“leading machinery enterprise”
the company used to produce only 40 sets of injection molding machines in two weeks, but now it can produce more than 100 sets of machines; its production capacity was greatly improved, while the worker quantity was 20% reduced… in recent years, chen de plastics machinery co., ltd., founded in 1986, implemented the innovation management actively, promoted the toyota lean production mode, and has become one of the largest injection molding machine production enterprises in china. its annual sales has increased in successive years and reached about 1 billion yuan last year, which was more than the total annual sales of two local listed companies in machinery industry (dongfang precision and nanfeng). liang weidong member of the standing committee of foshan municipal committee of fully the cpc, the secretary of shunde district, praised its transformation and upgrading methods and effects after he conducted research in chen de company a few days ago.
“leading enterprise” encounters new problems
back to 1986, chen de plastics machinery co., ltd. was established in shunde with the joint venture of chen hsong group and shunde kailei machinery co., ltd. the chen hsong group has increased investment since 1989 due to the enormous potential of inland market until it wholly owned chen de in 2002.
chen de is absolutely the “leading enterprise” among tens of thousands of mechanical equipment enterprises of foshan. as early as 10 years ago, chen de has won the “double hundred” title in three successive years which was the first time for mechanical equipment industry-china mechanical enterprise “top 100 of core competitiveness” and “top 100 of composite economic benefit index”.
jiang zhijian, the general manager of chen de company said that “chen de didn’t come to a standstill for its glory. from 2002 to 2005, the total output value of chen de has doubled, and how to improve production next became a next concern.”
in 2006, chen de planned to invest and establish new production base in shunde daliang fengxiang industrial park. but in 2008, the international financial crisis hit, and many enterprises choose to postpone the investment plan. how about chen de? jiang zhijian thought that the financial crisis made the construction cost be controlled, so he decided to continue to increase investment.
the new factory was not completed and fully put into production until 2011. chen de was forced to reform its management mode with the increasing orders prior to the completion of the new factory and the change of external market environment. jiang zhijian said that “though chen de was not greatly affected by financial crisis of 2008, at that time, the customer orders have shown the trend of small batch and personalization, sometimes only requiring one or two machines. for chen de which was used to the flow line and large order production mode, it has to reform, if it wants to keep its competitiveness in the industry.
lean production gives quick response to customer’s demands
the flow line initiated by american ford motor company used to greatly improve the production efficiency of the factory, and the early factories of chen de also adopted this flow line design. in the large workshop, there is a row of lathes, a row of grinding machines and a row of milling machines, and one batch of parts were transported to the other process after one process is completed.
jiang zhijian found out that the logistics transportation distance of this flow line production method is long and waste of time, so he decided to fully carry out the lean production mode invented by toyota in chen de after he conducted investigation and study overseas.
now, there is no traditional production line in the plant of chen de, instead there are many “assembly islands”. an assembly island constitutes of three or five lathes, grinding machines and milling machines. the part is processed one by one, and there is nearly no transportation distance between processes. and once there are any defect products, they can be found immediately.
jiang zhijian said “this mode is applicable to small batch flexible production, and can make flexible arrangement for production. for the traditional flow line, it usually produced dozens of injection molding machines simultaneously. it used to take two weeks to produce 40 machines, but now 10 machines can be produced in one day. if there is any emergency order, it can be produced first, and won’t affect the whole production. now, chen de can give quick response to customer’s demands, even 1 set of injection molding machine can be produced only in 40 minutes.
currently, lean production has cover each corner of chen de, like workshop, warehouse, even bathroom, etc. the production base of chen de is tidy and clean which is very different from the mechanical plant in traditional impression. chen de also established automatic stereoscopic warehouse with a height up to 9.8m, and 2532 storage locations. though the sales amount was increased year by year, and was about 1 billion yuan last year, there is little change for the annual inventory of the precisely calculated warehouse, and the error is not more than 50,000 yuan.
though there are effects, chen de will not stop its reformation. wang zhongmin, the vice general manager of chen de company, said that “the research was conducted once before, and it calculated that each worker needs to walk 21 km from assembling to process completion, and the objective of chen de is to shorten the distance to 1.5 km. the enterprise will leap again once this is achieved.”
innovative methods to make staff adapt to the reformation
whether the reformation of management mode can be effective is determined by whether the staff can execute it well. chen de has thought about many methods to make its staff adapt to the reformation.
under original flow line production mode, most of the workers of chen de only mastered one skill, but the reformed assembly island requires one worker to master many skills, so the workers not only need to know machine tool operation, but also need to know the operation of grinding machine and milling machine. chen de adopts the method of “ master train the apprentice” to train the workers with multiples skills, and the master can obtain relevant reward after the apprentice is trained, and the month income of the apprentice will increase too.
place a set of mode locking devices in the assembly department of chen de, 3000 tons machine mode locking assembly work can be completed within 40 minutes, and only 9 workers are required, and equipped with conveyor belts and cranes. there is one more factory compared with chen de company 7 years ago, but the worker quantity is 20% reduced. jiang zhijian said “sometimes a worker needs to operate several devices, because it may take 5 or 6 hours to complete the process after one part is put on one device and during this process, he can operate the other equipment.
a pair of footprint can be frequently seen on the ground of fengxiang factory of chen de, which is the “ohno circle” put forward by the founder of production mode of toyota. chen de company will let its staff to stand in the circle for an hour once in a while to carefully observe the production condition and think about where can be improved.
jiang zhijian said “this method emphasizes the staff’s thought on details and cultivates their ability to solve daily problems. if the staff respect and care about each broom and each part even pay attention to the plant environment, then the toyota lean production mode is truly rooted in the enterprise.”
wang zhongmin said “many enterprises have introduced the lean production, but the effect is not very well, the main problem is they do not persist. chen de has promoted the lean production for many years, it still sticks to conduct report and rating every month and try to do better.”
the formation habits require us to be persistent, and also need few skills. chen de established a wechat group, and the staff can put up the problems on it once observed to let everyone knows. this method has insisted for a year and a half, and a good atmosphere is formed between the staff.
development road of chen de
in 1986, chen de plastics machinery co., ltd. was established in shunde.
in 2002, chen de was wholly owned by the chen hsong group.
in 2005, the total output value of chen de has doubled than 2002.
in 2006, the new production base was invested and established in shunde daliang fengxiang industrial park.
in 2011, chen de fengxiang new factory was established and fully put into production.
in 2013, chen de realized a sales amount about 1 billion yuan.
journalist observation
adapt to the changes
active innovation
intelligence and customization have become the new demand trend of domestic mechanical equipment market, accompanied with multi-categories, small batches and quick delivery orders.
chen de with about 30-year development history has handed over a satisfactory answer. it prospectively promoted the toyota lean production mode, and achieved upgrading through innovation of inner management.
now, lean production is not new for foshan enterprises, but the thorough understanding of chen de to toyota mode still breaks through the common thought of many foshan enterprises. what most pressed the journalist during interviewing is when asking any staff of chen de, no matter the staff of management level or the basic level, they have profound understanding to the lean production.
if only the production process and structure are lean, then the earnings of the enterprises are only temporary. only integrating the lean production into the staff, and make the staff feel their own responsibility, the enterprises’ development can last for a long time. just like jiang zhijian (general manager of chen de company) said, it’s not difficult for the enterprises to promote the lean production, and the cost is not expensive, the hardest part is the change of people.
the work loss rate on the flow line of chen de company used to be commonly high, but now the staff team becomes stable after the lean production is implemented. when the development of a company is not only the enthusiasm of the boss, but the common belief of all staff, then the enterprises can stay ahead in the market competition. (source: foshan daily)