Japan decline in manufacturing the truth: "the spirit of the artisan" playing head-artisan spirit, manufacturing-IT information
Over the last few months, "artisan spirit" is a popular word. Officials, scholars and the media frequently refer to the word, and "supply side structural reform." Seems to be, it was agreed that Chinese manufacturing to transition to a high end, you have to rely on "builders." However, Japan's decline in the manufacturing sector give us a lesson-"artisan spirits" play, enough is enough.
"Spirit of the artisan" exert influence over Japan manufacturing
More than 10-20 years ago in the global appliance market, Japan brand dominance, Japan-made "craftsman spirit", often for domestic enterprises, researchers talked about, but the last two or three years, established Japan goods, it would seem difficult to profile up. Sharp job cuts and the sale of the crisis themselves, losing Panasonic difficult to make profits, Sony has been in the doldrums in the drift away, Canon of the crisis do not seem to be fundamentally alleviated, Hitachi, Toshiba, also have been strong in consumer electronics products all the way to rout, former star, NEC has been exiting the Smartphone ... ...
Had in Hitachi work 16 years, and current Kyoto University and Japan Northeast University teachers of soup on long, in its lost of manufacturing: Japan manufacturing of defeated a book in the, recalled has Japan IT manufacturing for decades years of honor history, summary has Japan manufacturing of four lessons, which has two article sword refers to "craftsman spirit": excessive rely on craftsman spirit and crafts who of skills, and ignored has products of standardization and General of, serious lack low cost volume produced capacity; too demanding Yu performance and index of extreme, And ignore the actual level of demand in the market, putting unnecessary costs, leading to changes in the market cannot be adjusted when research and development products.
I worked in the domestic manufacturing sector before, business, Japanese craftsman spirit of deep experience. 2009-2013, I have a manufacturer of industrial brushes, private enterprise inside sales, customer is foreign – mainly production localization of equipment to help it reduce costs. Among them, the Japanese customers (machinery manufacturing), the most welcomed by us. Why? Because, in the face of time of day, our most obvious price advantage.
Before we go in, industrial brushes for Japanese customers, almost all from Japan buying, quality is better than we had at home, life, probably is 1.5 times times; however, its price, is almost the "made in China" 10 times! So that works out to, its price, far below the "made in China". While patriotic, but business is business, they soon to the high cost of "made in China" in homage. Only two or three years, the main Japanese customers in the country, almost all were captured by our team one by one.
I see them several times in the customers from Japan bought industrial brush products than we do of course fine. Is more than fine, that's art! Products made of domestic enterprises, in many cases, only focus on functionality, but doesn't pay much attention to the aesthetic value and brought to the user's experience, but Japan business is very focused on this aspect. Their product, too beautiful, so that customers "want to use". However, do it well, there is a cost. These exquisite products, mostly in the small "Cottage" in the, high degree of automation, it is difficult to quantify production, this will lead to high production costs.
The problem was, industrial brushes, industrial equipment, not a consumer product, the appearance is not important, you spend so much effort, so beautiful it made doing? Not all products are necessary as a work of art to build, craftsmen as a pursuit of exquisite, of course, is a good thing, but only if customers are willing to pay for your heart only.
I have OEM factory in Taiwan (electronic) worked in a year, perfectionism will bring realised production of efficiency, as well as how much waste. For example, a LCD screen, only a different color of shell, will be considered as "new products", and then, all of the testing process has to start all over again and again, has nothing to do even with changing the shell of electronic components, and tested again. Every part is the cost can be.
The other hand, at that time, I have served the United States customer and Japan customers. Japan customer, details of the product, rather than United States customers much more picky, even demanding to a silly degree. We do a lot of samples, in United States customers can easily pass, but Japan customers, will be picked out a pile of problems. However, the wool of sheep, the sum of the cost of the pursuit of perfection, and eventually by Japan customers themselves.
That's right, play a "craftsman spirit", is possible to make the products more perfect; however, in the "marginal cost" and "diminishing marginal returns" under the law of, and in improving the quality of products to a certain extent, further play "artisan spirits" to make it more perfect, could be counter-productive. Soup on long in the book "too demanding in the extreme performance and indicators, while ignoring the actual level of demand in the market, putting unnecessary costs", meaning lies in this. This regardless of cost to build out of "art", closer to the luxury seems to sell not only on the cost of local tyrants, but in the entire market, not the pursuit of value for the proportion of clients is very small.
Song Qinghui, an economist told Xinhua in an interview that China's manufacturing sector in transition to high-end pay special attention to, and after the transformation and upgrading of high quality products, the price can be very high. Although people's spending power will increase, but not everyone can buy a higher-priced product, is likely to appear late glut of products in high quality and high prices. If excessive pursuit of innovation regardless of market conditions, not considered their affordability for consumers, want stop high technology development, the final product is likely to have no city.
日本制造业衰败真相：“工匠精神”玩过头 - 工匠精神,制造业 - IT资讯
在过去的几个月里，“匠人精神”是一个很火的词。官员、学者及媒体频繁提及这个词，与“供给侧的结构性改革”有关。似乎，大家一致认为，中国制造业要向高端转型，就必须依靠“匠人精神”。不过，日本制造业的的衰败则带给我们一个教训——对“匠人精神”的发挥，也要适可而止。
“匠人精神”过度发挥影响日本制造业
十几二十年前，在全球的家电市场上，日本品牌几乎独领风骚，日本制造的“匠人精神”，也常常为国内的企业研究者津津乐道；但最近两三年，那些老牌的日本货，似乎很难再高调起来了。危机中的夏普还在裁员与卖楼自救，连年亏损的松下想盈利还很难，索尼已在持续低迷中渐行渐远，佳能的危机四伏似乎也没有根本缓解，日立、东芝也在以往曾经强势的消费电子产品领域一路溃败，昔日明星NEC已彻底退出智能手机领域……
曾在日立工作16年、现任京都大学和日本东北大学教师的汤之上隆，在其《失去的制造业：日本制造业的败北》一书中，回顾了日本IT制造业几十年的荣辱史，总结了日本制造业的四大教训，其中有两条剑指“匠人精神”：过度依赖匠人精神与手工艺者的技艺，而忽视了产品的标准化与通用化，严重缺乏低成本量产能力；过于苛求于性能与指标的极致，而忽视了市场实际需求水平，投入不必要的成本，致使市场出现变化的时候在研发上不能及时调整产品。
笔者之前在国内的制造业中工作过，因业务关系，对日企的匠人精神深有体会。2009-2013年期间，笔者曾在一家生产工业刷的民企里面从事销售工作，主要客户即是外资企业——推动外企生产设备的国产化，帮助其降低成本。其中，日系客户（机械制造类），最受我们的欢迎。为什么呢？因为，面对日企的时候，我们的价格优势最明显。
在我们进去之前，日系客户用的工业刷，几乎都是从日本买来的，质量是比我们在国内造的好一些，寿命，大概是我们的1.5倍；然而，其价格，几乎就是“中国制造”的10倍！这样算下来，其性价比，远远低于“中国制造”。日本人虽然也爱国，但在商言商，他们很快就向性价比很高的“中国制造”折腰。短短的两三年时间里，在国内的主要日系目标客户，差不多都被我们的团队一一攻克了。
我多次在客户那里见到他们原来从日本买来的工业刷，产品当然比我们在国内做的精致。何止是精致，那简直就是艺术品！国内企业做的产品，在很多时候，只注重功能，却不怎么在意其审美价值及由此带给用户的情感体验，但日本企业却很注重在这方面下功夫。他们那个产品，做得太漂亮，以至于客户都“舍不得用”。然而，做得漂亮，是有代价的。这些精致的小产品，大都是在人数很少的“小作坊”里做出来的，自动化程度不高，很难批量化生产，这便导致生产成本居高不下。
但问题是，工业刷，只是一个工业设备，又不是个消费品，外观并不重要，你花那么大力气，把它做那么漂亮干嘛？并非所有的产品都有必要当做艺术品来打造，匠人把精致当做一种追求，当然是好事情，但前提是，客户得愿意为你的这种心结买单才行啊。
我曾经在台资的OEM工厂（电子类）里工作过一年，深刻体会到生产上追求完美主义会带来效率的降低，以及造成多大的浪费。比如，一款液晶显示屏，仅仅换一个不同颜色的外壳，就会被视为“新产品”，然后，所有的测试流程都要从头再来一遍，哪怕是与换外壳毫无瓜葛的电子元器件，也得重新接受检测。每一个环节，可都是成本啊。
另一方面，那段时间，我先后服务过美国客户和日本客户。日本客户，对产品的细节，要比美国客户挑剔得多，甚至是苛刻到无聊的程度。我们做的很多样品，在美国客户那里能够轻而易举地通过，但到了日本客户那里，就会被挑出一大堆毛病。不过，羊毛出在羊身上，这笔追求极致完美所产生的成本，最终都由日本客户自己承担了。
没错，发挥“匠人精神”，是可以使产品更完美；然而，在“边际成本上升”及“边际收益递减”规律的作用下，产品质量在提高到一定的程度后，再进一步发挥“匠人精神”使之更加完美，可能得不偿失。汤之上隆书中的“过于苛求于性能与指标的极致，而忽视了市场实际需求水平，投入不必要的成本”，要义正在于此。这种不惜成本打造出来的“艺术品”，更接近于奢侈品，似乎仅适合卖给那些不谈性价比的土豪，但在整个大市场中，不追求性价比的客户所占的比重是非常小的。
经济学家宋清辉在接受记者采访时指出，中国制造业在向高端转型的时候要特别注意，转型升级后的高质量产品，价格可能会很高。尽管人们的消费能力会提升，但并非所有人都可以购买价格较高的产品，很有可能到后期就出现高质量、高价格产品供过于求。如果企业过度追求创新而不顾市场实际情况，不考虑消费者的承受能力，想实现一步到位的高端技术发展，最终的产品很可能有价无市。