我和中国陶瓷的“神奇”故事
CHINA!My amazing ceramic story
首先让我来作自我介绍,让大家更好的了解我是谁、从哪里来,以此开始我在中国陶瓷行业媒体的第一篇专栏文章。
我叫汉贝托(Humberto Valles),50年前,我出生在美国德克萨斯州的厄尔巴索(EL paso),严格上来说,我是一名美国公民,但我在墨西哥长大,我觉得我更应是一名墨西哥人。我也爱这两个国家。长大后,我进入整个拉丁美洲最好的大学之一,专业修读生产系统的工业管理。毕业后我成为了一名工业管理工程师。
照片图解:
1986年夏天,大学毕业,我正式成为一名工程师,从此进入陶瓷的新世界! (右二)
从1986年夏天毕业的那一刻开始,我整个人生就为一家也是唯一一家公司工作:
“Interceramic”。
Interceramic在墨西哥的奇瓦瓦市(Interceramic总部所在地)拥有8大生产基地,月产量达300万平方米,我在那里开始了我的职业生涯并一干就是7年,最高职位是厂长。随后我被调任到美国,那时候Interceramic在美国德克萨斯州的达拉斯建立了世界上第一个基于萨克米自动化生产小规格瓷砖(10*10cm/15*15cm)的生产基地,我是当时协助该生产基地建设的其中一名工程师,后来我便应邀留下在达拉斯生产基地,最终被公司任命为达拉斯生产基地的厂长。
该生产基地拥有450名来自25个不同国家和地区的员工,小规格产品的月产量约为30万平方米,同时还生产大量的各种配件。
我在达拉斯的生产基地度过了8年光阴,然后,真正有趣的事情开始了。当年墨西哥遭遇了经济低迷期,国内货币开始贬值,Interceramic公司与国家一同经历着一个困难的经济衰退期。那时候,Interceramic的总裁打电话给我,让我来启动公司的瓷砖全球外购业务。
于是,我便离开了美国达拉斯基地,在世界各地开始了我的瓷砖外购工作之旅,那时候我主要还是在意大利、西班牙、巴西等全球顶级的瓷砖制造国走访,当然还有中国。随后,我还造访了哥伦比亚、阿根廷、德国、法国以及土耳其等国家。
瓷砖产品外购业务的运作,对Interceramic集团在国内经济不景气的时候,起到了很积极的作用。那个时候,我们通过全球外购业务,向美国和墨西哥每月进口超过700个集装箱的产品,但令人意外的是, 700多个集装箱,其中却只有10个是来自中国。
2004年,我第一次来到中国。当时,我们每月仅仅有10个集装箱从中国出口到Interceramic。即使再怎么疯狂的想象,也很难估计到8年后的今天,中国一跃成为Interceramic在销售产品的最主要供应国,仅次于我们自己在美国与墨西哥的9大生产基地。
到目前为止,Interceramic每月从中国出口到墨西哥和美国的产品便超过400个集装箱。2010年底,我们怀着“将最好的瓷砖带到中国”这一伟大使命,与中国投资方合资成立了首个中外合资陶瓷品牌――ICC瓷砖(Interceramic in China),经过2年的发展,从哈尔滨到昆明、从北京到广州,从成都到福州,在中国国内各主要大中城市均能找到ICC瓷砖的专卖店。
在未来更多的文章中,我很乐意与大家分享我所遇见到的一个个神奇的故事,我将会谈谈我在国外陶瓷企业工作中的一些经验以及在中国这个美好的国度遇见的那些很了不起的人物。
最后,希望你能在我的文章中找到乐趣,同时可以更深入地了解到在外国人眼中这个充满机遇与挑战的中国陶瓷业是怎样的。
向各位陶瓷人致以最崇高的敬意。
ICC瓷砖总经理 汉贝托
Let me first start by introducing myself so you all know who I am and where I come from. I was born 50 years ago in El Paso, Texas, USA. Technically I am a United States Citizen, but I was raised in Mexico. I feel more Mexican than American. I love both countries. I went to College to one of the best Universities in all Latin America. I am an Industrial Engineer with specialization in Production Systems.
Since the moment I graduated in the summer of 1986 I have worked for only one company my entire life:
“Interceramic”
I started working in Chihuahua Mexico where we have now 7 manufacturing facilities that are producing a little over 3,000,000 m2 per month. I worked there for 7 years (1993)and the highest position I held was Plant Manager. Then I was transferred to the USA. Interceramic was building the first SACMI automated small size 10x10 and 15x15 factory in the world. I was one of the engineers that helped build the Plant in Dallas, Texas, where later I was invited to stay and eventually held the position of Plant Manager. This factory was producing about 300,000 m2 of small size tile and many special pieces pressed with 450 total employees from over 25 different countries.
I held that position for 8 years(2001); then the real fun started. Our company was going through a difficult economic recession due to the devaluation of the Mexican currency. The President of Interceramic called me and invited me to start the Outsourcing Division of the Company.
I started travelling all over the world but mainly to the top countries manufacturers of ceramic tile. Back then the top ceramic producers in the world were Italy, Spain, Brazil, and of course China. But I also visited Colombia, Argentina, Germany, France and Turkey among others.
This outsourcing experiment worked so well for our group, that at one point in time we were importing over 700 containers every month to USA and Mexico, but the incredible part was that only 10 of the 700 hundred were from China.
When I made my first trip to China back in 2004 when we were only importing only 10 containers per month, never in my wildest dreams I imagined that 8 years later China will be our main source of tile for our stores in Mexico and USA besides our own manufacturing facilities.
Now we export from China to Mexico and USA over 400 containers every month and have almost 30 distributors of our own brand ICC (Interceramic in China) throughout the whole Country from Hubei to Kunming, from Fuzhou to Chengdu, Beijing to Guangzhou and so on.
An amazing story that is worth sharing…………..in the next articles I will talk about some of my experiences and all the amazing people that I have met in this wonderful country.
I hope that you will find these articles interesting and entertaining and also helpful so you would understand better how the foreigners view of the Chinese Ceramic Industry where there are a lot of business opportunities but also many challenges.
With Great Respect
Humberto Valles
ICC General Manager
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