Why do Japanese products sell so well?

There is no casual success in the world, and there must be many reasons for it. This is a big question. If you ask 1,000 people, you will probably get 0,000 answers.

Back to the core point, what is the most praised thing about Japanese cars?

It is not the advancement of technology, but the reliability of products.

High reliability is a profound technology in itself, but this is just an appearance. Looking at the root cause, how do Japanese cars achieve it?

If a car has 10,000 parts and the failure rate of each part is one in 100,000, then one out of ten cars will have a defect.

It can be seen that the supplier's capability level and product reliability are important factors in the reliability of a complete vehicle. The reliability of Japanese cars is obviously ahead of European cars. A very important point is the supply chain. of "reliability". Today we will talk about it in detail.

Japanese cars: Closed supply chain ensures reliability

In terms of supply chain, Japanese car companies and suppliers have signed long-term and exclusive supply agreements. This makes the two more like long-term partners and even a community of shared interests.

Lean manufacturing is a wise saying in the automobile manufacturing industry, and Japanese cars are laid out from the source.

Japanese cars emphasize that they and their suppliers master lean manufacturing and logistics at the same time, allowing the entire industry chain to focus on maintaining low inventory levels, maintaining production levels, and integrating quality.

For this reason, Japanese car companies will carefully examine new suppliers and will not easily change them once they cooperate. Subsequently, the car company will deploy employees and take other measures to ensure that the supplier's capabilities are continuously improved and that various indicators can be fully achieved.

Over time, the relationship between the two parties has continued to deepen, forming a direct relationship, and even OEMs will hold shares in suppliers, such as Toyota in Denso and Aisin. The relationship between Toyota and its suppliers has not changed since Kiichiro's era. The relationship between Toyota and its suppliers is "grow together". The powerful Toyota has the appearance of "strict father" and "loving mother" to its suppliers at the same time.

Long-term and in-depth cooperation and continuously improving supply chain capabilities have allowed the quality level of Japanese car parts to continue to rise, making it easier for Japanese car parts to surpass other car series in terms of reliability and durability.

Moreover, the supply chain management model of Japanese cars is not limited to Japan.

In order to achieve the hard target of "localization rate", Japanese car companies began to look for local suppliers that could meet their strict cost, quality and delivery standards.

Therefore, parts suppliers such as Marujun (metal stamping parts), Keihin (power system related), Koito (lighting fixtures), Tokai Seiki (metal castings), etc., also followed Japanese car companies. Invest and set up factories in other countries.

In this way, the closed supply chain of Japanese cars can be preserved to the greatest extent, and the reliability of parts and components can be guaranteed.

In general, high reliability makes Japanese cars a stable and loyal partner and tool, which leads to a higher value retention rate. Therefore, the reputation is getting better and better, and more and more people are buying them. The more.

European cars: The open supply chain is slightly less reliable

Compared with the conservative character of the Japanese, Europeans are more open and have very different car-making concepts. People pay more attention to economy and reliability, while Europeans pay more attention to technological advancement.

So, in order to carry advanced technology, does the reliability have to be poor?

The answer is not necessarily.

Because turbocharging is more advanced, should there be poor piston ring sealing? Because laser welding is too advanced and the roof is very strong, should it cause premature aging of the seals and leakage of the sunroof?

In the final analysis, the reason why European cars are not as reliable as Japanese cars lies not in the advancement of technology, but in the unreliability of suppliers. To be precise, this is the inevitable result of the relatively open supply chain of European cars.

Compared with the conservative and closed supply chain of Japanese cars, the supply chain of European cars is relatively open. This open supply chain system naturally has advantages and disadvantages.

The good thing is that due to the large volume of parts procurement, many world-class suppliers have been created, such as Bosch, Continental, ZF? Sachs, Valeo, etc.

Moreover, suppliers have greater revenue and profits to develop and apply new technologies, so new technologies are developing rapidly, such as Mercedes-Benz’s air spring technology, Volkswagen’s DSG gearbox, Bosch’s active safety and even autonomous driving, and Ferrari’s Austrian laser headlights.

The reason why European cars have formed an open supply chain system is because Europe took the lead in entering the industrial revolution. The entire industrial form is unified, and Europeans are more open-minded, and the exchange and sharing of technology are much faster. Japan is more fully closely related.

For example, Armand Peugeot, the founder of Peugeot, started his own car business after visiting Daimler; Robert Bosch, the founder of Bosch, also worked with Daimler and Carl Ben Ci and others had close contacts, and then developed magnetic pole ignition coils that can be used for motor vehicles.

The disadvantage is that an overly open supplier system can easily induce OEMs to make "unscrupulous" reductions in order to cut costs and increase profit margins. Especially when OEMs start to pursue profits, they are more likely to choose suppliers with poor qualifications.

Remember, changing suppliers is often more subtle than configuration reduction, but it is a type of reduction with more far-reaching harm. The most direct consequence of this reduction is reduced reliability. This is also an important reason why some people say: As soon as the price of this car drops, I dare not buy it.

In short, under different supply chain systems, Japanese cars are generally more reliable than European cars. That’s why some people say that if you drive a Japanese model for six years, you already know how to refuel and fill the glass with water. If you drive a European model for six years, you already know how to repair a car.

Seeing this, do you know why Japanese cars are more reliable than European cars?

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.