Transaction advantages of Japanese automobile parts manufacturers in China : Comparison with Western manufacturers in consideration of stamping die transactions

This article makes clear what transaction advantages Japanese automobile parts manufactures have over Western manufacturers in acquiring Chinese suppliers in China that has now become the top automobile manufacturer in the world, to say in other words, what merits Chinese suppliers find in conducting transactions with Japanese manufacturers, particularly with regard to stamping dies that play a key part in production technology. The competitiveness of automobile industry in Japan owes quite a lot to cooperation of competent suppliers. On the other hand, even in China that has achieved outstanding growth, there are still few suppliers, especially die manufacturers, which are able to meet the demands from foreign manufacturers. Under such circumstances, in the case of Japanese manufacturers, Japanese manufacturers occupy from automobile manufactures to Tier1 suppliers, and in order to reduce the cost required for such process, it is indispensible to utilize Chinese suppliers as Tier2 suppliers from the viewpoint of maintaining cost competitiveness. In other words in order to obtain local press die manufactures it is necessary for Japanese manufactures to compete with Western ones. In such case, the following competitive aspects are pointed out: (1) ord er price; (2) order quantity; (3) continuity of order; (4) stability of order quantity; (5) potential for growth as an enterprise of the company placing orders; and (6) innovation in products and production technology, that is, whether any access to innovative technology through transactions will be obtained from the company receiving orders. Among such aspects, with regard to (1), Japanese manufactures are superficially inferior to Western manufacturers. However, when we see the details of (1) of Western manufactures more minutely, as order receipts are determined by market transactions and as their costs of materials are higher than those of Japanese companies, the necessary expenses are large and it cannot necessarily be said that Western manufactures have advantage over Japanese manufactures only by superficial numbers. On the other hand, Japanese manufactures that conduct organizational transactions put great importance on (3) with specific manufacturers, and therefore are good at (4), and contribute to the stability of order receipts that is the business challenge of die manufacturers. In addition, as Japanese manufacturers put great importance on (3), in their transactions, more advanced design works are consigned and technical guidance free of cost are conducted, and therefore Japanese manufactures enjoy the opportunity of (6). It can be considered that the inferiority of Japanese manufactures in (1) is due to the fact that such costs are not included. Thus, though Japanese automobile parts manufactures are superficially inferior in conducting transactions, when we see the actual state in detail, it has become clear that Japanese manufactures rather maintain superiority over Western manufactures.