The Upgrading Of The "World Factory" Machine

What is the reason why China suddenly ushered in this wave of machine change?

"Machine revolution"

In 2005, Wool weaving The number of CNC looms used by garment manufacturers was only 2000, which increased to 4000 in 2008 and increased to 6000 in 2009.

Wang Yongzhou, a 27 year old salesman, finally waited for his "best days".

This guy sells a computerized transverse loom, a machine that uses computer programming language to implement intelligent control of the entire weaving system. A year ago, he could sell two or three units in a month, and now he can sell so much in a day. "The most important thing is no goods". Just like any seller who has "odd goods", Wang Yongzhou can not hide his excitement and arrogance. "More than 5 sets, two times to give, more than 10 sets, four times to give, and" he paused, "after September."

His company, headquartered in Tiger Wang, is still producing automatic mahjong machines two years ago. Now it has turned to the new business of horizontal looms. In the first half of last year, they opened a distribution point in the city to sell the machine from the railway. In just over a year, blowout sales have led the CEO to invest 50 million yuan in the construction of the factory next month.

Wang Yongzhou's store is located in Yin Lang Road, the town of wool textile in China. Two years ago, the two-way four lane road was not popular. Since the second half of last year, the signboards of various computerized looms have been woven into a horizontal silk.

This small town, which is only 118 square kilometers, has gathered 45 CNC looms, of which 1/3 was only opened after 2009.

Last November, at the eighth session of the trade fair, more than 50 textile machinery enterprises applied for more than 150 booths to the organizing committee. This has never happened before. The organizing committee had to temporarily transform some of the exhibition areas into machinery areas, which almost doubled the original booth, but still could not meet the demand.

According to statistics, in 2009, about 28 thousand and 900 sets of CNC looms were produced and sold in the town, mainly sold to the Pearl River Delta. Among them, only the town and neighboring Changping Town consumed more than 4000 units.

According to a data provided by the township investment office, in 2005, there were only 2000 CNC looms used by the town's Woolen garment manufacturers, up to 4000 in 2008, and 6000 in 2009.

Buying machine tide

"A few years ago Sales volume Stable at 150 units / year, this year. Order Up to now, it has surged to 450 units.

The change is not just the wool textile industry.

The best selling machine is the cotton filling machine, a machine that fills cotton with cloth dolls. Each machine can replace 20 people. The sales director said that more than 70 units were sold last year, and more than 200 units are most conservative this year.

There are also plug-in machines that are selling well. This machine mainly provides plug-in equipment for electronic components, and is applied to the production of household appliances, energy saving lamps, LED lighting and display screens. At present, there are only two domestic manufacturers: Xin Ze Valley and ZHENG Ke electronics.

"In the past few years, sales volume was stable at 150 units / year, and this year's orders have surged to 450 units." Chen Zhuozhong, sales director of New Ze Valley, told reporters on the phone.

In the second half of last year, it was officially launched, and sales were equally hot. In July 19th, the reporter saw the red banner of congratulatory sales exceeding 100 at the gate of the third industrial zone in Daling mountain town. Workers in the workshop on the first floor were still working overtime during the meal. General manager Gan Ning told reporters that orders had been placed in October, and he is now "afraid to pick up the goods."

The east alliance also felt this heat. It was the first and only financial leasing company in the world. In 2006, it began to carry out machine leasing business outside the country. At the beginning, the rental facilities were large construction machinery and medical equipment, and the benefits were not good. Until the second half of 2009, in the past four years, Mr. Ni Ling, the general manager of fund managers, adjusted the direction of leasing labor intensive industries, such as plug-in machines and placement machines. The volume of business increased suddenly. At the end of last year, it has invested 1.5 billion.

Reversed abacus

Everyone who sells machines and machines will tell reporters: labor is too expensive.

What made China suddenly usher in this wave of machine change?

Almost everyone who sells machines and machines will tell reporters: because labor is too expensive.

Take the computerized cross knitting machine as an example, the biggest feature of the machine that began to be made in China around 2004 is to save labor. Many of the woolen textile mills used to use hand-held machines and automatic belt conveyor. The former needs one worker per unit, and the latter needs one person for every two units. Now the computerized horizontal loom, a worker can see 6-8 at the same time.

Wang Yongzhou wrote accounts to reporters. At present, the wages of workers in the textile and garment industry are generally between 1500 and 1800 yuan (higher skilled workers), plus meals and accommodation. Each worker spends at least 2000 yuan a month, and the cost of labor can be reduced to the original 1/6 - 1/8 every time a computer transverse loom is added. A machine has 8-15 tens of thousands, and it can be returned in one or two years.

And plug-ins that directly replace manual plug-ins have higher cost performance. Gan Ning, an electronic general manager, made an estimate that under the same monthly production capacity, a set of machine lines needs 3 workers, while a traditional hand insertion production line needs 14 proficient workers. According to the monthly salary of 1500 yuan per person, the machine can save nearly 200 thousand of the labor cost in one year.

Cai Lihui, general manager of the sound and sound sound factory, is one of the customers attracted by this arithmetic result. He bought 5 plug-ins. The original all hand insertion, 80% into machine plug. He confirmed to reporters that the cost savings were equivalent to that of Gan Ning.

This was unthinkable decades ago.

In the 80s of last century, China began to undertake the third major manufacturing shift in the world. Chinese migrant workers use a pair of flexible hands to quickly install more than a dozen tiny parts that are barely visible to the naked eye to a square inch printed circuit board. They work overtime without complaint, and earn less than a few hundred yuan a month.

By contrast, machines at that time could be described as "expensive".

Take the textile and garment industry as an example, the price of a STOLL CNC loom imported from Germany is generally between 25-40 yuan and Japan's original imported precision CNC loom is 35-45 yuan. According to the life span of 8-10 years, the maintenance cost is 2-3 yuan per year. If calculated according to the monthly output value of 350 yuan, it will take about 5-7 years to recover the cost.

The accurate calculation of cost allows entrepreneurs to choose "people". A few years ago, Yuan Gangming, director of the macro room of the Institute of economics, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, saw a brand-new plug-in machine covered with plastic cloth in a landscape furniture factory of a Japanese enterprise. "This is a very advanced equipment, millions of. The Japanese finally chose to hire young Chinese women workers to manually plug in. Yuan said.

But since 2004, this phenomenon has begun to reverse. {page_break}

Since the beginning of that year, the shortage of migrant workers has spread from the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, and even a large province in the central part, which is the source of labor output, has also seen a shortage of migrant workers.

The change in supply and demand has increased the price of Chinese workers, which has nearly tripled compared with 10 years ago.

At the same time, with the progress of domestic technology, the price of machine began to drop. Now, a domestic computerized horizontal loom is usually priced between 8-15 yuan, less than 1/4 of the imported machine, and the maintenance cost is much lower than that of imported equipment. If the average daily production value is 200-250 yuan per day, the cost will generally be recovered in 1-2 years.

More importantly, even if a business owner has a way to fill the workshop with young faces born in the 80s, they will still find that this generation of migrant workers is much different from the previous generation.

They no longer complain about overtime work. They prefer to go to Internet cafes to earn more money. They do not even want to live in a collective dormitory provided by enterprises for free, for the reason is that management is too rigid. And their parents are more fond of these single children who have grown up under the family planning policy, so long as they make a phone call to say hard, let them go home.

In the first half of this year, the 13 jump and strike strikes made the outside world realize for the first time the changes of this group. Chinese entrepreneurs are forced to use pay increases to appease their emotions. Over the past few months, salaries have increased by more than 60%.

"The wage earners are no longer the former wage earners." these 80 and post-90s workers let Dai Yong, who has been doing second-hand equipment business for more than 10 years, first saw the machine sell so well. He told reporters a story that just happened: a business owner, called the group leader at 12:30 noon to inform the night to work overtime; at 15:30, the notice was posted to the staff dormitory, but no one came at night. In a rage, the boss bought him three plug-ins.

Everything that just started

"Our machines are only the same as those of the West in the 80s of last century." Dai Yong said impolitely.

Since the reform and opening up, China's rapid economic growth has actually enjoyed the "dividend" brought about by the massive growth of population in the first 10 years before the implementation of the family planning policy. From 1978 to 1998, in China's rapid economic growth for 20 years, the contribution rate of capital was 28%, the contribution rate of technological progress and efficiency improvement was 3%, and the rest were all contributed by the labor force.

But such dividends are unsustainable. A few years ago, Cai Fang, director of the Institute of population and labor economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, proposed that the "demographic dividend period" that China entered in the middle of 1960s will be concluded before and after 2015.

In fact, such a process has been experienced in Japan in the 70s of last century, and thus entered an industrialized era of rapid technological progress.

In the 50s of last century, Japan's post war economic take-off also depended mainly on cheap, willing and disciplined workforce. However, in the early 60s of last century, Japan took the initiative to give up this advantage and seek the development strategy of high wages, high welfare and high labor productivity. As a result, the utilization rate of robots in Japan is the highest in the world.

China surpassed Japan last year to become the second largest producer of manufactured goods after the United States, but the level of industrialization is hard to come by. "Our machines are only the same as those of the West in the 80s of last century." Dai Yong said impolitely.

According to Nomura's data, the proportion of machinery and equipment used in China's CNC system in 3-5 months this year is a common indicator of automation, rising to 27%, higher than the previous two years.

But this level is only the same as that of Japan in the 80s of last century. At present, the proportion of CNC in Japanese factories has risen to 82% of the world's leading level.

Compared with the west, China has a large and cheap labor force, the process of mechanization is much slower.

In the impression of Dai Yong, the use of machine fever in the labour intensive industries of the Pearl River Delta was around 2000. At that time, he and his partners, mainly the maintenance workers of imported machines, together with the machines that had been scrapped from the imported electronic waste, were repaired and sold as second-hand machines, and the price was more than half of that of imported ones.

The second-hand e-waste business has been going on for 10 years. When the domestic equipment manufacturer finally appeared in this industry, Dai Yong turned over to the past after the Spring Festival this year. "With the rise of labor prices, mechanization and automation will be an irreversible trend," he said.

Everything is just beginning.