mmarshall

Even though she was not a full-CEO, what happened recently in Japan with Toyota's Julie Hamp won't help much along those lines, either.

chikoo

The problem is China will not say no, and innovate ( even detrimental) to meet the cost and profit objectives. If they cannot make the product, they should take a stance and refuse to make it. But they don't.

Dave600hL

On the surface that may be true, but people have a very short memory. I think you will find that there are plenty of people who try to cheat the system. I see it in politics all the time.

There was a politician here who was put in jail for stealing campaign money and he was elected while he was in jail. Of course he could not fill the seat and had to disqualify himself. So people can't be too hard on cheaters for something like this to happen.

Trexus

Made in China is not known for high quality. I personally avoid made in (communist) China products. I don't mind if it's made in Vietnam, Mexico, Canada or any country but China.

If Lexus were to be made in China I personally wouldn't purchase it however if Lexus were to build a plant in China I'm sure made in China Lexus vehicles would be sold in China and hopefully not exported to any other country.

G Star

iTrader: (2)

This is complete BS

Media outlets love to take a quote out of context in order to sell their headline for more clicks.

Here is what was quoted:
Honestly, that could mean a lot of things but if Lexus made low quality cars in China, that would be on Lexus' inability to train their own employees to maintain strong craftsmanship, which we know is not the case since Lexus can build cars equally as high quality as Japan.

One of the world's most well manufactured products is made in China. Care to take a guess? APPLE. How many people are jumping on the "Lexus won't build in China due to low quality" bandwagon and have an iPhone in their pocket? or a China made laptop at home? Come on now, admit it.

Lexus doesn't have a good reason to build in China right now because their sales are good enough, their brand isn't strong enough to warrant such a strategy. Its not easy for Japanese brands to do well in China but maybe if they brand themselves well enough, sales would go up to the point where building in China makes sense.

RX built in Canada and ES now built in Kentucky, because it just makes sense.

gengar

I don't think that's much of a jump if at all from the quote to the headline...


Not quite right, because a critical aspect is the supply chain quality. TMC is not in direct control of most of the 3rd party suppliers - and as I already mentioned in this thread, according to statements from TMC execs, the big question as far as Lexus production in North America was the supply chain quality and not the assembly worker quality. So if you want to defend assembly plant worker quality in China, the better (but still not very good) argument is that TMC cares a lot about supply chain quality so maybe they aren't just talking about worker quality.

That said, training can't solve everything. It's nonsensical to say that because an employee negatively affects business in some way, it can only be because the worker wasn't trained sufficiently. Any number of factors can create systemic barriers that training can't overcome. It's for that reason that adaptation for local culture is an integral part of business methodology like JIT/TPS and is a huge part of TMC's global expansion process.

GS250

You sum it up very well. I fully agree you. have you spent time in China before?

Vladi

I have to agree with this. Communist or not who ever depends on imprisoned workers to have their product made are scum of the planet Earth. Apple included.

spwolf

ergh, Japanese held 25% of Chinese market.... they produce a lot of cars there. Only manufacturers growing in China are Japanese right now, with both Toyota and Honda growing in down market.

Aside when there are political tensions like back in 2012, Chinese love and trust Japanese products.

Cars are not cellphones, they are much more complicated... Apple for instance does not own most of the technology that goes into their phones, outside of cpu, all of it is purchased from suppliers that have Chinese factories.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

japanese and chinese dont really like each other in general in the first place

doge

Lol your'e basing comments off of stereotypes. Fun fact Vietnam government is a single party system. Ran by the Communist party of Vietnam, go figure

Really living up to the stereotype that amerians don't know **** about anything outside of america

rxonmymind

Cough..Um Toshiba flash, Sony camera lenses, Murata MFG capacitors,Sharp corp for glass and a few other things are made in Japan and shipped to China to assemble.

rxonmymind

The irony. My best friend is Chinese. We are the exception.
One day he wanted to take his family on a long trip and asked to borrow my then Sienna. I said sure but don't go sideways in it as the tires need to be changed soon. Few days later he came back he parked the car it was 11 pm and that was that. I woke up the next morning to the smell of new tires on my van. I had to laugh. In turn I've watched his kids when he had to go to work(night shift) over the years and other odd stuff. Solid guy. Lucky to have someone like this in life.

mmarshall

Well, even over and above Americans.........are you going to call the Lexus managers themselves stereotypical or ignorant, then? They have, no doubt, carefully looked at all the arguments (both pro and con), and maybe even others we have not mentioned here. Looking at that evidence, they have concluded that production in China is simply too risky to engage in right now. It is true, of course, that Buick has been a great success both producing and selling in China, but those vehicles are not going to the American market and to the average critical American buyer. They have made a business decision, based on the evidence.

doge

My comment was directed to the op which dismissed china based on it political affiliation, however he has no issue supporting goods from another country with the same political affiliation.