Breakfast at the hotel which was delux. Met at the Bernhardt Chinese headquarters in the hotel. Amazing that only 5 employees are responsible for co-ordinating the manufacture and shipment of Berhardt furniture in China. Toured Mike and Steve's offices.
Cathy took over as our tourguide. Headed off to Lacquer Craft furniture manufacturing facility on Dongguan. Dongguan is an amazing NEW city of 12 million people that has popped up in only the past 15 years. This is manufacturing outsourcing mecca. Passed many manufacturing facilities and apartment buildings. Arrived at Lacquer Craft, a Taiwanese company which produces Bernhardt furniture. This is an enormous plant which produces furniture from raw lumber to finished product. Employees live in barracks at the plant.
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| Host showing us the layout of Lacquer Craft plant in Dongguan |
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| Furniture production begins with treatment of raw wood |
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| Large warehouse for wood cutting |
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| Finished product |
Cathy and Bernhardt Furniture treated us to lunch at hunan style restaurant. Food was much spicier than what we had had before. Some was too spicy. Sat next to Cathy at lunch and learned some interesting things about manufacturing in China. Most interesting was that workers are hard to keep. In Dongguan, there are lots of choices for employment. Workers are free to change jobs and do so for small increases in wages. This is becoming a problem in China as it is causing wage inflation. Most interesting to me was the fact that all Bernhardt furniture is produced by Lacquer Craft and if Bernhardt wants to move production to Vietnam, for instance, it would not be too hard to do. They have very little invested directly in Dongguan.
On the way back to the hotel, we did a quick stop in downtown Dongguan. Amazing skyscrapers, gardens and municipal buildings. This whole town is brand-new.
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| Building shaped like a ship in Dongguan |
Got back to the hotel early with afternoon off. I took a quick nap then met up with Atul, Bryan, Brittany and Nirav to hike over to Buddhist monument on top of nearby hill. Sridhar was not feeling well. Walked around the lake close to hotel and then through an enchanting Buddhist garden up to monument on top with amazing view of Dongguan.
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| Path around lake to buddhist monument |
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| Nirav, Atul, Bryan, Brittany, Michelle and Lex at Buddhist monument |
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| View of Dongguan from monument |
Had sushi dinner at hotel and off to bed. Another eventful day!
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