加拿大人Maxime 中国创办制造企业20年，220名员工
加拿大人带我参观了一家中国工厂……我无意到了这一点
2025年1月13日
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0a6KRMzXbk
Maxime 是一位加拿大人，20 年前在中国创办了一家制造企业，目前拥有 220 多名员工。我联系他了解中国的生活，他的故事非常有趣，所以我最终参观了他在广州的工厂。 Maxime 分享了对中国最大的误解的见解，他作为西方人是否感到自由，以及大多数中国制造的产品是否真的质量低劣。享受！
加拿大人带我参观了一家中国工厂……我没想到这一点
2025年1月13日
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0a6KRMzXbk
Meet Maxime, a Canadian who started a manufacturing business in China 20 years ago, which now employs over 220 people. I reached out to him to learn about life in China, and his story was so fascinating that I ended up visiting his factory in Guangzhou. Maxime shared insights on the biggest misconceptions about China, whether he feels free as a Westerner there, and if most products made in China are really low quality. Enjoy!
<<<<<>>>>>>>
it's all happening because of the people
who were here they have this mindset
that you know we just move forward as
fast as we can and this is this is
fantastic M Maxim a Canadian who started
a manufacturing business in China 20
years ago which now employs over 220
people I reached out to him to learn
about life in China and his story was so
fascinating that I ended up visiting his
Factory in guano Maxim shared insights
on the biggest misconceptions about
China whether he feels free as a
Westerner there and if more products
made in China are really low quality I'm
Mar CH of your Insider to exper life
doba what's the biggest misconceptions
in the west about China overall what
people don't get about China for now
being here I'm Bas here for forever you
know so for a very long time so for me I
think people don't understand the level
and the quality that is happening here
and especially you know the energy and
the speed at which people are reactive
uh so you know people are very customer
service oriented here everybody so the
customer has something you know we
everybody is always trying to go in the
same direction yeah and I'll say this is
probably misunderstood you know do you
feel that your freedom is restricted you
feel restricted living in China no I've
never felt my my freedom was restricted
I will say the system in China is truly
amazing it's well organized from the
time you land until the time you know
you move around everything is simple so
I arrived 2005 not one single time I
failed my my freedom was restricted life
is very very Smo and very easy why do
you think people have this
misconceptions about China maybe media
mainly for sure it's it's the media
right because it makes newspaper sell
right so for sure but but personally and
I've never hear any case I you know for
sure I've met a lot of people over my
time in China and I've never met anyone
who fa that way or who were afraid of
anything yeah I traveled quite a lot but
before going to China I was like ask my
friend who's been there for like a long
time oh it's okay if I if I come with my
camera the microphones cameras maybe
they ask some additional questions at
the border so I was actually even me I
was affected by oh maybe I shouldn't do
it you know this kind of thing oh yeah
but nothing they block you or no nothing
happened I mean it was like very smooth
what I love about China I told my wife
because I I was in Shanghai like 10
years ago but very briefly but like this
time I spend the week everything is
super fast even at the airport they are
nice and light but they're very fast so
the system the system works and you see
like it's a huge scale but system works
to run a country of this size in this
scale very well you know it's not easy
and I will think that they've done it
very well okay it's digitize they
digitize more and more but you know they
have no choice there's it's a huge
population it's geographically it's a
very big countries so they have no
choice to organize and I would think
they've organized it very efficiently
and you know know every every other
month the there is EV it evolves you
know this notion about uh Chinese
production is like quantity versus
quality you know low quality is it the
case like in China you know you know you
you can anywhere in the world you can
get anything I was saying here the
quality is very high because our Niche
is really B2B and uh Goods that need to
that need to be performing for the next
10 20 years on the field yeah so
therefore we we have a special attention
to those products how we how we design
them with the customer so we co-design a
lot with the customer and how we build
them to make sure it's going to be
reliable when they are used by the user
but do you think like China at some
point china switched from this quantity
approach to Quality because everyone
remembers this Chinese like plastic
products from the ' 80s and the '90s but
I guess now it's like very different but
now now you know the I will say that the
market has changed to very high value
added product
yeah that mean uh more into there is a
lot of B2B there is a lot where which
require better quality usually yeah so
um so yeah for sure you know the
approach in China you need to you the
biggest benefit of China is the supply
chain so the capabilities of the supply
chain to build and iterate product very
fast and bring them to Market we follow
a lan manufacturing approach that mean
that one specific line start from the
parts and finish in the Box yeah and
every worker is responsible of their own
work there is a team leader and they
will be quality control but for quality
assurance proposed so we will do we will
pick randomly Parts but we really want
every single worker to be responsible of
their work yeah for example she's like
putting the product inside the box and
she's assembling the Box exactly yeah
and so for the next person it will be
different the next person you know some
of them will be we'll do a a quality
control check some of them will be
assembling part together screwing them
riveting or um or making a function test
this is an example so the line is
connect we know who is working on a
specific product at all time and they
have access to their own drawings they
have access they we we tell them how
they perform what's the best thing for
you that exist in China and doesn't
exist in Canada or like in in in the US
personally you know I know that people
are very amazed at the WeChat for sure
that wehat you know it's all connected
with a single app you can basically run
your entire life in China so I would
think that's one of the cool thing in
China what I really enjoy in China I
give you an example because I've been
driving since I'm since I arrived so I I
started driving I think in 2006 and what
I like is whenever there is a bottleneck
building somewhere the country is taking
care of it so you know for sure there is
a lot of car but they they are
constantly improving the infrastructure
you know could be the light system could
be you know the number of uh the number
of Lane on the highway on the road so
they are continuously evolving to fix
you know the inefficiencies and I find
it amazing because they are really
really fast and let me give you an
example you know after covid I was I
wasn't able to go to China for a while
but when I return I I figure out that
you know it took twice as long to drive
from my from one place to the other and
you know it was just that the had a lot
of red light and one of my colleague
called the city uh the city level uh
department and you know the next day
what I what did I see they were fixing
the light okay which is amazing you know
and they fix the pr the next day so so
for sure you know a lot a lot is
controlled by the central government but
there is a lot of freedom at the city
level to be able to improve you know the
life of the people but also improve the
life of of the companies and everyone
and so basically you have you able to
give them feedback so there is a system
how to give this feedback to them
exactly exactly so there is system to
give feedback on about pretty much
everything and you know they come the
the the authorities in different
department they come to visit us and you
know truly ask us what what can we do to
help you is there anything that makes
you that makes running the business
difficult so I think that you know it's
a very uh business friendly environment
for sure it's like everywhere there is
rules the rules need to be followed and
you know as long as you follow them
everything is fine everything looks like
very clean I would say very organized
like gu I used to go to German factories
when I used to work for German company
it's kind of the same Vibe everything is
quite organized yeah some people don't
expect in China to be the production to
have production like this people think
maybe it's like you know I I think there
is a misconception okay about what can
be done here because of the scale of the
supply chain and because of the
requirement to move very fast to develop
product fast to manufacturing fast we
have had no choice to adapt and to
integrate everything with a lot of it
here again they here they're inspecting
part but they everything again is
digitized to be sure that they inspect
the right thing for the right part at
the right time do you have sometimes
like some conflicts uh no it's very easy
people you know people in China are
amazing it's very easy to work with with
Chinese people they want the goal to be
clear and you know then they will they
will go in that direction with us um any
specific like advice or like something
that let's say if you hire in China you
kind of need to know need to understand
about people you know I will think that
due to the culture difference it's very
important to be very clear and very
precise about the expectation so I give
you an example A lot of people the main
mistake they will do is they will they
will create a specification that's
unclear
or this is that is not quantitative you
cannot ask some people to you know put
the right amount of uh force or put the
right the the right color you just need
to specify exactly what will be the
color where it's going to be and how
it's going to be controlled and the more
clear it is the more precise it is you
know the less mistake they will be and
the less misunderstanding they will be
is it anything that you're kind of not
supposed to to do in China or with
Chinese anything that let's say not
acceptable acceptable in Canada but not
acceptable in China in China people take more time to discuss about very personal issue so and I think this is country
specific you know it's not only about
China there's L other country who are
like this and and we need to respect
this you know I think it's it's to take
the time to understand other culture but
to respect it and you know
to at some point when people want to
open up they will but we can't you know
for for sure we don't go at the core of
the question right at the beginning like
anywhere else in the world right I guess
it's actually different maybe in Asian
countries and in China like because it's
a it's a high context culture let's say
in the US or probably in Canada as well
it's a low context so you basically
you're pretty straightforward normally
with what you want uh from like your
counterpart but I think it's my guess in
China because in Singapore and like
southeast Asia countries I feel it's
like you kind of need to understand why
people are doing it and why they think
this way so it's not like okay I I give
you one like $10 you give me this
product it's not like that
straightforward I think exactly exactly
you're right any examples for like maybe
from your like entrepreneur uh
experience sometime I was say in in
China One of the difficulties is you
know the problem are not very solved
right at the beginning so if there is a
problem people may keep quiet instead of feeling there is a problem until they
feel that they're comfortable to share
it so I will say one of the challenges
is really to go to ask more question and
and you know whatever is their CH their
challenges they will they will voice it
out but it will take it it won't be as
straightforward as anywhere else H
usually you know if if there's a problem
you will need to dig a little bit before
to find out how was the issue and how to
solve it once the problem come to the
surface then you know I think in China
what's amazing is everybody is very
resilient so they are very strong at you
know helping to focus they're very
result oriented so they will really take
the time to understand the problem and
work out on a solution and you know try
try and test the solution as quick as
possible this is a sheet metal facility
it's all digitized so that mean you so
all the machine are related to the
system and we know what people are doing
at all time uh in this facility we also
code online in real time we invest a lot
we have a we have a lot of it developer
we develop a system where one day people
around the world will design a product
they will drop the drawing in our system
and they will get a price in real time
all the back office will be generated
automatically so what's inside of the
machine so uh by here we do sheet metal
Parts okay so what's the sheet metal
parts let's go to to have a look so one
of these machines how much would it be
like what's a machine like this is more
or less
$150,000 a robot like this maybe
$200,000
um so you know you can get for the same
machine I give you an example this
machine is is 150 you can have the other
one that look alike that's
25 the same what's different is the
feature okay how you know what is my
interest in manufacturing is to do the
first parts right the first time yeah
you know every machine will be able to
achieve a certain part at a certain
point my goal and our our goal at KP has
always been how can we for the first
part make it well yeah and this is what
we strive when we purchase equipment
your management is local and foreigners
we have a mix so we have a mix so I I
believe in having people from different
culture working together yeah because
you have uh more brainstorming and you
have more Divergent opinion so I like to
have you know in K aspect when we meet
there is no one single voice at the
beginning so everybody has their own
opinion and then you know we pick what's
the best from every culture for sure you
know you take someone from America
someone from Europe from China Australia
everybody's got a different way to look
at thing and I like this this difference
in in opinion it help us progress and it
help us grow in Asia you know it's a
it's a team but the the the company is
responsible of the team has a big amount
of responsibility for the team so that
mean that if something happen with
someone's family you know the company is
expected to help the company is expected
to take care of of its people and I and
you know I came to believe that's
perfectly right because yes you know for
sure you run a a for-profit organization
yes you know profitability is important
but if you look a little bit deeper you
know a company has a responsibility
toward these people you know you need to
be able to give them a better future and
this is to help them grow to pay them
better but you know to achieve this you
need to help them to achieve this is not
that you can just ask them to work more
and more every year you need to be able
to at this time you know to to automate
their work so that you can really make
best use of their time and the more
efficient you can make them as a company
the more you will be able to reward them
and I think that's that's something
that's pretty different if you compare
the what I've learned in China to what
I've seen before is that here I as a
company owner I really feel responsible
of for of for employee that's personally
the biggest difference I see in obvious
between the Chinese World corporate
world and the Western corporate world is
in China there is this you know there is
this belief that the company is
responsible but you get something the
company gets something in return when
you when you need when you need the
employee you know to come back while
they understand it's they need to return
the favor so that's probably you know
it's driving a lot of the interaction
between the company and you know the
team behind the company and it say this
old culture things that is very very
important you're very transparent with
everything so you're not hiding stuff in
our field we work with customer you know
I have a lot of customer since my first
years in business so it's very important
that we want them to sell as much as
possible this is our goal you know how
can we make sure customers sell as much
as possible for as long as possible so
we want to be sure that we improve all
the time but we want to be sure that the
product we ship are perfect we invest so
much time in engineering for the first
few months for the first few years of a
new product because a product is a
living thing it's not that you make a
design you build it and it's over you
know it keep improving fine tuning so
it's very important that you know we
don't we want to be successful at making
this product so our customer in term
will be successful at selling it so it's
a very simple mathematical equation you
know the better we do the more they sell
and you know the more we succeed yeah
yeah so that's why it makes sense for
you to be transparent yeah exactly and
you know if if we help people to do the
right thing they will do the right thing
your customers they all Chinese uh all
our customer no they are from around the
world from around the world yeah we sell
okay okay I will say for today we sell
to around 30 countries more or less yes
so okay so your suppliers are Chinese
your customers who you sell to exactly
exactly all our customers are Western we
sell a little bit in China what what
what's the biggest market for you now uh
I will say we're very very Diversified
okay so for sure you know North America
is a big is a big share of our Market
but we sell a lot in Europe
in in Australia and like the customers
normally visit you here they come yeah
customer visit us we visit them and we
take the time to understand better what
they need it's very important what's
your like secret to be successful
businessman in China do you think well
we just work a lot you know I think I
think I think we you know we need to be
very lucky I've been very lucky I've
been very fortunate to have great people
around me um I've been very fortunate
you know to have great customer Believe
in Us even when we had you know we start
from nothing but I'll say at the end is
very much hard work and we never you
know Chinese are very resilient and as a
company we are very resilient and we're
very customer focused so we take very
good care of our Customer because a lot
of people talk about longterm and
everything for us we live longterm with
our customers so it's very important to
serve them well to work hands to hands
with them so we we we work with them we
C- develop product with them to have the
best the best products on the market
that's what we work let me open
up face recognition yeah yeah you can do
face you can do fingerprint so here is
very is very important and is very
probably the most challenging department
and the company it's engineering so what
happen in engineering we take a client's
idea we take client drawing and we bring
it to mass
production everybody think you know that
you just take the drawing put in the
machine and it's going to work no but
it's not true so what what's very
important here is is we you know we take
a client idea we take a client concept
we meet all the engineer together and we
review what is the what is critical what
can be improve how can we make it better
with the goal to have the best product
on the market so you know a lot of the
costs a lot of the reliability come from
the design it doesn't really come from
manufacturing it really come from the
design we have a lot of knowledge to do
this and we have you know we probably we
we bring to market around 150 to 200 new
product a year so we have I say 27
people working here my office is
upstairs it's a very challenging and
very important department yeah well
where are they from the
engineers yeah they're from everywhere
in China everywhere in China yeah so we
want people who are very flexible we
want people who have a who who have a
broad vision of how a product should
perform and how manufacturing is done
okay when you do business with Chinese
people like what would be your I don't
know strategy or tactics like what would
you advise for someone who never been to
China and then but they are successful
entrepreneurs and they want to come to
China and do business with Chinese what
would be your like advice you need to
take the time to meet the people okay so
most important is you know Chinese
people or people everywhere around the
world they want they want to know who is
behind an email so most important is to
visit people to spend time with them and
to take the time to understand what is
important to them and how they think and
I think this is something that's very
important a lot of people you know in
those uh in current time they think that
they can send an email or send a
WhatsApp and all done while it takes as
you know it takes more than that you
know in China and everywhere else you
want to introduce yourself everyone want
to know who is behind a business who is
the person and their philosophy behind a
company and I think that's person that's
totally normal you know okay so you need
you you got to meet people offline in
physical world and then you do what do
you for example give a gift or you need
to go eat with somebody or like drink
for me you know first we we visit them
we invite them to visit us and once in a
while we go for a meal personally I've
never been um much involved in having
drains and all this but I know there is
a lot people who do it uh I think both
both way work pretty well but it's all
about spending time and you know gaining
an understanding of the other people who
are working or who we are working with
do you ask like personal questions like
I don't know how's how's your grandma
how's your kids this kind of stuff I try
to to understand who they who the other
people is so of course you know I'm
interested to know about their kids uh
what they think about the education of
the kids how they do it how they manage
a family at home so I like to understand
how people I'll say philosophy about
family and about life so for sure the
more question you ask the more you you
have the opportunity to understand
people to run business in China do you
need a Chinese partner no you know they
in in our in our industry you don't need
a Chinese partner yeah so some industry
are more restricted but this the
industry we are in a contract
manufacturing is is unrestricted so you
can own 100% of the company do you feel
competition from India or Vietnam now
you know there is some competition but I
think the biggest benefit of China is as
we say you know is a supply chain so
here you can you can take a new product
a new design and bring it to life in 2
months you know yeah you can get an
order today and start shipping loads of
container in 25 30 days so the
reactivity of the supply chain the
knowledge and of the supply chain is
just
unbelievable and and you know it's all
happening because of the people who were
here they have this mindset that you
know we just move forward as fast as we
can and this is this is fantastic would
you be able you think to build the same
side of the business back in Canada if
you never left Canada the I I think you
know I think the challenge that you face
in some other countries is the the the
manufacturing knowledge is not there
anymore or all the time I think in in uh
in North America and Europe is it's not
so hard to build very high volume
manufacturing product for us our Market
is from thousands to 100,000 a year and
this High mix medium volume that they
call in the in the industry is hard to
achieve anywhere else in China what
would be the right way if someone like
want to work with you as a company what
would be right the right way to approach
you or some of your staff and like
request some information about products
how would you recommend to do it anyone
can reach us on our website by email or
on our live ch at comic.com what would
be the typical products projects that
people can come to you with we are a
contract manufacturer for Brands and
aens who have their own product design
and seek manufacturer to fabricate on
their behalf we manufacture custom
Hardwares and our specialty is
mechanical and electromechanical
products made of plastic injection sheet
metal and electronic parts We Serve
customer and consumer goods agritech
Mining and a few other Industries if
let's say someone want to explore the
opportunities working with you and they
they reach out we will leave the email
in description so they reach out to you
if they mention Max chernof any like
special deal or like special treatment
or some conditions that you can give to
my audience if they mention Max chernov
yes yes certainly we'll offer 10% off on
first order for toolings to any of your
subscriber will reach out within June
2025 you see here we have hundreds of
tools for to make plastic parts and all
the tools are proprietary to our
customer so the customer own the tools
and we are we we build it for them but
they're the the owner and we are using
their tools to manufacture their product
we don't have our own Brands so we we
solely manufacture for external company
so all our customer Brands OEM around
the world this is our field we don't
want to create our own Brands this will
be in competition we don't want we have
no interest to be in competition with
with customers so by this you know we be
sure that our our interest or alignment
here we do all the welding so we have
robotic welding we have manual welding
and here it all depends of the volume if
it's uh low volume we do manual welding
if it's high volume we do robotic
welding is it hard to find like right
people for for the job no in China there
is a lot of skilled people okay due due
to the fact that they manufacture for
decades so to find people you know it's
it's never easy but there is a supply of
very high very high skill people yeah
and what's the challenge here in China
we'll say is to pick the right equipment
how to how to pick equipment to be
flexible to be versatile so if you look
at all the the robotic welding so the
the robot are from Japan we take a look
yeah yeah we can take a look be careful
you cannot look at it with your eyes
yeah uh but the it's a Japanese robot
but all the integration has been done by
China in China by a China supplier
the robot is impressive yeah what's the
best part about about your job I love to
bring new product to life you know
because a lot of prodog they are helping
they're helping people in different
industry yeah be more performant so you
know that we do part that we do product
for mining to help the safety of the the
the people who work mines that we do
agch product to help run the farm
automatically so a lot of the product we
make they help people they help industry
across the world get a better you know a
better operation does it happen when you
go somewhere like in the world outside
of China and then you see your product I
see our product all the time yeah yeah I
see our product all the time in the
market and when I see people who use
them I don't tell them I make them but I
ask them how they like it and I also
read a lot in the reviews online about
every product we make because I want to
understand very well what people are
thinking of the product what what are
things that we could improve and how
they use it because you know sometime
the the the idea you have about their
usage and what they really do in real
life is different let's say if you never
been to China yeah what would be like
the way to enjoy China or to understand
China more well I think you know the
best way to learn about China and
Chinese people is to be here to meet
people to take the time to visit and you
know the the more time you spend with
people discussing you will for sure
understand better how they think and you
know you understand now people are great
and I think people are great everywhere
you know I when I was younger I didn't
take the time to talk to stranger yeah
and you know since few years I I put I
put a goal in myself to try to speak to
more stranger than than before and what
you realize is people are amazing but
take the time to to talk to understand
and you know to find what's their
interest and you will same everywhere h
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