In this blog post we're going to look at CMC's infographic on the history of manufacturing throughout the 20th Century until now (including the birth of lean manufacturing), how this past influences China today, and where successful China manufacturing goes from here in the future...

Looking To The Past To Understand The Future Of China Manufacturing

In order to understand where we're going, we must understand where we've come from.

China is today's manufacturing powerhouse, and of course is influenced by Western investors. But somewhere along the way some of the lessons learnt in the West during the 20th Century are not necessarily being clearly understood at times in China.

Before we discuss what the future should hold for manufacturers in China, let's take a look back into the past in this manufacturing history infographic:

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What's Next For China?

This depends on if you're planning to pursue successful China manufacturing, or enter a circle of non-improvement where quality doesn't improve, costs increase, and customers suffer.

Full Automation In Chinese Factories?

In China's rush to modernise, many factory managers are of the mistaken belief that full automation is the future. While stripping factories of fallible employees seems attractive, full automation reduces factory flexibility and most likely won't reduce costs.

Machines can be very helpful, but there are 2 issues with full automation:

New machines cost a lot of money to purchase and maintain, and there will still be engineers required, on your payroll, in order to tend to them. These engineers may number less than the previous workforce, but they certainly earn more than factory operators.



In order to justify the cost of machines, only larger production runs become practical, meaning that your factory then loses its flexibility.

Increasing Employee Productivity?

A better model is to improve what already exists -- factory operators.

As factory managers it is crucial to maximise each team member's productivity, and this is where lean management training comes into the picture.

You'll look for ways to:

Speed up the employees' work via better tools or processes

Reduce time spent on tasks that aren't associated with production, such as moving items around the factory

Improve quality by implementing processes which avoid errors in real time

There are many strings to lean manufacturing's bow, but the over-arching point is that in most Chinese factories the number of staff isn't the issue, and that they're human and not robots also isn't the issue. The issue is that they can be given the environment, tools, and training to become more productive.

Have Your Say...

Are you currently manufacturing in China, or dealing with Chinese suppliers who are?

Have you found that staff are less productive than you'd like? Why is this, and is it affecting your bottom line?

Have you experimented with more automation? Was this beneficial?

Join our community by leaving your thoughts or questions as a comment below, and one of our manufacturing experts will gladly reply.