U.S. Can Compete With China Through Lean and Quality

Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI) Study Reports U.S. Can Compete with China Through Lean and Quality

China reported on July 4th, 2007 that nearly a fifth of the food and consumer products that it checked on their own store shelves, in a nationwide survey was found to be substandard or tainted, underscoring the risk faced by its own people even as the country’s exports come under greater scrutiny here in the United States. Regulators said that the broad survey of foods, agricultural tools, clothing, women and children’s products and other types of goods turned up sizable quality and safety failure rates for products sold in China. The announcement came in the midst of a growing scandal over the quality and safety of Chinese-made exports, and follows a series of international recalls involving everything from contaminated pet foods and counterfeit toothpaste to toxic toys, defective tires and contaminated seafood.

So many U.S. companies are directly or indirectly involved in China now that the commercial interest of the United States has allowed imports to come in easily and quickly. Trading with the largely unregulated Chinese marketplace has its risks, and until recently, many companies and even the federal government felt, on average, those risks were worth taking. However, those risks are now showing up as poor quality in many products imported to the United States from China.

With high quality expectations by consumers and customers in the U.S., Leanovations believes having a strong "lean and quality" culture in our factories, provides U.S. manufacturers with an opportunity to compete with low-cost, low quality global competitors.

Recognizing that many U.S. manufacturers view China as both public enemy No. 1, and the land of opportunity, a study reported by The Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI) compared a select group of Chinese manufacturers’ operational practices of applying lean manufacturing to that of U.S. manufacturers. In China, less than 20% of manufacturing managers surveyed stated they have adopted "lean manufacturing," which is about eliminating waste, improving quality, and being responsive to changing market requirements, as their primary operational improvement. This very low percentage by the Chinese provides an opportunity for the U.S. manufacturers, as 55% of the U.S. managers surveyed said they are using “lean manufacturing” as the driving force behind operational improvement. What concerns us at Leanovations is that 45% (almost half) of the U.S. companies are not using lean as a competitive process to compete worldwide.
Many U.S. manufacturing executives who have adopted lean believe they can compete with China’s labor-cost difference, through superior trade skills, greater teamwork, lean processes, improved quality and innovations to provide higher productivity and the ability to meet market changes faster then their counterparts.

If you are one of the 45% of U.S. manufacturers who have not started on a lean transformation for your company, we need to ask, why are you waiting? Please do not hesitate to contact Leanovations to see if we can assist you. Many of our clients today are calling us the “Transformation Teachers”.

Fred Shamburg
President, Leanovations
Contact Leanovations at:
http://www.leanovations.com/

Leanvoations is a consulting group with extensive international experience, who train and coach companies to compete worldwide with lean manufacturing techniques and to win profitable growth through innovations. We focus on developing a partnership with our clients and tailor our approach to meet their specific cultural, organizational and performance needs.