“The ecosystem in Shenzhen is so strong, and it made a lot of sense to build an electronic product in Shenzhen,” said Kell. “When we were building Flamestower, we wanted to be able to find a source of whatever electronic component we needed or circuit board manufacturers.”
“In Shenzhen, there was so many of them in one area and that really helped our development cycle.”
Fortunately for Kell, he did not run into many problems while manufacturing in Shenzhen.
「深圳にはこれらが1つの地域にあるのです。これは当社の開発サイクルにとってとても役立ちました。」
Kell氏にとって幸運なことに、深圳で生産している間、多くの問題に巻き込まれなかった。
「シンセンでは、一つの地域に大勢の業者がいたので私たちの開発サイクルに非常に役立ちました。」
Kell氏は幸運にも、シンセンで製造していた間に僅かな問題にか直面しなかったのである。
“Part of what helps is just spending six months there and really getting to know your partners, ensuring that you both want success. This is the most important thing and it was something we were able to do just by being there.”
Challenges of Shenzhen
Things were not as smooth-sailing for Jalgha and Slaibi. The duo had also headed to Shenzhen to manufacture Roadie Tuner, but ran into several frustrating issues.
“Finding the right factory is really challenging. We’re a start-up and that’s the reality of things. Our orders were not in the scale of 50,000 units. To the well-known factories, they won’t give us much attention because we’re just a start-up in their eyes. But if you go to a small factory, they might not have enough resources,” said Jalgha.
The factory they had initially chosen to work with had taken on a large project concurrent to the manufacturing of Roadie Tuner, and eventually things came to a halt.
当時、協働するのに選んだ工場は、Roadie Tunerを作る傍で大掛かりなプロジェクトを同時進行で抱えていた。結局、取引は中止された。
彼等が最初に選んだ工場はRoadie Tunerの製造と同時並行で大きなプロジェクトを請け負っており、結局は進まなくなってしまった。
“We were really impressed with their facilities at first and they were dedicated to our project, but they stopped giving us any attention once they took on the bigger project,” said Jalgha. “Luckily, we were able to change factories in the middle of the production run within a couple of days.”
The language barrier also presented problems of its own for the Lebanese duo.
“Most of the Chinese suppliers don’t speak a word of English, and this was very tricky,” said Jalgha. “We could not communicate directly with the factories and there was a lot of room for misunderstanding and miscommunication, which caused some problems in manufacturing in China.”
レバノン人の2人組には言葉の壁による問題もあった。
「中国のサプライヤの殆どは片言の英語も話しません。これは非常にやりにくいです。」とJalgha氏は言う。「我々は工場と直接の意思疎通ができず、誤解や連絡ミスの余地が多々あり、中国での製造の問題の幾つかの原因となりました。」
言葉の壁もまた、レバノン人ペアに言葉特有の問題をもたらした。
「ほとんどの中国人サプライヤーは、英語をを一言もしゃべりません。それが非常に厄介なのです。」とJalgha氏は語った。「工場と直接やり取りができないので、誤解と伝達不良の可能性が大きく、それにより中国での製造において、いくつか問題が生じたのです。」
“Fortunately, we were able to find a solution for everything and get our product to the market almost on time.”
Despite the problems that they ran into, Jalgha and Slaibi shared that they would continue manufacturing in Shenzhen for future iterations of Roadie Tuner, thanks to the Chinese city’s advanced infrastructure and quick turnaround time. Currently, Roadie Tuner is already in its third production round in Shenzhen.
思いがけない問題に出くわしたにもかかわらず、Jalgha氏とSlaibi氏は、今後も深圳でのRoadie Tunerの製造を継続していくという意見で同意している。これも中国都市の先進インフラと迅速な納期のおかげだ。現在、Roadie Tunerは、深圳において、既に3回目の製造ラウンドに入っている。
“In Shenzhen, people understand that time is gold, so anything can be done really fast and efficiently,” added Jalgha. “The Chinese understand manufacturing – they have a lot of experience and do it really well. We could come up with a new design and have the prototype built and delivered two days later.”
Rising costs in the heart of the manufacturing industry
However, contrary to popular belief, Shenzhen is no longer the cheapest place to manufacture hardware with China’s rapid economic progress.
製造業界の中心部でのコスト上昇
だが大方の予想とは裏腹に、中国の急激な経済発展のせいで、もはや深圳は、ハードウェアの製造をするのに最も安上がりな場所ではなくなってしまった。
“There is a rapid increase in labor cost. Costs are rising for manufacturers significantly, about ten or twenty percent per year in terms of the work force. Shenzhen is definitely becoming less compelling for price reasons,” said Kell, who revealed that assembling future products in Ethiopia instead of Shenzhen was a possibility for Flamestower.
Jalgha agrees with Kell. “(Manufacturing in Shenzhen) is not really cost-effective in many places,” he stated. “Living expenses in Shenzhen are also getting higher and it’s not cheap to live there either. We could get the components from China and assemble them here (in Lebanon) and it would be almost the same cost.”
Jalgha氏はKell氏に同意する。「（深センで製造することは）多くの面でコスト優位ではありません」と述べる。「深センの生活費も高騰していますし、住むのも安くはありません。中国からコンポーネントを持ってきてここレバノンで組み立ててもほぼ同じコストになるでしょう。」
Jalgha氏はKell氏に同意し、「（シンセンでの製造は）あらゆる場面で価格的に優位ではありません。」と語った。「シンセンでの生活費も高騰してきており物価も安くはないのです。中国から部品を入手してここ（レバノン）で組み立ててもコストはほぼ変わらないのです。」
Despite the blood, sweat and tears that no doubt went into Roadie Tuner and the journey of entrepreneurship, Jalgha and Slaibi would do it all over again, no questions asked.
“Hardware is hard. And that’s what our hardware accelerator, HAXLR8R, told us when we started,” quipped Jalgha. “But seeing a final product in your own hands and knowing that you made it happen is very rewarding.”
「ハードウェア業界はハードだ（厳しい）という事を、当社のハードウェア・アクセラレータ「HAXLR8R」は最初に教えてくれました。」と、Jalghaは皮肉を言った。
「ですが、できあがった製品を自分自身の手に取って、自分でこれを実現させたと思う事は、非常にやりがいがあります。」
今回も最初から最後まで大変素晴らしい翻訳ありがとうございました。完璧でした。
長文記事の際は訳が多くの方に散らばってしまうこともありますが、greene様の翻訳は一貫しており大変読みやすかったです。
ガイドライン事項が多く大変お手数をおかけしますが、今後ともよろしくお願いいたします。