a college campus.
Several factories I've went to for a few of the companies I worked for are similar in the following ways:
1) It is located in the rural area / outskirt of a major city, far enough so the land is cheap, but close enough so logistic and hiring aren't problems.
2) The line workers are usually late teens, early 20s who haven't gotten much education, came from rural area, and are trained only sufficiently to do what he or she is assigned to do.
3) The line workers share rooms in dorm buildings, work in shifts with supervising prefects, wear color coded uniform (jackets, caps, and cargo pants) that indicates they are line workers. They also take breaks like school students do in groups. Some of them hang out after shifts in the local town like they are college kids too.
4) The line workers are usually from rural area (farmland) with little to no education. Their wages aren't that high ($200-400 US per month), so usually once they gain some experience they either get promoted to supervising role (different uniform) or move on and find works in more sophisticated field in the city, or go back home to help in the family farm, etc.
5) Engineers who work in the factory wear different uniform, many came from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, US, etc with prior experience. Some do live on campus in a better dorm with better cafeteria, making higher salary ($1000-2000 US per month), but their responsibilities are primarily limited to failure analysis rather than design or making recommendations to the buyer / designer of the products.
6) Many people who work are just machines, programmed to do a specific task but not told why to do it. This is either because they want to reduce training, or they don't think the workers would understand anyways. This is what I think is the biggest difference between US/Japan/Europe vs China/Taiwanese companies manufactured products.
7) Whatever flexibility / productivity disadvantage the Chinese factory line have, they overcome it with massive labor. Instead of training workers to "fix it on the spot" or make judgement call in adjustment, give parts with red light to another worker A, parts with yellow light to another worker B, parts with green light to another worker C, etc. Weird problems? Leave them to the more experienced failure analysis team of experienced workers and engineers.
Haven't been a line worker myself, I can only say that it is my 1.75 hand information.
Several factories I've went to for a few of the companies I worked for are similar in the following ways:
1) It is located in the rural area / outskirt of a major city, far enough so the land is cheap, but close enough so logistic and hiring aren't problems.
2) The line workers are usually late teens, early 20s who haven't gotten much education, came from rural area, and are trained only sufficiently to do what he or she is assigned to do.
3) The line workers share rooms in dorm buildings, work in shifts with supervising prefects, wear color coded uniform (jackets, caps, and cargo pants) that indicates they are line workers. They also take breaks like school students do in groups. Some of them hang out after shifts in the local town like they are college kids too.
4) The line workers are usually from rural area (farmland) with little to no education. Their wages aren't that high ($200-400 US per month), so usually once they gain some experience they either get promoted to supervising role (different uniform) or move on and find works in more sophisticated field in the city, or go back home to help in the family farm, etc.
5) Engineers who work in the factory wear different uniform, many came from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, US, etc with prior experience. Some do live on campus in a better dorm with better cafeteria, making higher salary ($1000-2000 US per month), but their responsibilities are primarily limited to failure analysis rather than design or making recommendations to the buyer / designer of the products.
6) Many people who work are just machines, programmed to do a specific task but not told why to do it. This is either because they want to reduce training, or they don't think the workers would understand anyways. This is what I think is the biggest difference between US/Japan/Europe vs China/Taiwanese companies manufactured products.
7) Whatever flexibility / productivity disadvantage the Chinese factory line have, they overcome it with massive labor. Instead of training workers to "fix it on the spot" or make judgement call in adjustment, give parts with red light to another worker A, parts with yellow light to another worker B, parts with green light to another worker C, etc. Weird problems? Leave them to the more experienced failure analysis team of experienced workers and engineers.
Haven't been a line worker myself, I can only say that it is my 1.75 hand information.
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