Day 7, Suzhou-Shanghai (Team 9: Greenlee, Drum, Mohr, Fairman)

June 18th, 2008

Day 7 – Suzhou to Shanghai

We arrived in Suzhou by train at 6:30 AM and promptly packed our things into our bags, clearing out of the sleeper cars. The walk through the train station was quite a challenge as we maneuvered up and down sets of stairs. We met our new bus driver and headed out to the Lotus Gardens. Suzhou is known as the Venice of the East due to its numerous canals and while the many waterways do add to the uniqueness of the city, the real beauty lies in Suzhou’s gardens. We walked through the gardens for an hour and then met to take a boat ride along the canals. What we thought was going to be a tour of the canals ended up being a 100 yard journey, but luckily the driver sang for us so we didn’t feel cheated out of our money. The short boat ride gave us extra time to spend before we needed to be at our firm visit, so we stopped and walked through a local farmer’s market. The sights and smells were enough to overwhelm many in the group. Live chickens, ducks, fish, crawdads, and frogs were all throughout the meat section. Vegetables and spices of all kinds could also be found throughout each of the many isles of the market. We were greeted by surprised but welcoming faces from each of the vendors and we often heard “hello” or “how are you”. There was a little bakery that sold muffins which ended up being breakfast for the entire group as we got back on the bus to head to the Suzhou Industrial Park.

Our first firm visit was to the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park. The Industrial Park is huge development with 74 Fortune 500 companies, over 100 R&D organizations, commercial and residential space and much more.  Our host gave a presentation that detailed the history of the park and the plans for future developments. He discussed two important economic areas, the Coastal Economic Belt and the Yangtze River Economic Delta, which conveniently intersect near the park.  Our host’s specialty is working with companies to get through what can be a very challenging regulatory environment in China, so his insight was quite valuable. After listening to his presentation and the discussion afterwards, it was clear that China is still interested in high growth. But this growth is no longer at any cost since there are now strict environmental regulations to be able to develop in the Suzhou Industrial Park. After a group picture with our host, we were on our way to our next firm visit, a short bus ride away.

Our next stop was Hip Fung Electronics, an electronics manufacturing service. We were lucky enough to know top management at Hip Fung from a family connection in our MBA class. They organized a wonderful visit which included a presentation, fed us lunch, and provided us a tour of the factory. The presentation detailed the history of the company and which actions have helped to increase Hip Fung’s success. It was interesting to note that once Hip Fung switched to a high mix low volume strategy, they became much more successful. We took this as another example of why lean manufacturing is so important and will only continue to become more popular. The lunch we ate was the same meal that factory workers are served each day and it was quite delicious. After a banana for dessert and the brightest lime anti-static outfits ever, we entered the factory for a tour. One of the first things we noticed was the absence of men on the assembly line floor. Women’s smaller and more nimble hands allow them to be superior at the intricate tasks required for electronics assembly. The factory was clean, organized, and appeared to have great working conditions. A few people in our group were allowed to go see the dormitories where the factory workers live. While the building was minimalist and workers slept six to a room on thin padded wood frames, the general sentiment was that the living conditions were better than expected and were very clean and well kept.

The next factory we visited was Positec, a manufacturer of machine tools and the popular Worx line. We toured both the showroom and factory and were impressed by the massive injection molding systems used to make their products. We left Positec to go visit Plantronics where we watched a presentation about the unique culture of the firm and then toured the factory. The factory had a similar look and feel to that of Hip Fung but on a larger scale and was a LEED certified campus. Plantronics had their complete service chain located in-house and maintained a strong focus on employee total well-being.

After our final visit of the day at Plantronics, we headed to the nearby McDonald’s for people to get food and bring on the bus so that we could arrive at a decent hour in Shanghai. Barely into our journey, the traffic on the freeway stopped completely. The bus driver thought it was better to avoid the traffic so he turned around in the middle of the freeway and drove off the on-ramp. After a few games of “chicken” where our bus ultimately won, we were back on a different road heading to Shanghai. We often hear Chinese people described as adaptive and flexible. This was first hand experience of that phenomenon.

Today provided our first look into the highly-used reference of China as the “factory of the world.” It was quite impressive to see the various scales and technical capacities that the companies operate at. We watched the nimble hands on the production line assemble products that will be on the shelves of retail stores when we return—and it provided that connection in the product life-cycle between production and consumption. While this might not have been a representative sample of the manufacturing facilities in China, the company visits reinforced the idea that this is good for the people. The workers work and live comfortably, and retain an image of pride and happiness.

Entry Filed under: Shanghai, China, Suzhou