“Yes Zhou Jingli (周经理, manager Zhou）, I guess we can remove some Muda to match the Takt time”

Just one usual sentence, already four languages used.  Welcome to Siemens in China. If you wish some background details about the history of this Konzern in China, you can visit my last article.

So, why is motor manufacturing at a total crossroad of cultures ? For the context, SSML is a little factory of low-cost products for the emerging Chinese inner market (but good quality and medium price range according to Chinese standards). And nevertheless, you can feel the need of a total internationalization of the daily work.

The multiculturalism is a real strength for every company and this spirit should be developed for a more sustainable and adaptable business everywhere.

English

English is the Babel Tower of economy and the official language of the all Siemens Group. It allows for people to communicate with each other inside the company. A language for the managers so ?

Surprisingly not. Probably it was true in the last decades, especially in China, but now it is a real necessity to master English speaking in the daily work because of the strategies of horizontal management. This management strategy allows more freedom for the employees to run projects with the help of other department and therefore constitute dynamic and adaptive teams for the daily challenges of the company. Before, this spirit was thought to stay inside the walls of the companies, but with the Globalization companies are integrating suppliers and customers from all around the world in their value stream. This new team work can be a real melting pot of cultures and talents.

One of my daily project include Chinese people, German supplier, Czech and Spanish experts and truckloads of documentation and knowledge shared everyday in the English language.

The more your colleagues are speaking English, the more reliable they are and the more able they are to interconnect and develop the business on a global scale.

 

 

 

Chinese

Siemens integrate perfectly well in the Chinese Culture. Or maybe it is Chinese Culture which integrate so well every different elements and incorporate them to its background。

Recently, SSML company achieved a particularly high achievement with its turnover and goes over its goal of one billion RMB (renminbi人民币, “people’s currency”). Therefore, a special event was organized according to the Chinese tradition which consider the numbers as particularly significant. One billion, shi yi 十亿, is a milestone in the life of a Chinese company, just like 10, 20 or 30 years is the occasion for a particular event for an individual, whereas other anniversary are not even worth celebrating.

 

This day, lot of guest were invited from Siemens Headquarter and local government. I was expecting this event to be perfectly normal, as any public meeting with the divers speeches and congratulation from top-managers and town mayor, but some details make you realize that you are really in China:

 

• The presence of a huge round gate, symbol of inner-peace at the entrance
• The 9 man-sized drums decorated with motors to welcome the entry of the guests
• The acrobats dressed up to perform the traditional Chinese Lion Dance which is normally performed at the Spring Festival to bring luck for the new year.
• Fireworks and other pyrotechnics devices to make noise and light, Chinese symbol of life.

It is interesting to see how much Chinese Culture which was so badly damaged during the last century is today flourishing in every aspect of the daily business. Impossible to imagine the opening of a new store without the traditional red and gold decorations and the bunches of flower.

The greatest lesson of this event is that you cannot really build a successful company if you don’t root is deeply in the country culture. It is very important to build a long-lasting relationship between your customers, your suppliers and you employees.

Japanese

 

Muda,Mura, Muri, Heijunka, Gemba, Gembatsu, Jidoka, Kaizen, 5S, Kanban, Poka-Yoke… Japanese have a very heavy footprint in the daily life of an industrial company, thanks to very popular (and efficient) TPS, Toyota Production System. All of this expression symbolize a very concrete framework to solve the problems in a company.

• Gemba：”the place where it happens”, this word described the priority to always go on the place where the problem  happens (shop floor, workshop). It changed the daily work of managers and engineers normally confined to their office.
• Kaizen:”Continuous Improvement”, western companies have a strong culture of crisis. The company is facing trouble and new superheroes will take the lead and allow it  to emerge more successful than ever. The rest of the time “Don’t try to fix what ain’t broken”. Kaizen is the very contrary, every day try to improve a little and congratulate and rewards the people for allowing the company to prevent the crisis.
  积少成多 Jī shǎo chéng duō, Many little things make a big change.

 

Actually, China have a very close relationship with its insular neighbor despite the bad image of Japan on the continent. Unlike Germany who find reconciliation with Europe after WW2, lot of griefs remains unresolved between the two Asian giants.

Despite this climate, Japan is the first investor in China and conducted a lot of knowledge transfer to the benefit of the People’s Republic. Today, the Japanese corporate culture is a Must-Have in every company on his way to the lean management. This culture imply the customer driven business, continuous improvement,  respect and involvement of every employee.

German

Siemens is historically a German Company and keep a very strong tights with their motherland. This roots bring a lot of value to the business.

Firstly, Germany was one of the first western country to see the opportunities and assimilate the principle of the Japanese TPS. This step forward gave to the German car manufacturing industry a powerful competitiveness against the American car manufacturers.

Industrial principles complementary to the Japanese framework have been developed and practiced in Germany. They are heavily oriented to the respect of high quality standards and the adaptation to the German economic network which is dominated by small and medium companies (GmbH). It require a close integration of multiple suppliers and customers.

The Takt Time, German word for “pace” describe the ideal time for the production of one product. More fast that this time would mean over-production, slower would mean deceive the customers.

So clearly, the futures of the next successful companies rely entirely on their capacity to be open-minded and to take the good elements and good examples from all-over the World.

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