The crossroads of "Made in China": The transformation began?

At this time in previous years, Wang Wei, president of Cordies (Hong Kong) Footwear Co., Ltd., was quite optimistic. He thought that he had given him high wages and was very hard to recruit. However, this year, he had to admit that recruiting was a painful thing and that the "migrant workers shortage" was really knocking on the door.

“What is even more frightening is that by the time of the order, it was hard to recruit workers, but the mobility of workers was very large. Some factories had 200 people on the first day and only 150 people went to work the next day. On the third day, There are only 90 people left.” Xue Xiaowei, head of Shenzhen Guanlan Baode Toys Factory, told reporters that it is very difficult for the workers to be fixed in one job for many years. They often ran away after a few days.

Over the years, China's labor supply has gone from being surplus to a structural shortage, and rising labor costs have become an inevitable trend. "Made in China" has come to a crossroads - does the labor-intensive industry still have advantages in China?

In response to rising labor costs, many companies have begun to transition. Xue Xiaowei sighed. What he is currently doing is promoting the mechanization level of the factory to replace manpower.

The machine replacement labor force Xue Xiaowei said that in the past few years, the mechanization level of the factory has increased by 20% to 30%, which means that 10 people were originally used, and now 3 people are saved. “Originally we implemented the hour system, and now it becomes a piece-rate system. The purpose is to increase the enthusiasm of workers. Another example is the use of screws. In the past, workers had to be screwed up one by one by hand. Now use the machine's four screws to fight together.” Xue Xiaowei said.

Shen Da, the owner of Shantou Weida Toys Factory, said that workers’ compensation for workers’ injuries is high, and companies are most afraid of workers’ work injuries. Some dangerous links, such as injection molding machines, are simply loaded with robots and no longer use human hands. Speed ​​is faster than manpower.

However, not all links can use machinery. Wang Wei said that shoe-making companies like him can hardly increase the level of mechanization. After all, most of the links still require human hands. Therefore, enough people must be recruited.

Jian Jiansan, director of the Zhujiang Economic Research Center of the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told this reporter that during the investigation of the Pearl River Delta, he also found that companies doing a better job in the industry have purchased various equipment to reduce dependence on manpower. , Or adopt new technologies and new technologies to increase efficiency.

In addition to reducing the use of labor, Shen Da said that after installing the robot, the uncertainty of the production line will be reduced a lot, such as the rate of failure, work-related injuries or delays due to various reasons, the quality is more stable than the use of manpower.

In this regard, the transformation of Geely Automobile, which started with the production of cheap cars, is typical. Geely started several models mainly using human tactics, a large number of manual replacement of automation equipment. Li Shufu once said: "I went to visit the factory that produced Rolls-Royce. There are a lot of hand-workshop-style things. Hand-made manufacturing is most suitable for production in China."

However, with Geely's efforts to get rid of the impression of cheap cars, more and more automated equipment on the production line. At Geely Automobile's new base in Jinan, advanced production facilities such as ABB's robots from Sweden and electric pool suspensions from Mercedes-Benz suppliers were introduced. The emgrand EC8 stamping shop barely sees workers.

This transformation has both the factors of rising labor costs, but it is still more important to consider the production process.

Either it was transformed or it was transferred in the early 1990s. Data showed that the rural surplus labor force in China was between 100 million and 200 million at the time and gradually decreased thereafter. According to a 2005 data calculation by CAI, a scholar of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there are only 43.57 million transferable labor forces in rural China.

At the same time, with the rapid rise of the central and western regions, many local surplus labor forces have been absorbed, which has caused surplus rural labor to shift to the bottleneck on the eastern coast.

A direct consequence of the shortage of employment is the rise in wages. Take Guangdong Province as an example. The province began to establish a minimum wage guarantee system in 1994. By the end of this year, the minimum wage rate has been raised one after another. The minimum wage has been adjusted 10 times, and the minimum wage standard has benefited mainly from migrant workers.

The minimum wage for Guangzhou in the first half of 2006 was 684 yuan, which will reach 1,300 yuan after March of this year, almost doubling in 5 years, and it is not inconsistent with GDP growth. In the same period, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Guangzhou was 19,851 yuan in 2006, 30,659 yuan in 2010, and only 54% in four years, far below the increase in GDP.

Another statistic shows that compared to 2009, the average monthly income of migrant workers who went out has increased from 872 yuan to 1,417 yuan, with an average annual increase of 12.9%. It is worth noting that the increase in wages in the central and western regions has accelerated and the wage gap with the eastern part has narrowed significantly.

"Rising labor costs have forced companies to improve traditional production processes, increase the level of mechanization, and reduce dependence on the labor force. This trend will become more apparent in the future." Cheng Jiansan said that traditional labor-intensive production methods have come to an end. If companies want to survive, they either upgrade, or transform or shift. In this process, China's manufacturing structure is also moving toward a higher end.

In fact, according to the historical experience of Japan and other regions, it is in the late 1960s and 1980s that labor costs have risen significantly. The Japanese industries have accelerated the process of mechanization, automation, and intelligence to increase labor productivity.

The factory opened at the entrance of the workers but Xue Xiaowei also pointed out that when the factory increases the mechanization to a certain degree and then rises again, the cost will increase substantially. Accordingly, the price of the product will increase substantially, such as fully automated computer-embroidered textiles. The price is also much more expensive than manual labor. The labor force has always been China's advantage. In that case, the low-cost advantage made by China will be eliminated.

In order to maintain a low-cost labor force, many companies choose to move inland.

Wang Wei said that he had just opened a new factory in Chongqing. “I had previously conducted a survey at the factory and found that the work part was partly from Sichuan, Chongqing, and Henan, so I just wanted the factory to open at the door of the worker.”

The recruitment of factories in Chongqing is exactly the opposite of Dongguan factory. Wang Wei said that the Chongqing factory started working a few days ago. The recruitment situation is very good. In fact, before the factory has started to recruit workers, more than 200 people come to consult and they are Having worked for many years as a skilled worker, they originally wanted to return to work along the coast. Now they can just be employed at home.

In terms of wages, the wages of the Chongqing factory are lower by 300 to 400 yuan than Dongguan, which is equivalent to the previous year's salary in Dongguan. "But they are very happy." Wang Wei said that the factory in Dongguan should be observed for another two years. The recruitment situation was more severe and the cost increased even more. The factory in Dongguan was turned off and all the production capacity was transferred to Chongqing as long as the headquarters stayed in Dongguan.

In fact, with the “shortage of rural workers” and rising labor costs, more and more labor-intensive manufacturing industries are shifting to inland areas, such as cost gradients, resulting in the inland areas reproducing the eastern coast. Prosperous scenes. In the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of various localities, eastern coastal cities have carefully formulated single-digit economic growth indicators, while the western region has long since opened up to double-digit rapid growth.