A video podcast where Bram Vandendriessche (Medalounger) and Ben Boterkooper (CIL China) discussing the experiences in management of a furniture factory in Dongguan.
Quality control of suppliers
Important is to work with cooperative suppliers. Quality of materials and other parts needed to manufacture furniture is very important. However, Chinese suppliers and workers are often not aware of quality and materials on European standards. As knowledge and skills are not always sufficient, managing the quality within the supplier’s factory is key. Gaining influence on the production inside the factory of the suppliers is very important. Managing not only your supplier but also indirectly managing the production line of the supplier. Although this is a very effective solution, some Chinese suppliers don’t allow this level of influence in their company.
Factory product quality management
A commonly seen problem with furniture manufacturing in China is the difference in quality made by manufacturers. Also, with a lack of stability in quality with sudden drops of produced quality by manufacturers. Medalounger is a factory which has a solution to manage the product quality well. They use a QC inspector per process, with a tracking system of the product. Every product contains a tracking number that will allow the organization and even customer to see who made which product and which part of the product in the factory. Making it able to track down the problem in quality or performance in the factory. Resulting in a more stable quality level.
Factory workers in relation to quality
Most of the factory workers have travelled from inside mainland China from rural area’s to work in the urbanized cities. It are low paid jobs, which makes it able to produce products at low cost. However, because it are low paid workers, they are not aware of any furniture quality at all. Simply because they don’t use the furniture they make at home. They sleep in dormitories at the factories and in their hometowns. No European quality or models are found. Comparing this to European workers who build up a product experience of hundreds of years and where the workers have quality they make also at home, it seems logic Chinese low paid workers and European quality furniture manufacturing will meet implications and difficulties on quality. Reminding the employees of the quality standards is, therefore, a repeating task for the factory management to prevent produced quality to drop.
Human Resources
Where before Dongguan had a lot of labour to offer, times are changing. A new generation of factory workers needs to replace the current older generation. However, due to the technology sector coming up, a lot of young people are not willing to work in furniture factories in China anymore. The younger generation has more in common with tech products than an old skill such as furniture crafts. Besides, the tech sector has higher margins and can offer a better plan for their workers. They can offer more incentives to move young people towards their tech factories. Causing a lack of labour and more specific young generation willing to work in furniture factories.