Our conclusions
China is no longer a low-cost workshop. Its lead rests on process mastery, shop-floor-driven lean, ambitious R&D investment and AI-ready data, within a national framework that pushes everyone in the same direction. It produces a speed that AI accelerates. Its limits are real and describe today's model. They say nothing about its trajectory.
Western manufacturers can still narrow the gap, if they act now.
What the participants want to copy
Some
want to open an office in Shenzhen, to send their engineers there before bringing them back.
Others
want to adapt Chinese technology to our cost constraints to become leaders.
All
want to bring their operations leadership up to speed.
To do with your leadership team
Ten questions to assess your company
Tick the ones you can answer “yes” to. Every “no” or “I don't know” points to a workstream.
Three levels, linked to the ten questions
China has pulled ahead in speed of development and deployment. Question 10 is a prerequisite. The other nine place you at one of these three levels.
First of all · Question 10
Who carries the topic on the executive committee, with what mandate and what ambitions?
Level 1You measure
- Your idea-to-start and concept-to-launch times
- The state of data on one line
- Your critical machines and your dependencies on China
Questions 1, 2, 6, 8, 9
Level 2You accelerate
- Three pilots under a Notre-Dame plan
- Gains published and rewarded
- Three AI use cases built by operators
Questions 3, 4, 7
Level 3You invest for the long term
- An R&D share compared with what you pay out
- An experimentation budget in every plant
- One project a year with a school or a lab
Question 5
Choose your starting level this quarter, and set a 100-day target for each of the four pillars.
Stay close to what we see on the ground
A debrief with OSS Ventures
What we saw, applied to your company
One hour with the OSS Ventures team for your leadership team: the visits, your answers to the ten questions, the decisions to make this quarter.