China demanding more online quality assurance products and solutions

At Control China (an international trade fair for quality assurance) last week, vendors experienced a strong but unexpected rise in demand for quality assurance products and solutions.

Following a period of fast-growing automation caused by rising production costs and the skilled labour shortage, Chinese companies seem to be moving their focus to quality assurance and its associated productivity gains. The movement of quality assurance from end-product inspection to critical control point inspection using online sensors is presenting numerous opportunities for the control and automation industry.

Product recalls because of poor quality assurance issues are a growing cost factor in a time of lower margins and rising production costs. Chinese companies are keen to improve their efficiency in this area realising that while quality assurance does not create money at first, it will save money in the long run.

This change reflects China’s current transition from being a country with abundant cheap labour to one focusing on high-tech production.