 We first started working in Asia in the spring of 1987. The mission at
that time was to locate fastener companies in both Taiwan and Japan for
a very large American distributor. The products had to meet the requirements
at that time of the Fastener Quality Act. Trips to these countries lasted
up to six weeks and eventually over time more than one hundred fastener
plants were visited and assessed.
While we identified several Japanese
plants that could make excellent products, the yen-to-dollar exchange
made almost all of those companies noncompetitive. In Taiwan
there was great enthusiasm to make sales, but we found no companies
that could consistently meet standard product specifications.
Therefore, we selected plants where the management had the best attitude
to improve and those plants were developed by us to be technically competent.
This entailed many days and nights of training, tool design, and equipment
selection until the plants could conform to the specifications. Those
plants were rewarded with new business.
 China
as a fastener supplier is now is in a similar position as Taiwan was
in the late 80s and early 90s. Through one of our American
clients we were introduced in 2001 to a man from China. We
established a mutual interest and he is now the General Manager
of our office in Shanghai with a staff of ten. Business in
China is a whole lot different from Japan or Taiwan. They believe
in first having a relationship with a prospective buyer as
opposed to just quoting. Therefore, we're
facilitating introductions to fastener companies for the types
of products our clients want. If you'd like to buy from that
company or companies, we'll
get the parts to your door. We're also working on making
improvements to some of the fastener companies to make sure
the quality is just right.
Please read about how things
are done in China with the article we wrote, "Doing
Business in China," as appeared in Fastener
Technology International magazine. Adobe
Reader required.
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