Driving operational improvements at the Chinese manufacturing operation of an American multi-national, through the implementation of employee development programs and lean/six sigma initiatives.

Situation:

Due to steadily-increasing labor tensions throughout China, our client-a major multi-national brand in the consumer goods market-took the initiative and proactively implemented a management and employee development program at their Ningbo, China operation.

This was done in an effort to show the workforce-in excess of 2000 employees-that they were ahead of the curve in terms of ensuring a modern-day working environment which dealt with both shareholder objectives, and local employee welfare.

Approach:

MPKI installed a project team that combined members from offices in the US, China and Europe. The team worked very closely with the client’s North American corporate office, to ensure consistent solutions with their corporate values, in addition to encompassing the firm’s business objectives-both globally, and in China.

Over a period of 18 months, the MPKi team worked alongside the client’s North American and Chinese management teams to design and implement a solution for almost immediate turnaround- both in terms of business performance and culture-at their China operation.

Due to the success of the employee development program, the project was expanded, and the local Chinese team began implementing lean/six sigma initiatives. This step was deemed impossible prior to the initiation of the employee development program.

Results:

Significantly improved working environment at the client’s Chinese manufacturing location, which high- lighted improvements not only in terms employee satisfaction levels, but also in terms of increased quality performance, higher productivity and overall lower cost of production.