Chinese Leaders Gain New Mindset

Robert Miller, Executive Director of The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, attended the third Annual Conference organized by the Made In China International Consulting Company (MICI) for operational excellence in Beijing, China. At this conference Miller was a keynote speaker as well as China’s Deputy Director General from the Sate-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the Sate Council (SASAC), Chu Xuping.

The Deputy Direct General spoke of how, as a country, China needs to change their philosophy about workers and how employers need to share their profit with their employees.

“This is such a significant change in China’s mindset about manufacturing. It was shocking to hear,” Miller said.
A large number of companies that work with the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence in the United States have subsidiaries, joint ventures or wholly owned operations in China. However, the majority of the organizations in China are Chinese owned or state owned enterprises. Miller said that the Chinese are starting to lose their competitive edge because labor rates are going up, so in order for them to remain competitive in the world markets they have to improve their overall efficiency and effectiveness within organizations.

An American consulting company, Lean Tech, and MICI financed the creation of a new company, The China Center for Operational Excellence. Through this joint venture The Shingo Prize can send representatives to China to communicate the message of the Shingo Model.

“Because we aren’t there we need feet on the street. We need local Chinese people who understand the economy, the companies and how to communicate with them,” Miller said.

Miller said the leaders of the Chinese government know they have to modernize the way they think, lead and manage their organizations. Chinese business owners are hungry for information on leadership training and how to engage workers in the manufacturing process.

This new mindset shows that Chinese business owners understand what needs to be done to remain competitive; employees also understand this and want the same thing. Employees and employers also want to share the responsibility and be more interactive in the decision making process. For these reasons, The Shingo Prize took the opportunity to share the message of the Shingo Model and its principles. Miller taught and spoke of these principles and how they relate to Chinese businesses. He said they were “eager and gobbling up the message”.

“I think they really identify with the Shingo model because it is a model that strikes a cord inside people of all cultures because it is about learning and understanding correct principles. It is about empowering people. Then when they understand the concepts they can create what operational excellence needs to be like in China,” Miller said.

In March of 2012 the China Center for Operational Excellence will hold a branded Shingo Prize Conference in China. It will be the first, formal Shingo Prize conference held in China and will take place in Shanghai. We encourage all to be apart of this historical event for The Shingo Prize. More information to come soon.