Purchasing Equipment in Vietnam?

i worked for GE and ABB in India. Generally, the companies maintain the same quality wherever the products are manufactured in the world. Quality standards are sacrosanct, and local engineers are trained in those standards. The local manufacture is used to save money since labour will be cheaper than the west, and freight costs are saved.

Having said that, there may be some stupid local manager who wants to further his career by showing higher cost savings by cutting corners. He may even be successful in his career if the company does not have proper checks and balances.

kvsridhar:

This is the other fact but you are correct.

"Made in the USA" has lost almost all meaning with regards to electrical equipment. The same for Germany and UK for the most part. Component manufacturing has been moved off to places where labor is cheap.the best one can hope for is "Assembled in the USA, which in the case of someone buying equipment for use in their own country is probably a detriment in that it is not likely to meet local IEC based codes.

In my country, New Zealand, my employer is the distributor of GE switchgear and enclosures.

Their range includes items from many parts of the world - Europe and Asia mostly, but we would have few worries about items made in Vietnam. Despite the many anecdotes about items made in certain countries being universally crap, we have found that this very definitely ain't necessarily so.

We have found GE products to be of a generally very high quality and generate very few quality problems, regardless of where in the world they are made.

If you are discussing industrial equipment, most engineers I know care more about the quality of the motor than the location of the factory. Much will depend on the perceived quality of the service group and their response to questions/concerns. A high quality Vietnamese product can be tainted by a local distributor who does not care for his customers after the sale.