in your field of expertise.

I will mention that we have fairly strict rules about spamming (which you have not even come close to breaking). I mention this because we don't want you to get any surprises down the line. In general, you should feel perfectly free to provide a link to your (or your employers) web site if it is in response to a direct question and is relevant.

It is not out of place in your introductory thread to mention the name of your employer, should you wish to.

I am interested in your company's move to China. I take it that you have manufacturing there, but still retain a presence in Australia? Do you personally spend a lot of time in China?

 

[laurence]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the warm welcome and some guidance on the use of the forum. I understand this is not the place for commercial promotion so I won't go there, but feel free to let me know if you think my responses are not in the forums best interest.

Your onto it with the China thing. I work for an Australian company called Torema that manufactures toroidal transformer based products. It has been running around 20 years. We had been sourcing product from China for many years and out of frustration with existing Chinese supply options (existing Chinese suppliers tend to be very narrow in their business focus and capabilities) we decided to establish our own factory (call KARS Foshan Ltd - www.karschina.com) to provide more product and volume flexibility. This year I will be spending around 30%-40% of my time in China. It's a case of continual improvement. Trying to build a business in China has been quite the challenge. Thankfully my MD does more than his fair share of the heavy lifting. The teamwork helps to keep us both sane most of the time.

 

[(*steve*)]

It sounds really interesting. I have some (tiny) experience with mainland China -- mostly that the English language stops as soon as you cross the border from Hong Kong

I guess you have access to some good translators. I have a friend who runs a business importing from China (not that it makes her special) and she is Chinese and speaks fluent Mandarin. She has significant trouble being "understood" when in China. I say "understood" because it's not clear to me whether the lack of understanding is real or a tool employed to excuse deliberate misunderstandings.

When you say "narrow in business focus and capabilities" are you alluding to their propensity to strive for low cost of manufacture at the expense of quality? I know that a lot of high quality stuff gets manufactured in China, but I'm not certain how much of it comes from other than companies set up for the purpose (as in your case).

Do you enjoy spending time in China? I went to an electronics components building/market/mall in Shenzhen and was totally amazed at what I saw there.

 

[laurence]

Hi Steve,

Yes it's hard to find good English skills on the mainland at a business level. Most people maybe 30+ years old will have very limited English skills while those younger than that have better knowledge. It is taught continuously now in school starting from early primary school so by the time students leave high school they can speak some English. Even now it surprises me that young school children will come up to me and actually speak reasonable English. It's almost a case of the younger they are the better their English skills seem to be, to a point.

In our business we have 2 export sales people and a general manager that can speak English reasonably well. Outside of that I have to rely on my Chinese speaking skills which I have to say are not at all great.

By narrow business focus I mean Chinese companies might have a range of un-enclosed toroidal transformers, and a range of enclosed transformers, and that's all they do and they make 300,000 per month maybe. But if you say to them put this transformer into our enclosure instead of yours and it has a circuit board in there, it all gets just way too hard. One of the motivations for us to start in China was due to a major new product line which was not much more than a basic enclosed transformer. The volumes were too low for a contract manufacturer to be interested and our transformer supplier at the time found it just too difficult to comprehend what we wanted.

I don't mind spending time in China. My wife and I have started to develop a circle of friends here and the more Chinese you can speak the easier life becomes. If I had to commit to living there full time I think I could make a comfortable life in China. The pace of infrastructure and social development is nothing short astonishing.

I haven't been to the Shenzhen electronics market myself but some of our suppliers go there. I have heard it is huge and one of the best in China. Our factory is in the Foshan area which is about 2 hours drive from Shenzhen.

So if you you are ever heading back to China again, or need some help on something China related, then feel free to look me up. I would be happy to help.

 

[(*steve*)]

Aha. I see where you're coming from.

I travel to India quite frequently and it too has changed dramatically every time I go there (I'm going for my 4th or 5th time later this year.)

They have the benefit (in terms of language) of a British heritage, so English is very widely spoken, but again, much more by the younger and more educated Indians.

I have commented to my wife (who hates India) that I could quite easily live there. Not so sure about China. My Mandarin consists of little more than saying "going shopping", "I don't understand", and counting to... well, probably three now.

I'll certainly send you a message if I'm going to China again. It's probably not likely though, but one can dream.

China has managed to get a bit of a reputation for counterfeit electronics (in terms of fake components). Is that something that is still an issue? How do you keep from getting bitten?

 

[laurence]

Yes, counterfeit components is a big issue. We have been bitten a few times but thankfully it was detected in testing. The best way is to know your supply chain and buy the components yourself and give them to the assembly service.

You have to be incredibly vigilant not just on electronic components but on all inputs to the business. All receipted goods must pass through the IQC department before use. Part substitution, irregular quality, and price inconsistencies are the biggest issues and even though we usually detect them it's still disruptive.

So your exposure to India. Is it in the electronics industry? Is that well developed there? I know India is strong in information industries but don't hear much about electronics or electrical components.

 

[(*steve*)]

My contact with India is via friends. My wife went to university with someone who is married to an Indian guy. He travels back to India fairly frequently and I tag along with him from time to time. I get to experience India from a far less "touristy" perspective.

I have experienced (indirectly) the IT, call centre, and pharmaceutical sides of development through people I have net there who, in turn, work in those industries.

It's easy to see corruption in India. It comes probably from rapid growth and the lack of a regulatory infrastructure (or an inadequate one). I think that's pretty much the same in any country that experiences rapid growth in any area.

But back to the fake components. How do you check for them? On occasion I've had some components from an unknown source and I've basically seen if they operate near the limits of their specification where I can test that, but I can see that this would not always show up a problem, and it may be difficult to exhaustively test them.

Yeah, I have heard that board assemblers can source components and I thought that sounded like a recipe for disaster.