Solutions Current Issues > April/May/June 2007 > COVER STORY
Email LinkOPENING NEW DOORS
We continue to expand our presence in China.
by Jim Morgan
The full legal title – Hudson Engineered Flexible Product (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. – may not exactly roll off your tongue, but that’s okay. More important than the name is the establishment itself: RL Hudson’s wholly foreign owned enterprise (WFOE) in China, now up and running as part of our on-demand supply chain management program.
Located in the Suzhou Industrial Park outside Shanghai, our WFOE is still in its infancy. It officially opened for business on March 5 under the direction of our General Manager of Asian Operations, Minnie Yao. Minnie has assembled a superb support team, including an expert Logistics Coordinator (James Zhang) and an outstanding Quality Coordinator (Helen Xue).
“My role has been to establish our new presence in China by setting up the organizational structure,” says Minnie. “I am also responsible for hiring and administration. My ultimate responsibilities are to build the interfaces between the Chinese team and our United States personnel, and to construct the management system for the Chinese offices.”
As it currently stands, Minnie and her team are occupying temporary offices next door to where their permanent offices are being finished. Once complete, our new facility will comprise about 27,000 square feet spread out over two floors. The first floor will be the offices and will occupy about 15,000 square feet; the second floor will house manufacturing capabilities within about 12,000 square feet. Here’s a closer look at our scope of activities, with specific emphasis on how these activities will benefit our domestic and international customers.
PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION Comprised of companies from leading countries like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the Suzhou Industrial Park is, literally, where the world comes to do business. The largest-ever economic and technological cooperative project between China and Singapore, the Suzhou Industrial Park is one of the fastest-growing and most competitive development zones anywhere in the world. By locating our facility within this vital area, RL Hudson is in an ideal location for distribution of existing products to our customers located in – or relocating to – China.
RAW MATERIAL INVENTORY & DISTRIBUTION In order to help us stay as efficient as possible, we will purchase raw materials from all over the world and store them at our Suzhou facility. These materials can later be distributed to our suppliers for use at whatever manufacturing location we prefer. This will allow us to purchase materials at the right prices, and to ensure the consistency of materials used in all RL Hudson products, no matter where they are manufactured.
QUALITY INITIATIVES We have conducted detailed product inspections for years in our quality assurance laboratory in Oklahoma. With the opening of our Suzhou location, we can now conduct inspections before the products leave Asia, meaning if there is a concern, we can spot it and address it even sooner, saving time and money. Quality Coordinator Helen Xue and others will address firsthand any quality-related questions that might arise. We will also remain proactive in conducting supplier training, so that the manufacturers with whom we do business will always know what is expected of them in terms of both quality and scheduling. We will continue to optimize our supply base, evaluating all suppliers and adding or changing manufacturers as required to ensure state-of-the-art quality.
LOGISTICS SUPPORT One of the most challenging aspects of doing business in Asia is the shipping process. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be a nightmare. Fortunately, we have extensive experience in this area, and the establishment of our Suzhou facility will further extend our capabilities. At a very basic level, we’ll have dedicated warehouse space in Asia, which will afford us increased scheduling flexibility. Beyond that, Logistics Coordinator James Zhang will, with the help of Joanne Yang in Taiwan, coordinate all key shipments, regardless of factory location. James and Joanne are experts on the duties and protocols required for international shipping, plus they know which carriers are the best performers and how to maximize our resources (as with the pack density of shipments).
MANUFACTURING SERVICES In the short term, our Asia-based manufacturing services will primarily involve assembly. We already do a fair amount of assembly work from our facility in Oklahoma, but now we’ll be able to provide smaller assemblies complete coming from China. We’ll look at each situation and conduct a value stream analysis to see where it will be most effective (cost and time-wise) to do assembly work. In the long term, we plan to develop some limited manufacturing capabilities in the upstairs portion of our Suzhou building. This manufacturing would primarily involve extrusion of small rubber parts, though of course it may well expand as needs warrant.
SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT In addition to Minnie and her team in Suzhou, we also have on-site personnel in Guangzhou, part of a major manufacturing area in southern China. Daniel Hartmann serves as our Supplier Development Manager and is primarily charged with leading our supplier development initiatives in southern China and the rest of Asia. A mechanical engineer by education, Daniel is an expert in managing Lean operations. He is well- versed in both Chinese and Japanese, so he’ll oversee our efforts in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia. We’ll have more on Daniel in this publication in the near future.
In the meantime, our plan is to have all of the services outlined here fully functional by year’s end. We’ll keep you posted as our plans continue to take shape. For now, rest assured that the establishment of our new facility in China is yet another example of how we here at RL Hudson are always seeking out the best ways to do business, with an eye toward bringing maximum value to our customers.
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