The innovation and production pipeline in Shenzhen. -HWTrek Asia Innovation tour 2016 autumn-
HWTrek is doing business that connects world startup and mainly Shenzhen manufacturer. They hold a tour to introduce the manufacturing network to the startup twice a year. I will introduce the situation of the tour and manufacturers of the supply chain at prototype / small lot stage.
HWTrek is a support company for Makers. They make networks to connect the following 33 together and make business as matching.
· Startup: Although there are ideas and product seeds, we can not yet deliver the products to the market
· Manufacturer: It is capable of producing startup products.
· Expert: It is a specialist who can solve startup problems, but it does not make products by oneself.
Many manufacturers are situated on the other side of Hong Kong, Baoan District in Shenzhen, Dongguan City and so on.
This is list.You can see whole process from Prototype to Product.
SkyPrototype (CNC,Resin Cast, small lot prototype)
ChinaPCBOne (PCB, PCBA)
EMTECH (Certification, Test)
Shenzhen valley ventures (Incubator, accelerator, MakerSpace)
Invox/Sun On (Molding)
teamGiant (Battely)
Ryder (EMS)
Stephen Gould (Packaging)
Nothing that can not be made here Shenzhen supply chain
This time they participated in a tour to guide the supply chain to the startup, and I saw Shenzhen being called a world factory. I saw seven different factories in 3 days, but the following points are common.
· Every manufacturer has world-class level design, production and problem solving skills
· Flexible and quick response
· Higher level of confidentiality, such as checking belongings by whole body counter at entrance of factory
· Contracts can be tied in English
· Perhaps the price range is higher in Shenzhen, but there is no feeling that cost is spent on unnecessary places and high price with no brand name is added with brand name
· Current business partners are lined with famous manufacturers including famous companies in Japan, Europe and the US
Since it is obvious in Shenzhen that it is early / cheap to some extent, I felt that it is characterized by being reliable in terms of quality and delivery time, and being able to respond flexibly to ambiguous orders of startups. In this report, we will introduce the incubator and cutting company, from “prototype to productization”.
Shenzhen Valley Ventures “prototype to productization”.
Start-ups will commercialize “ideas not found anywhere in the world”.
From a mass-production company’s point of view, it will be “to make products not found anywhere in the world”. It is a challenging story from the experience of a mass production company.
Many products that the nominated start-up worked on failed at the mass production stage.
Shenzhen Valley Ventures is an incubator operated by ZOWEE, a super-biggest manufacturing company like FOXCONN, which makes business to support startup like this participant. Besides Shenzhen, there is an office in Silicon Valley as well, it is a business model like the reverse of HAX (from San Francisco with lab in Shenzhen) to introduce American resources to a company in China.
Of course, as HAX is also investing in Chinese companies, Shenzhen Valley Ventures also invests in the start-up in the world other than the United States, and it seems that the ratio between the United States and China is exactly half. We have incubated the startup with a span of about 6 months and 10 labs have already used this lab just opened two weeks ago.
In this Maker space just created, an engineer who can give advice such as design and inspection for mass production which is missing in the start-up resides and as shown in the presentation movie, “As Makers trying to actually make a business, not a hobby The place for “is provided. DMM.make AKIBA is close in Japan in the case of professional, but it is the first time to prepare for Maker space up to a small production line like Shenzhen.
SKY Prototype 1 to 1000
SkyPrototype is a milling company. In trial production in Chinese, it often refers to “making one by one” with cutting and 3D printers, rather than “trying on a trial.” Injection molding commonly used in mass production first uses a lot of money to make a “mold” and pours plastic into it to make the exterior. It is cheap enough to make as much as possible, but the initial cost is necessary, once you make the mold, it is difficult for you to fix it, it is not suitable for use such as “make only 10 pieces and try to exhibit at the exhibition”.
Process 3D printers and cutting processes one by one.
Even if one or even 1000, the cost per one will not change, initial investment will not be applied. Even if it finally mass-produces and lines up in a mass merchandiser, even if it is necessary for exhibitions and cloud funding, use cutting work and gather feedback several times until the mistake is not made, It is a good choice to raise money for investment.
SkyPrototype performs small lot processing with 1 to several thousands as a catch phrase, and many engineers ride in consultation. If you inform us of the exterior CAD data and application, the necessary number etc., we will consider the material, processing method, finishing method etc. together. Since that consulting service is an incidental work of manufacturing, it is free, communication is also roughly in English. The factory has machines and craftsmen who can do various processes for that purpose, and exchange is said to start from “sending prototype first”.
Of course, not only prototype but SkyPrototype is handling products, such as finished products of automobile gear boxes, which require accuracy and material that CNC can not deliver even if the cost rises somewhat. First of all, there are a lot of representative machines for small lot production and various CNCs. A large number of CNCs with different roles, such as machines capable of complicated machining such as gouging, large machines capable of producing large parts, such as 4 axes and 5 axes, line up.
Skyprototype has many design engineers for such consulting.
Also, while making small lots as core, they make it scalable to even a little more requests. For example, it also provides a resin cast that molds resin by making molds with silicone rubber, plastic, aluminum, etc, and also provides a lathe and drilling engineer to make even less items than CNC.
As you can see from the photographs up to now, although there are many machine tools, SkyPrototype and other strengths of Shenzhen companies are also able to respond flexibly by craftsmanship plus the number of people. Many employees have started working since age 18 and the average age of the factory is 25 years old. So far Shenzhen was a place where workers concentrated from all over China, but now it is also the place with the highest land and salary in China. SkyPrototype is considering moving to Xiamen (Xiamen) as the next one. In Xiamen, the quality of the workers does not change so much, but it seems that the operating cost of the factory will be reduced by 30%.
Invox/Sun On Synbol of Manucatcurling
Injection molding, making metal exteriors in large quantities using metal molds is a synonym for mass production. Many of fabcross’s readers will recognize that the mold is as expensive and valuable as to be an asset.
Sun On Group of Dongguan City is its injection molding factory. Founded in 1997, currently counts 1,000 employees and has sold $ 45 million. We produce and output 150 to 200 project dies per month, 30% of whom are foreign clients.
The difficult point for injection molding is that it can not be fixed at a later time.
Sun On Group sells proposal power by preparing engineers who are familiar with all the manufacturing processes and repeating prototyping before raising the mold. For example, when undertaking injection molding of a water dispenser, output a prototype using a 3D printer that can output large items, and verify that “it can be properly used in this form and water flows”. The 3D CAD data is shared with the client, and of course you can send prototypes by mail.
An estimate including the prototype cost is presented at the initial exchange of “what to use for what kind of requirement specification” and the interaction on the way is included in the final output fee.
The black part of the exterior of the cell phone in this picture is made of injection molded plastic. It is necessary to fasten the screws, but cutting the screw threads to plastic becomes uneasy in terms of strength.
Sun On proposed a structure fitting a threaded metal nut and made it “work well” from all aspects of strength, cost and ease of manufacture. Since this is inside it does not matter that the texture and color are different.
In order to solve various problems on Sun On, there are not only injection molding but also all molding lines including aluminum casting and pressing.
For Sun On to speak, “One order ends with an overnight line operation, there are rarely people waiting for customers.”
It is the most time-consuming aspect of how to output what exactly what kind of material is output after CAD data of the exterior is brought in. In about a month and a half, one project is over.
Sun On’s factory also has a small assembly line, brought boards and electronic circuit parts from others and sometimes undertakes work to make it finished here. I feel that it is Shenzhen-like business style where accumulated know-how of various factories.
EMTEK Certification
The difference between the products that line up in the store and the prototype that startup makes is the quality including safety. To line up with mass merchandising stores, it is necessary to ensure security including certification by the certification body of each country. EMTEK provides comprehensive inspection / Certification services.
Founded in 2000, EMTEK currently has annual sales of $ 24.6 million annually, and 5 to 6 new products are handled monthly. In famous places, Takara Tomy’s toys have been inspected here, which seems to be a 15% cost savings compared to the former vendor. In addition, it is a big company with nineteen support offices around the world including inspection of the new model BB — 8 of the robot toy used to connect with the smartphone Sphero here.
In EMTEK, FCC, CE and technical suitability can be taken at one factory, but this is also consulting here as well, considering the optimum plan by product and budget. Those that are closely attached to the skin like a smartphone and loaded with various wireless equipments require a variety of tests, which is said to be a case of a smart phone development in the United States, it took only 60,000 dollars for the inspection process. What kind of inspection is done is the know-how of EMTEK, the more expensive the inspection is, the more expensive it is, but the problem is discovered later and the risk of product recall is lowered. It is one of the values of EMTEK to propose inspection plans by stepping into what kind of products and what users use.
The time to create a test plan and end the test is on average 3 to 4 weeks. There are also premises to break the product during the test, so if you have about 3 to 4 samples, it will be over in that period, but with only one there seems to be more time.
TeamGiant (Battely) and Stephen Gould(Packaging and Shipment)
In Shenzhen, packing service companies that undertake final stages of manufacturing, companies that make batteries themselves from scratch are all within the range that any service necessary for the manufacturing industry can be accessed.
Shenzhen’s battery maker teamGiant is a company that can process raw materials and make battery cells themselves. In addition to batteries that can withstand approximately 500 charging used in general electronic devices such as smart phones, they also manufacture high-life batteries that can withstand over 2000 charges used in electric vehicles and the like.
The factory has been almost automated, it is possible to observe but the inside can not be taken. We also customize automation monitoring system for our company. The company’s strength is the high performance of the basic battery cell, which is created by hiring a lot of doctors and masters, and the quality of testing the safety by leaving the completed battery charged for 48 hours for safety. At the time of the test, 2000 charging cycles are done in-house, and the barcode attached to the battery of the finished product contains not only the date of manufacture and lot, but also information on where the material was purchased , And devised so that quality can be further improved when there is a problem. If you just paste labels etc. using existing battery cells, if you are going to adjust the capacity, voltage, size etc from small hundreds of small lot and make a completely custom battery, assuming a capacity of 5000 mA, It can be developed from about a piece. If the capacity is bigger like those used for electric cars, the number is small, and as the capacity is small like the one put in the action camera, the number increases.
Lastly I visited Stephen Gould of the American capital, a service company that packs and delivers packages with a printing factory as the core. Also at the entrance of the factory, there is a whole body counter like before you board an airplane, you can not bring in or take anything to the factory.
Here we undertake many national clients, such as GoPro, Parrot of Drone, Japanese companies such as Panasonic, etc., in Shenzhen.
Everything is handled in Stephen Gould, of course, until it is printed / bound in paper manuals, printed in cosmetic boxes, made in boxes, packed in boxes, delivered together in a cardboard for shipping, of course, We are also doing a few things for exhibitions etc.
A huge printing factory is located in Dongguan City, a bonded area located in the border area of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, where we store / ship products from customers, even if we decide to pack products made in Thailand etc. here, Taxes brought to China are not charged. Shenzhen / Hong Kong is close to Southeast Asia, and it seems to be using that locality well.
I saw whole of process in here Shenzhen, from Prototype to Product
The 3 days I experienced this time was a tour to see the accumulation of enormous manufacturing industry accumulated from all over the world in the last 30 years.
In Shenzhen you can receive all services from prototype to shipment in a place where you can hear. It seemed that they were motivated to commercialize “the work which is not in the world, the first work” which was able to be able to talk in English in all the visited companies and it was flexible. Regardless of a standalone dealer, its accumulation is only in Shenzhen. Also, HWTrek will not introduce it, but if you search by yourself, you will find lots of cheaper suppliers. I think that scalability is also the result of accumulation.
The integration increases the quality and the cost decreases. The factory operation cost in the Shenzhen area has been rising year by year, but it seems that the merit of progressing accumulation has been won for a while for a while. In terms of individual vendors, there are many places where they are considering relocating to Xiamen (Amoy) or Malaysia. Shenzhen is also a location that can be their hub.
In fact, many of the factories are no longer “Shenzhen City” but are moving to neighboring Dongguan City, etc. The center of Shenzhen City has become a city with higher added value such as financial district and service. If you are in Dongguan you can do the same thing as Shenzhen, it is another challenging goal whether to have the same quality when you move the factory to Xiamen and even overseas. Japanese companies have many such experiences, but Chinese companies will experience it from now.
Nonetheless, the future will be more globalized. It will be more urbanized and more merit will come out. The role will change, but it seems that it will continue to be in the place where “for the time being let’s go to Shenzhen” for startup for a while.
