It all started a year ago with power adapters – Digitec’s own brand aims to deliver quality at a fair price. The Community was sceptical and had a few questions about production in China. So, I took a trip there to get as many answers as possible.
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1. «You stick your logo on cheap products from China»
Wow white labelling at its finest. 0815 Order cheap from China, label & sell expensive here
Comment by user [skylender] on the post «Cables and power supply units from Digitec: quickly charged and well connected» from 14.12.2023
The chips aren’t loose in a box, but are stuck to tape wound onto a reel. I remember this from the old Revox tape machine we had at the radio in the 2000s. Or the film reels you used to see in every cinema. There are thousands of small chips on the tape. The reel ends up in a machine, the size of a small car, that automatically places the chips on the circuit boards. As soon as they’re empty, a worker simply clamps the reels and replaces them.
2. «We exploit people for our own profit»
Digitec is squeezing out other manufacturers and making price and wage dumping in china even worse.
Comment by user [Anonymous] on the post «Cables and power supply units from Digitec: quickly charged and well connected» from 14.12.2023
3. «This isn’t environmentally friendly»
It’ll be clear on the products whether working conditions or environmental protection are at the forefront.
Comment by user [Anonymous] in the comment on the post «Cables and power supplies from Digitec: quickly charged and well connected» from 14.12.2023
Lunch break. The employees visit the local canteen. We could eat now too, but we have to go to our next meeting. In the car, we discuss our impressions and agree: this factory looks clean, tidy, well-organised and optimistic.
Can we one hundred per cent guarantee that everything here is above board? No, as much as we’d like to, we can’t. At least we were able to dispel some of the preconceptions about manufacturing in China, which are simply no longer true.
When I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.
Somewhere in Shenzhen, we get out of the van that picked us up at our hotel forty minutes earlier. On the motorway, we drove past Foxconn, the company that produces for Apple, Samsung and Nintendo and has been criticised for poor working conditions (article in German) for decades. Our partner company is tiny in comparison. We stop in an industrial area in front of a white, three-story building with a flat roof, just like so many of the buildings here. Nolan Lee, CEO of the company and a reliable business partner for a year now, is waiting in front of it.
This is our seventh visit to the factory in the last seven days and the arrival is always similar. Once again, we’re led into a modern meeting room where they’ve prepared fruit and Starbucks coffee for us. We exchange business cards and pleasantries, then introduce our companies to each other in a short presentation. By «we», I mean: Osman Erdogan, Head of Trade Brand Management and Yannick Cejka, Trade Brand Manager, as well as Manuel Wenk from the PR department and myself. The four of us spent ten days in China and Hong Kong visiting factories and producers, building relationships and taking a closer look. The most important job I had was to get to the bottom of concerns raised by the Community. So I’ve taken time to address three of the concerns here with specific examples while being as honest and transparent as possible.
«We have to hurry, otherwise we won’t make it before the lunch break,» translates Kevin, our contact in Hong Kong who organised the trip for us. It’s 10 a.m., and at 11 a.m. it’s lunch time for the employees. The tour begins without much fanfare in a room full of cardboard boxes. This is where the computer chips are stored, which eventually end up on an electronic circuit board in our chargers. Most of the boxes are labelled with Chinese characters. Amongst them, I spot the Samsung logo or boxes with Japanese lettering. «We can manufacture all levels of quality,» explains the employee who shows us around the factory. «The cheapest are the Chinese chips, but they don’t support all charging standards and heat up more quickly.»
The chips for our chargers are attached to the strips. Source: Manuel Wenk
Another device uses high-resolution cameras to check whether the machine has placed the chips correctly. Large chips and components such as transistors or capacitors are placed on the circuit board manually, a few steps later. These are components that Osman and Yannick select in advance with the manufacturer. Several samples were sent to Switzerland before the charger plug was produced in its current form. «This is the first version. The charger’s good, but we want to improve the quality,» reveals Yannick. I go on to ask him about the accusation of «white labelling»?
«In basic terms, it’s an extended form of white labelling, yes,» says Yannick. Digitec determines the quality of the components, the arrangement of the connections, the shape and colour of the casing. In theory, a brand could order exactly the same combination of components and casing shape as we do. According to Yannick, this’ll change too: «For the second version, we want to work more closely with the supplier’s development team to improve the product even further and implement our own design, from the circuit board to the casing». We’ll also take into account reviews from the Community and try to incorporate your suggestions.
The assembled circuit boards pass through a so-called reflow soldering oven, which solders the components. This is where the manual work on the assembly line begins. A plug goes into the plastic casing. The circuit board is soldered on. The casing is sealed. The casing is soldered with ultrasound. These are the work steps employees perform manually on the assembly line. There are currently around forty people working meticulously on two production lines. The factory looks tidy during our visit, the hall is well ventilated and brightly lit. Those working with loud equipment wear hearing protection. These things aren’t taken for granted in Asia. We experienced very different conditions elsewhere on the trip, but I’ll share more on that in a future article. Shifts last up to twelve hours, with three longer breaks in the morning, at lunchtime and in the afternoon, meaning that work is effectively carried out for ten hours, six days a week. Tough work that’s not fully compliant with the amfori BSCI Code of Conduct (link in German).
The cover is put on in the last step, as here with a similar product. Source: Manuel Wenk
The amfori BSCI Rating (Business Social Compliance Initiative) is a rating system that helps companies assess and improve compliance with social standards in their supply chain. It’s based on a code of conduct that covers topics such as labour rights, fair wages, working hours, occupational safety, environmental protection as well as child and forced labour prevention. External auditors check companies against this code and award a rating from A (best rating) to E (worst rating). Companies use the rating to minimise risks, promote transparency and ensure social responsibility in global supply chains. It’s voluntary, but is increasingly expected by trading partners and consumers.
The factory we visited has an amfori C rating, the highest rating would be an A. We’d like to achieve that, but it’s hardly possible. The reason for this is that in order to receive a higher rating, companies must guarantee the working week doesn’t exceed 48 hours and that overtime is only required in exceptional cases. This sounds sensible in theory, but is difficult to apply in practice. «Companies simply wouldn’t be able to find employees,» says Lee. As we hear again and again during our visit, most employees want to work as much overtime as possible in order to earn as much money as possible. There’s a high demand for workers currently. That’s why people can often choose where they want to work. And that’ll be where they earn the most money – even if they have to work longer hours to do so, as was confirmed to us several times on site.
As a result, wages aren’t falling – on the contrary. At least in Shenzhen, minimum wages have been rising for years and working conditions are steadily improving. Workers live in blocks of flats provided by the company and eat at reduced rates in the company canteen. The state takes care of their children in day-care facilities. Wage dumping is hardly possible, as the minimum wage guarantees a life outside poverty. In the region, this currently amounts to almost 300 francs per month or 15 francs per day. The World Bank denotes poverty in middle-income countries (including China) as wages lower than five francs a day.
Forced labour is a major issue in China. Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International (page in German) or the ECCHR have long brought to our attention the fact that people from prison camps are forced to work. We also had this suspicion on a visit to one of the factories. Again, you’ll find more on this in one of my next articles in the magazine.
In the factory, workers pack our chargers in the final stage of the process. Digitec packaging stands out. Products for other companies are shrink-wrapped in a ton of plastic, whereas our GaN chargers come in a box made of FSC-certified cardboard. This way, we guarantee that no more plastic is put into circulation. The material of the charger is currently still non-recycled plastic. Producers in China have confirmed that demand for environmentally friendly production is growing steadily, particularly in Europe and the USA. However, this specific producer isn’t able to offer us any recycled plastic yet. There’s hope this’ll change with version two.
I’m keen to find out from Mrs Nolan where the plastic casings come from. «We’re not allowed to produce them. It’s forbidden in Shenzhen because the production is too toxic,» she tells me. A problem we come across regularly. While the factories have done their homework in the form of dozens of certificates, we can’t guarantee the same applies to suppliers. This is where it becomes extremely complex, as we’d have to trace every single component of the chargers back to their origin. We try to produce as environmentally friendly, ethically and high quality as possible. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to have one hundred per cent security with such complex products. Or at least not if you want to sell the end product for an affordable price.
Test passed, the circuit board is OK. Source: Manuel Wenk
