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Quality, Cost, Delivery: What Priority for your China Operations?

May 3, 2013

 by Renaud Anjoran

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"Improving a factory" can be done in many different ways. The starting point is the client's priority. Here are a few examples:

1. Cost Control

A manufacturer keeps raising prices, and complaining about increasing labor costs (a very common occurrence in China). The buyer's priority is cost control. Consultants should focus most of their energy on measures that will increase productivity, reduce material consumption and scrap, and avoid overproduction. It might start with point kaizen (directed at certain processes), with flow kaizen (directed at an entire value stream), or with system kaizen (directed at the whole supply chain), based on what a preliminary study identifies as the main cost drivers.

 

2. Quality Control

A buyer is fed up by the quality problems consistently found by his inspectors in a factory. It seems like a disaster is always about to happen. The priority is twofold:

  • Improve processes so that the most common problems don't take place again. For example, set a procedure to change tooling every X days rather than using used tooling that can create defects.
  • Make sure the right points are checked at the right time. Without a quality system in place, many defects can go unnoticed until shipment.

 

3. Production Control

A manufacturer is late most of the time, sometimes by 3 weeks or more. And he can't deal efficiently with urgent orders, or with many small orders. Improving the decisions of how much and what product each process should make every day is the priority. To increase speed and flexibility, reducing setup times (if applicable) and batch sizes are probably necessary, too. Finally, combining several operations in a flowing cell would have a very beneficiary impact on lead times.

 

4. Other Priorities

What if you want a factory to improve worker safety? It is actually very closely linked to quality improvements. Same thing with the concern over the number of hours worked. It is very closely linked to labor productivity. Once productivity is much higher, it is possible to pay operators a decent amount without much overtime.


 

22 Signs Of Good Factory Management in China eBook

Topics: Manufacturing Consulting

Renaud Anjoran

Renaud Anjoran

15 years experience in China.
Partner, China Manufacturing Consultants.
Worked with hundreds of factories in China.
Certifications: ASQ CQE & CRE; ISO 9001 & 14001 lead auditor.
Author of well-read blog, Quality Inspection Tips.

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