China Manufacturing Improvement Blog

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the best way to get your manufacturing automation timeline right. And one conclusion was that a factory should develop its maintenance capabilities before jumping into full automation.

The question is, how do preventive and predictive maintenance work, and what is the logic for putting them in place in your factory?

Glue is used in the production of a wide range of products. Gluing two parts together is an extremely common process. And yet, many of the very serious quality issues coming out of China come from the use of an improper glue.
Let's dig into this with David...

There are two main causes for production bottlenecks:

1. Poor line balancing – some jobs are running slower than others, and materials pile up in front of the slowest ones.
2. Poor process control and/or poor maintenance – the equipment does not run as it was designed to run. It is often down or busy re-processing materials.

In this post I'll focus on the first cause...

Have you implemented a process control plan to reduce rework and scrap? In this post I will explain why this tool is really useful, and walk you through how it works in a short video...

As we speak with Chinese factory managers, one question comes back again and again: How to do automation right? And, in particular, they are confused about the manufacturing automation timeline to follow.

This is our third 'pollution in China' article on environmental risks that might prevent production and disrupt your supply chain. In it we’ll study how to mitigate environmental risks in your supply chain.
It all depends on the supplier’s attitude...

This is our second article of 3 concerned with pollution in China. Let's look at what buyers should do in the wake of the government’s increase in anti-pollution inspections in China...

Will one of your key suppliers be unable to make production because of an anti-pollution inspection? Will they ask you to wait for 3-4 months? Will they just stop production until the factory gets to code? Factory closures in China like this have been happening over the past few months due to increased activity to combat pollution in china, so how can you know if you are at risk?

Let’s do a thought exercise about the typical manufacturing automation strategy in China. Do they invest in getting automation right, or hope that just having the machinery is enough?

One very common mistake I see managers make when hiring new employees in China is hiring for hard skills only. They think: “We just need someone who has been doing XYZ in their previous company.” Here's why that's wrong...