Working for a Chinese Company

Working for a Chinese Company

I came to work for Ningbo ShengLong Automotive Parts Company in October 2007. It has probably been the hardest 11 months of my life, but it has also been my best job ever.

I want to explain my experience here without giving away any secrets of my company or our customer. So I will keep the information general and explain my opinions and feelings about the experience. Sorry, there won't be any pictures. But i hope you find the story interesting and thought provoking anyway. I hope that what I write will not anger my employer or customer. Maybe I should save this story for later, but I feel I need to tell my story.


Shenglong is a small company in Ningbo China. Ningbo is a very improtant export city. There are a lot of companies here that make products for export. And a lot of companies that are distributors for Chinese export products. Shenglong is a privately owned company with 4 groups. I work for the automotive group.

They hired me because they needed somebody that could help them meet their customer's needs. They won their first big contract to make a high volume transmission oil pump for Ford Motor Company in America. Ford, like all companies wants to cut costs. Just a note,... they should know they get what they pay for... Ford has offices in Asia with local people who can help them purchase and work with asian manufacturing companies. Shenglong made a big commitment to this Ford Transmission Oil Pump. They are even building a whole new factory for it.


Shenglong hired a retired Ford Transmission Oilpump design engineer in America to be their technical expert for the project. But when the Ford team made their first trip to China to visit Shenglong, they got nervous about Shenglong's ability to pull off such a big and important project. They encouraged Shenglong to hire somebody from the west to work in China that could help them manage this first project. One of the Ford people on that trip was a friend of mine. He knew that I was in china and was looking for a new job. And he gave them my name.

Actually it was almost a perfect fit. They hired me as launch manager. Actually, when i was doing my career planning during my last 3-4 years at Ford, Launch Manager was my 10 year goal job. But there was very little chance that I was ever going to be given that kind of opportunity at Ford during a time of cutbacks and reducing labor force. I was a good and hard working engineer but almost all of my experience was in Engine Assembly. It was in Ford's interest to keep me in Engine Assembly. There were many many good engineers working at Ford and many of them had a better, broader experience than I did. They weren't going to let me be a program leader, much less program manager or launch manager.


Many people at Ford have the same problem. But most of them either want to or need to stay in Michigan or at least in the USA. I really feel bad for many of my Ford friends in Michigan. Ford keeps cutting jobs, so everybody's job is getting harder. I'm sure there are basically NO opportunities for advancement. And even if they want to take one of the packages and leave Ford there are almost no other jobs in southeast Michigan in the auto industry or other supporting industries. And if they find a job in another part of the country they will definitely take a huge loss if they want to sell their house. I went through that whole nightmare myself over the past 2 years. It is a very hard time in Michigan now.

Anyway, back to my story... I say it was almost a perfect fit because I know Ford and what Ford expects from their suppliers. I speak english and am eagerly learning chinese. I have been able to help them a lot to bridge the communication gap in our 3 times a week engineering conference calls. I have good assembly experience, but I don't have much machining experience. Ford instantly saw that as a weakness and encouraged Shenglong to also hire somebody with machining experience. We looked at hiring some retired Ford transmission machining guys, but none of them were interested in coming to live in china like me. And in the end Ford came and reviewed our machining plans and met our machining engineers and they were convinced that we could handle it.


Surprisingly, I think the most valuable skill I have brought to this job is my quality mindset. Before I came here I didn't think I had a strong quality background. Assembly engineers don't have to measure parts nearly as much as machining engineers. So gaging was not my strong point. But my Six Sigma background did teach me the value of data and making decisions based on data. And I understand how important it is to have capable processes.

After I had been here for 1 month we started building our first prototypes. It took us 6 months to build about 250 pumps, and we had plenty of quality problems during that time. I and the whole team learned a lot about quality during that time. I learned a lot about gaging and realized that the design of our gages for mass production was probably the most important thing that I could focus on.


They asked me to teach Six Sigma classes to my team and others from the company. I was happy to teach them and for about 2 months I spent all of my free time developing training presentations and teaching classes 2 nights a week but most of them didn't try to use their six sigma skills so it was basically a waste of my time. Now we are about to start our second prototype build phase and then prove capability for Mass Production. Now they have to use these skills to prove the processes capable. And Ford is demanding to see the data. So, I hope that I can finally inspire and teach them the value of these useful skills.

I don't really remember it, but i am told that in the 70's america was flooded with "Jap Junk" - cheap and poor quality products from Japan. But, that is not the case with japanese products today. They are among the best quality products in the world. If Chinese manufacturing can have the same kind of improvement as Japanese manufacturing, American industry really has a lot to worry about. Anyway, I am happy to be learning more about quality. I think it is a skill that will serve me well in my future career. If I want to stay in China, I am sure I could spend the rest of my career in China as a quality engineer. I'm not saying that is what I want to do, just that there is a need and it will be here for a while.


We had so many problems during the first prototype build and we were pushed so hard to produce enough parts each week that the time slipped by very quickly and we started our mass production planning too late. There was also a commercial issue - basically Shenglong wouldn't make any investment in the mass production facilities until they officially got an order from Ford which was very late coming. So, we ordered the equipment that we need to build the mass production pumps for Ford too late and now we are behind schedule on equipment installation.


Now we are right in the middle of pre-acceptance for our new equipment. That is where we go to the companies who are making the machines and test the machines to make sure they meet our requirements and can hold the tolerances that Ford requires on the drawings for the pump. I have done this many times for assembly equipment, but it is a new challenge for me for machining and gaging. I'm enjoying learning about machining and gaging, and even though I am no expert, I don't think they could do this without me.


The whole process has been a huge learning experience for me. I am used to the Ford way. And I have had to learn that it is impossible to do in a year what Ford has spent the last 30 years or more learning and developing. Ford gives their suppliers about 300 pages of specifications based on years manufacturing process development, and experience with what works and doesn't work. They tell the supplier exactly how they want the machines built and what parts they are allowed to use and it makes the machines very expensive.

Shenglong on the other hand buys much less expensive, off-the-shelf CNC machines and a few special designed machines and gives their suppliers almost no specifications. Just a part drawing or process sheet telling them what dimensions and tolerances they are responsible for and a cycle time. They were supposed to tell the suppliers the acceptance criteria (every dimension has to be capable to 1.67 Cpk - sorry for the technical stuff). But I am finding that many of the suppliers either didn't know that this was a requirement or had no idea what it would mean to prove it to us before shipping the machines. So it is a struggle to get the machines delivered on time.

Oh yeah, and color is important to some people because face is important in china and we want our line to be beautiful and all the machines should look the same. But we also failed to tell some of the suppliers what color we wanted our machines, so who knows, maybe they will paint them themselves when they get a chance.


Maybe the biggest struggle is the cultural barrier with regards to supplier management. At Ford, managing the equipment suppliers and the order is the process engineer's responsibility. Instead of doing real engineering, Ford relies on the supplier to be responsible for the design and the process engineers are really just project managers. They have to make sure their supplier is on-time, under budget and meets all of Ford's requirements (part print dimensions and the 300+ pages of technical specifications on how to build the machines).

But in Shenglong, they split the responsibility up between lots of people, technichal department (process engineers), manufacturing department (like facilities engineering and equipment purchasing put together - which is a very strange combination) and the finance and commercial department are also involved. But, NOBODY thinks it is necessary to call the suppliers and check on their status and timing.


They all really think that after you give the supplier the order, the supplier will just deliver exactly what you want on the promised date. You don't need to call them or have any status reviews. After telling they needed to have at least a bi-weekly status review with each supplier for a month or so and getting no results, I started scheduling the meetings and forcing them to attend, but they still thought the meetings were useless. And when I still couldn't get them to do it, I just asked my assistant to call the suppliers directly. She hates it because the suppliers also have a bad attitude about having to answer our questions, but it has to be done. And of course EVERY SINGLE SUPPLIER HAS LET US DOWN!!! Every single supplier has been late or in some way not met our expectations.


I won't go into details, but it is a real struggle and cultural and professional learning experience. I am sooooo tired of hearing the translated words "They say they will do their best" which does not mean that it will get done on time or like you want.

We still have a lot of work to do to get ready for our prototype build and mass production. And I need to keep pushing harder and harder if we are to be successful. My first chinese little brother and best friend Ray recently taught me about red face and black face in china. It's a little like good cop / bad cop. He said that all teams have at least one person who is red face and one person who is black face. Red face is nice and everybody likes him or her. Red face helps everybody and wants every body to be happy and like their job, etc. If you have a problem, Red face will say nice words to you and make you feel better and help you fixes your personal problems. My boss Joan is Red face. I think Red face is the way most Chinese people like to manage. Don't push people too hard. Actually Joan is a very good manager. Even though she is usually red face, she can also be tough and demanding and push the big bosses to get things done.

Black face is the person who has to be the bad guy. Who has to make people do things they don't want to do and enforce the rules and make them meet deadlines. I have been forced to become black face on my team and it is not a job I like. But I have to do it or we will fail. I am constantly telling my team and our suppliers that they aren't doing enough or they are too late, they need to do more, need to work overtime, need to finish on time... Black face goes totally against my preferred management style, but the chinese "ok is good enough" or "doing our best" mentality isn't going to meet our American customer's expectations.

Though my team knows i love them and I think they love and respect me to, they will follow the chinese boss's wishes before mine. They have to. I am a lone warrior and though I may be fighting for the right cause, I may be fighting a losing battle. I often feel that I work for Ford, not Shenglong. It is a difficult and often lonely line to walk.

Last thoughts for today...maybe I should save this for later but I am going to say it. Shenglong is a growing company - but they are growing too fast. They have successfully won a lot of new contracts in the past 2 years. My opinion is that they should quote a higher price and hire more people so they don't have too much work and can better meet their customer's demands. And their employees can have a better quality of life. But this is china and they can hire labor at a very low wage and ask them to work very long hours. If the people don't want the job there are many others that will work for the same low pay.

This is always a very difficult ethical question about working in a developing country. They pay me a fair american wage which is much higher than my chinese counterparts and even my bosses. In return, I am helping them to learn from the west and become a better company. There is a lot they can learn from me if they are willing to change their way of thinking.

My daily dilemna is: Chinese people are the nicest and hardest working people I have ever met in my life. I love the people on my team. They have become my family in China. I care about them very much and I want to help them. But what is the best way to help them? I think it is to lead them to success. And to teach them how to become better. I hate some of this company's HR policies, and though we from the west would say they are not fair, they are probably no different than any other small chinese company. So, how can I best help the people I love? Is it best for me to work hard for the company and help my team succeed or quit in some feeble protest for human rights... I don't think my quitting will help the people I love. But my job is to successfully launch this product. And try as i may, I cannot force the company to hire more people. I am forced to be black face. I constantly have to ask my team to work harder or we will not meet our customer's requirements. In that way, I am becoming part of the problem that I hate.


And finally, a note on the American economy... Wake up America!
Even if American wages are cut in half, it will be a long time before China's labor rates (and other developing country's) will catch up to American wages. So if Americans are willing to put up with the poor, but ever improving, quality of chinese and other developing country imports, they will continue to lose more and more jobs.

Some people may think that I am a traitor to be here helping china to improve. But I know I was lucky to be born in America - a free and rich and powerful country. I get bored and frustrated with the "America is the center of the world" mentality and I know i can't change it, and I don't feel like i fit in america anymore. I have a world view, a restless soul. So I went in search of the place i fit in this world.

I think that everybody on this planet should have an equal chance at happiness and a good life. And I do not feel guilty about wanting to help these wonderful, warm, hard working people build a better life for themselves. That is going to happen whether I am her helping them or not.

I came to China in search of adventure and personal growth. I wanted to learn about the eastern way of thinking and I was surprised to find that I fit here. There is something about the ancient chinese way of thinking that feels very right to me. I feel like there is something that China has to teach me. I am here to learn something important from China. And I am learning every day.

I hope you are too. Maybe my story helps in some small way.

That is all for now. I hope I did not upset anybody by my thoughts and opinions written here. I just wanted to tell my story so far.