China Manufacturing Improvement Blog

If you are at all familiar with Lean Manufacturing, you’ll almost certainly have heard of Poka-Yoke. Most books and guides you’ll read about lean will include a section on Poka-Yoke. There are also over 2 billion search results for poka-yoke on Google alone, many explaining the concept in-depth. 

It’s safe to say that there’s a wealth of information out there on what it is and the tools associated with it. So I thought it would be better to focus on something different: Why Poka-yoke? And how do you implement it properly? 

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Chinese New Year (CNY), the most disruptive event in China, officially begins on January 25^th, 2020. The rush, and subsequent slowdown, often occurs much earlier depending on the manufacturing facility.

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If you manage a factory or buy from one and aren't familiar with Process Control Plans, it's important for you to understand their function and how to use them. Not only will they help you streamline your factory operations, they will also empower you to raise your products' quality.

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Clients often tell us that to achieve higher quality, they sacrifice speed or cost, or that improving delivery time will lead to higher costs or lower quality – this is simply not the case. We want to put the notion to rest that it is impossible to balance quality, cost, and delivery simultaneously in manufacturing.

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In the second part of our 9-part series on plant relocation, we will be discussing the initial planning process. 

Once you have collected sufficient data regarding the size, scope, and potential needs of your new manufacturing facility, you can begin defining your initial plan. 

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Welcome to the first part in our 9-part series on plant relocation.

In order to cover the plant relocation process effectively, we need to pay close attention to the development of the initial plan as it lays the foundation for the remaining steps. However, a plan is only as effective as the data that shapes it. So, to establish an informed plan, it is crucial to gather all relevant information that would impact it. 

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Relocating your plant, whether it is across town or to another continent, is a complex and exhausting process. With multiple interconnected moving parts, your organization needs to have the ability to manage the hiring and training of new staff, comply with the new building codes, and update or renew equipment simultaneously among other important tasks. Delays, setbacks, and unforeseeable problems are commonplace with such large scale multicomponent operations.

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Regardless of the problem, virtually any manufacturing operation can be turned around using the right techniques and enough hard work. The key to doing so is correctly identifying and understanding the core complications that may be holding your process back. In doing so, we should be able to build a system to mitigate or eradicate the issues effectively. 

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Standard work may be the most universal term in lean manufacturing, but it’s also one of the most important. It’s the basis for continuous improvement and gives operators a way to share information easily, train employees, and sets a standard from which to work. 

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With all the buzz about manufacturing moving to Vietnam, people tend to lose sight of the fundamental truths when it comes to labor productivity and production management. At CMC, we've heard several manufacturing managers comment that "Five workers in Vietnam are needed to do what gets done in China by three workers." However, we believe there is another way to look at it.

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