“Taming the Dragon: A Look at the Current State of Manufacturing Operations in China”
Industry Week
November 2007, pp. 28-33
Industry Week recently collaborated with the Manufacturing Performance Institute to study the current state of manufacturing in China.
When asked to name their top three market strategy objectives, Chinese manufacturers listed:
- High Quality (83.3%)
- Low Cost (56.6%)
- Innovation (53.9%)
- Service and Support (28.2%)
- Fast Delivery (23.9%)
US manufacturers listed
- High Quality (73.7%)
- Service and Support (55.8%)
- Total Value (41.2%)
- Fast Delivery (32.0%)
- Customization (26.6%)
While lean manufacturing is the predominant improvement methodology in the U. S., in China 81.7% use total Quality Management, 25.1% use lean manufacturing, 19.3% use agile manufacturing, 7.8% use theory of constraints, and 3.0% use Six Sigma.
When comparing strategic practices within plants:
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys are used by 59.6% in China and 51.4% in the U. S.
- Quality Certifications such as ISO are used by 54.6% in China and 55.9% in the US
- Continuous improvement is used by 47.4% in China and 76.9% in the US
- Total Productive Maintenance is used by 40.2%% in China and 34.2% in the US
- Environmental Management is used by 33.9% in China and 43.6% in the US
- Open-Book Management is used by 24.9% in China and 16.0% in the US
- Kaizen Events/Blitzes are used by 19.5% in China and 45.5% in the US
- Recycling/Reuse Programs are used by 16.5% in China and 56.1% in the US
- Value Stream Mapping is used by 9.2% in China and 45.5% in the US
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