Weego Toy Factory in Pinghu, Longgang District of Shenzhen, which is subordinated to Weego Corporation Ltd. (Hereinafter called “Weego”), is a professional plastic present manufacturer with more than 10 years’ experience. With long term effective improvement, it has formed a flexible, precise and humanlike management system gradually, increased its manufacturing and developing ability, and gotten recognition from its customers and attention from toy industry. Meanwhile, Weego managements emphasize much on cultivating staff and management, actively build up long term education system, and store human resource for this group’s persist development. The development experience of Weego shows an active manufacturing mode, and its successful operation enlightened the same type enterprises especially the toy and present manufacturing which has dense work force and low unit profit. Hereon, we will introduce its results and experience of implementing LEAN Manufacturing in the last whole year, for further discuss and intercommunion in the industry.

Decision-making and foresight

Weego’s main customers are inter-country enterprises providing toy / present such as McDonald’s. Its order is always large in quantity, short in schedule and innovative in style. In order to satisfy the customer’s request and maintain its competitive ability in the market, Weego deployed large-scale development team and lots of half-products and outsourcing storage before introducing LEAN Manufacturing concept. Preparing for danger in times of safety, Weego managements realized the instable factors in the industry and the form of Southeastern machining market. With the increasing competition of workforce dense industry, the profit space will be deflated. So how to reduce cost and consumption while increasing quality, shortening schedule becomes the core competition capacity.
Through deep though and thorough analysis, managements made a far-sight decision: adapting “LEAN Manufacturing” concept, to turn around the original production management which was aim at delivering products, build up the core thought of using the least resource at the shortest time and the most appropriate location, in order to delete waste totally, including human, resource, time, and increase the overall productivity and efficiency.
Exotic expert
There is always some difficulty in transformation, especially in such an efficient and stable developing enterprise, it is hard for all of the staff to change their traditional mode and concept. At the same time, LEAN Manufacturing will be barred by the structure of wide economic mode in a long time and ejected by routines. But standers-by can identify the problem clearly, stride over structural resistance and cut-in the subject straight in a short time. In March, 2006, Weego invited the most professional LEAN Manufacturing expert of Hong Kong, TQM CONSULTANTS CO. LTD (TQM), and implement “LEAN Manufacturing” under the leading of TQM consultant in the following year.

Mindset Transformation

At the first stage of the implementation, the most difficulty thing is to change people’s idea because the transformation of the concept is harder to introduce into a mature enterprise than technology. Many technicians with many years’ service and local workers believed their own traditional experience, and doubted about the improving advice from TQM consultant. In order to implement the improvement smoothly and effectively, TQM consultant took a lot of successful improvement case and analyzed and compared them patiently, pointed out the feasibility of the project, communicated with local staff positively and persisted in the concept of LEAN Manufacturing while respecting their experience. The more important was that the determination and support of Weego kept the whole project in the active direction. After the concept of LEAN Manufacturing was accepted widely, the essential change happened. Just like what Weego PE director said, “Lasting improvement is a culture; this process is not only the improvement of the equipment and method, but also the change and innovation of idea and concept!”

Combination of theory and practice

To choose the training course, TQM communicated with Weego management, identified the key flow of the factory, started with the representative project which is easy to reach an agreement, and built up an improvement team for the project where the cost efficiency was increased evidently.
In order to make the improvement team understand the concept of LEAN Manufacturing and apply LEAN tools, TQM designed a training mode appropriate to adults, took the “grand old man consciousness” of the middle and top management into consideration, activated positive mind, constitute training course according to every improvement opportunity, the management tool and knowledge of the team member. The content of the course was drafted from the realistic production material and on-site photos. Using the theory of LEAN Manufacturing in the realistic work evoked the learning passion of the team.
The training course arranged half-day classroom teaching and half-day workshop practice. After one week, TQM requested the project team to use their learning to their current production arrangement and management, assigned special consultants to lead the team separately to unite on-site consult and developing related improvement, conducted, amended and arranged plan. The training result was transferred into the realistic work immediately, and generated among the whole factory to create condition.
Some of the training was recorded by video, shared and analyzed on the class, consolidate and practice their acquired theory and skills, in order to enhance the trainers’ confidence of the improvement efficiency and deepen their awareness of LEAN Manufacturing concept and skills.

Involvement of people

Only the brilliant decision of the management and the professional conduct of the consultant were not enough to successfully complete an overall reformation, but the positive participation of all the staffs and the persistence of the project team were important factors to introduce LEAN Manufacturing. In 2006, all Weego staff targeted at how to reduce waste, improve the current workflow and method everyday. In this period, the team members were active to promote and implement, share their experience, which made their result was extended in a large area.
At the meanwhile, the management changed the company culture of “Advance constantly and improve yourself” to the KPI of the result assessment. This accelerated all the trainers to participate and bring collective wisdom into effect, push the LEAN Manufacturing activity into a deeper and broad area. Only in one year, the result of this consultancy project was transferred into the company knowledge and the impetus to develop and improve constantly.

Consideration of situation and improvement trend

Under the leading of the project director Ir. Dr. Aaron W K TONG, the consultant team collected every aspect’s data, analyzed in detail according to the factory’s situation, identified important improvement area, embarked improvement in sequence, set down measurable index and reflected improvement trend by stages. TQM consultant chose a special product as experiment in the whole improvement project, applied the improvement method in the case, and adjusted with situation according to the customer’s request and the realistic result, in order to introduce every tool of LEAN Manufacturing at maximum, combined with a mature system to achieve the material change and leap. As a result, all the trainers were convinced of the developing direction of LEAN Manufacturing.

Important results

This improvement project included the following three programmes:

The original production cycle was shortened from 40 days to 15 days, saved by 62.5%, which made the company and the suppliers under a good cycle situation.
The improvement method used Kanban theory, turned lots of half-products into proper production arrangement; brought the PMC function; establish win-win arrangement with suppliers.

The time of changing model was shortened from 6 hours to 20 minutes, reduced by 94.45.
The improvement method was mainly to analyze time and action by photographing the model operation before improvement, identify exterior and interior time, transfer the interior time to exterior time, lead the improvement of equipments and models, reduce the interior / exterior time and regulate the operation.

The operation cost of painting department was a problem for Weego in a long time. After the improvement, the cost was controlled, the production craft was increased obviously, and only one programme was saved 1 million.
The painting process was improved and the automatic production was introduced. At the meantime, widen the applicability of printing craft adapted the production craft of lower cost on the same standard.

This successful improvement project indicated that implementing LEAN Manufacturing is not to introduce and apply western mature LEAN Manufacturing method, but research and develop a LEAN Manufacturing mode suitable for Chinese culture and industry structure, to balance the promotion, and change deeply from the outside to the inside. Through long time and professional research and effort, TQM found a set of well-rounded LEAN Manufacturing methods for Chinese enterprise culture. These methods don’t only resolve the technician problem at the transformation progress, but also evoke the passion and innovation of their customers’ staff. This makes the company itself and related companies change this ideas together, adapt gradually, improve constantly and strive for LEAN management.
For Weego, this improvement project didn’t only benefit the economic, but also worshipful for the promotion of company culture and the innovation of the concept. There will be a lot of enthusiastic middle and top management to carry out and promote LEAN Manufacturing in the future. Here, we wish Weego take constant improvement in the future, and enlighten the toy industry in the Pearl River area with LEAN and scientific production mode.