Samsung's Supply Chain Excessive Press Management Vulnerabilities

As the saying goes, "The feng shui turns," who once thought that Joe, the confidant of Apple who devoted his entire life to the hospital, is now on fire and is planted behind a series of suppliers and foundries?

The “pollution door” broke out without responding for 10 days; the first public supplier list was deeply questioned; multiple problems such as the employment of child laborers and crushing employees followed; until today, over 250,000 Americans took part in demonstrations at the Central Station retail store in New York City. Protest against malpractice from Apple suppliers. The image crisis Apple is in can be described as out of control.

Samsung, which is Apple's largest supplier and has a delicate competitive relationship with it, does not seem to be able to withdraw from the same problems behind the supply chain. Even in the context of mobile Internet competition, Samsung is widely recognized as the closest rival to Apple and is expected to catch up.

IT Business News recently learned that according to the “Korea Times” report, the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute of Korea released a new survey on the 6th: semiconductor factories of 3 companies including Samsung. Carcinogens were detected inside.

Researchers from the beginning of 2009, which lasted three years, conducted investigations at five production lines and four assembly lines at factories of Samsung, Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Fairchild Semiconductor. The above result.

Samsung's supply chain surface behind the "hidden mystery"

If Foxconn, Apple's largest foundry in China, was criticized for hiring child labor, overtime work, crushing employee benefits and other issues, and causing public anger, it should be reminded that in fact, it was dubbed the "sweatshop". The problem that Apple's supply chain says is only the tip of the iceberg, and another electronics giant, Samsung, is equally at fault.

Previously, Taiwan’s China Electronics News reported that the touch panel maker Yanghua Optoelectronics, known for its Samsung smartphone OEM, was also exposed to scandals that crush employees. After thoroughly investigating the company, Taoyuan County found that it not only hired undergraduates under the age of 16 to work overtime, but that the number of hours of overtime work during a month was as high as 46 hours. The working conditions for these teachers were very poor and they had to endure overtime. Working at night, during holidays, and in serious violation of the "Laugish Law," he was able to take off another "sweatshop".

Compared with Apple, Samsung has set up factories in China and has more of the original device supply in its own hands to form a unique supply chain with “I have no people” and put its supply chain management as a top priority.

The reporter learned that the proportion of mobile phones produced and sold by Samsung in the global mobile phone market has been rising year by year, but its production costs and raw material costs are among the lowest, and maintain a higher profit margin.

Industry insiders pointed out that Samsung Electronics' zero inventory is in fact a forced backlog of supply from upstream suppliers in the plant.

With the supply chain on one side, Apple can control the value of the iPad's workforce at about 2% of its cost, and the profitability of the Hon Hai's OEM iPhone at 1.5%. The exploited Hon Hai must protect its profitability. In the past three years, Hon Hai has been reducing labor costs. The low cost and large-scale employees of foundry companies naturally cause many labor conflicts. It is worth pondering that this principle also applies to Samsung.

At the beginning of Apple's first announcement of its supplier list, the industry was mixed. Some people who support Apple believe that this is an indication of their courage to take responsibility. Well, it is also a world-renowned listed company. Is Samsung responsible for taking the initiative to open it?

Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the China Mobile Phone Alliance, said in an interview with an IT Business News Network reporter that, in fact, domestic laws do not oblige companies to publicly list their suppliers. Today, Apple was accused of being affected by its industrial status. , and South Korea, the United States and other industrial environments are also related. Compared with some European and American countries, Asian countries including China have paid different attention to the treatment of employees, and domestic laws are not so strict.

It is worth mentioning that in the context of increasingly close upstream and downstream business activities and the growing popularity of the well-known brand “factory factory system”, the industry’s flagship companies are called upon to perform more detailed and strict environmental management on their supply chains. With information disclosure and public supervision, the entire industry will be promoted to enhance environmental protection benefits, so as to achieve the ultimate solution to environmental pollution problems.

China's foundry factory was squeezed by supply chain alarms. In fact, besides Samsung and Apple, issues such as affecting the daily life of local villagers and unfair treatment of employees due to supply chain pollution have gradually surfaced.

At the end of last year, there was a big uprising at the LGD Nanjing factory, the canteens were torn down, the giant Christmas tree was torn down, the office was destroyed, and 8,000 employees went on strike. The poor performance caused the LG bonus distribution to shrink substantially and the Chinese and Korean employees were treated differently.

According to reports, the Korean employee's year-end bonus is 6.5 months' salary, and the LG (chemical) employee is 3.5 times. However, LGD China's ordinary employees are reduced from last year's 3 months salary to 1 month. This kind of differential treatment makes Chinese employees feel very much affected. Discrimination.

At the beginning of this year, Lenovo's drug company Shijiazhuang Group left the sewage discharged locally, posing a threat to the lives of residents and livestock. Although this matter was denied afterwards, it still caused everyone's responsibility for the environmental protection of Chinese companies and the economy. Thoughts on development issues.

What people do not understand is that taking the example of Foxconn, the foundry leader, whether it is the control of costs or the armed culture of Apple’s secrecy culture, why Foxconn is actively fighting for OEM orders under the pressure of such oppression, let Apple, Samsung Leading companies such as cutting off? Even some small-scale foundry companies are not as good as Foxconn.

Chen Xinhong, director of the International Economics Institute of the China Economic Research Institute, said earlier that Taiwanese manufacturers are focused on the foundry business. Many companies repeatedly invest in the research and development of OEMs. In the industrial innovation value chain, they have always been marrying people and practicing as a “gown”. In simple terms, the Taiwanese factory "is good at solving other people's problems, but it is not good at asking questions." In the long run, it can only rely on meagre profits.

Wang Yanhui told IT Business News that the reason why Apple and Samsung could hold a blind eye on the scandal that was exposed was partly due to the protection of local governments. In order to attract foreign investment and promote local economic development, local governments would rather behave. Small, small things.

Industry analysts believe that the reason for the occurrence of OEM problems is that it has a lot to do with corporate luck, local government inaction, and low cost of pollution violations. The root of the crux of the problem is probably between local economic development and environmental protection. paradox. In fact, companies that would otherwise prefer to pay fines for illegal activities are also at large.

Apple’s social responsibility crisis is intensifying. Samsung, whose factory is detected to be a carcinogen, is gradually revealing that the problems in its supply chain cannot be ignored. On the contrary, relevant domestic agencies and responsible persons should be a wake-up call.