China’s architectural renaissance

China’s cool building boom didn’t stop after the Olympics: many upcoming venues ventured into more organic and odd angled building shapes, assembled as complex 3D puzzles without much element repetition. One of my friends explained the magic of the 20:80 ratio, which he thinks is a major contributor to this renaissance.

 The early Manhattan High-rises such as the Chrysler building were beautifully constructed, with many elegant details.  The labor to material cost ratio was 20:80. As this ratio flipped over the century to 80:20, the buildings became boxier in shape, unless awarded by wealthy institutions.  In China this ratio seems to be 20:80, possibly explaining the surge in building complexity.

Look at the latest opera house in Guangzhou, designed by famous Zaha Adid, known for her hard to build structures, even with today’s advanced design and planning tools. The construction was challenging but successful and on time.  Other great examples are: Guangzhou’s twisted TV tower, the 2010 Asian games buildings and the Shenzhen Universiade games venues for 2011.

Reverse Innovation in Emerging Markets

From Harvard Business Review: How GE is disrupting itself, a 50% solution at a 15% price.

Slower expanding rich markets don’t provide enough growth for large corporations such as GE. High end products on the other side are not competitive in emerging markets. The threat of new giants from these regions forces companies such as GE to innovate inside these markets, at much lower cost point. This reverse innovation is the opposite of the globalization approach that many manufacturers tried without much success.

As example is mentioned a PC based portable Ultrasound device, now selling at US$15,000. Originally these bulky devices were priced at $100k and then dropped to $30-$40k for portable versions.

The Chinese development team decoupled computer and software from the Ultrasound device, using a laptop and advanced software, replacing a large (expensive) box with custom hardware. This device has become a hit especially in rural areas, with not as high a performance as the origal 100% custom built model but “good enough” for use in remote areas. The 50% solution at a 15% price.

3D TV at Shenzhen Airport

While waiting for security check at Shenzhen Airport I noticed the 3D TV’s from TCL hanging above the queue, playing 3D cartoons. TCL is a Shenzhen based TV design and manufacturing company.

It’s interesting to see how intense competition drives aggressive development. Big brands thrive on market share, huge R&D budgets and manufacturing facilities, other brands compete by differentiation.

TCL, according to their news flash, is the first company to commercialize 3D TV

QC in China

Both buyers and suppliers are working hard to maximize profits, causing shortcuts to be taken or worse. Local QC companies are offering a much lower cost for on site visitation compared to sending over engineers from afar.

Proper QC however is more than a “look and feel” inspection. QC should balance all measures taken against product specs and warranty (long term effects). Nobody wants large volumes of returns, support calls (at $20 each) or worse: recalls.

QC can also save the client a considerable amount of money by lowering reject rates on molded parts for instance. Depending on part complexity this requires true in depth injection molding and tooling knowledge.

Larger volume production is a great exercise in statistics: from source parts to final assembly. Troubleshooting is ambiguous and can lead to multiple paths, each one possibly spawning new (undetected) issues.

This all asks for a very methodical approach, extending from the DFMEA done upfront, DOE on the source part creation and fish bone diagrams etc..

QC should be an extension of upfront engineering, by engineers in the right discipline who can communicate directly (without filters). I have seen too many occasions where other visitors claimed to have “solved the problem already”, whereas the real problems only came out in the next few days.

Let’s not take a short cut to solve a short cut….