With Industry 4.0 taking a firm foothold in the manufacturing space, CI leaders must prepare their organizations for radical process restructuring. From automation to virtual reality, manufacturing is on the precipice of exciting change – change that must be navigated with careful planning and preparation. Against this backdrop of transformation, operational excellence leaders and TRACC users gathered together at the TRACC Alliance in Hangzhou, China to explore the best practices that are shaping and defining the future of Chinese manufacturing.
Delegates from leading organizations such as China Resources Snow Breweries, Mengniu, COFCO Coca-Cola, Swire Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola SCMC, Ashland, DuPont, Cargill and more, attended the two-day event — which was held from 19-20 September — and included a site visit to China Resources Snow Breweries, TRACC Alliance best practice sharing sessions, and an evening cocktail networking event.
The central theme of the event was ‘Empowering China Manufacturing 2025’, with many of the speakers touching on the value that Industry 4.0 delivers to the manufacturing environment. Huang Zhimin, Continuous Improvement Manager, Swire Coca-Cola, discussed the digital technologies that facilitate continuous improvement and structured problem-solving at Swire, while Max Xu, WCOE and Audit Manager, SCMC Coca-Cola, offered insights into the digital tools that can help optimize an organization’s operations at a Stage 4 level of maturity.
Pei Qinghua, China Region GM, Competitive Capabilities International, looked at the synergy that must be created between man and machine for organizations to succeed in the digital age. He suggested three actions leaders can take to harness the benefits of digital technology:
- Identify opportunities for automation throughout the organization and implement strategies
- Create an industry 4.0 talent ecosystem blueprint: consider cross-departmental teams, parallel teams and virtual teams
- Invest, monitor, reiterate, invest
Some of the speakers shared highlights of their organization’s journeys to world class: Yang Huan, Site Head, Mengniu, discussed the performance improvements that resulted from the implementation of Focused Improvement best practices at Mengniu, while Operations Management Director, Luo Jianbing, shared the three-step development strategy that catapulted Mengniu to 10th place in the world’s top 20 dairy rankings.
The event also showcased the strategic partnership between CCi – the people behind TRACC – and LineView Solutions. LineView’s manufacturing intelligence software improves operational visibility on high-speed production lines and facilitates the data extraction, analysis, and digital visualization processes. Together with the TRACC digital ecosystem, visual management can be greatly improved as real-time operations data is used to accelerate improvement and sustain competitive advantage.
The Alliance concluded with an awards ceremony, with Mengniu and Snow Breweries receiving WCO recognition awards for their ongoing commitment to the WCO journey. Delegates were also invited to submit examples of best practice that illustrated what good looks like in their organizations. Prizes were awarded to the best submissions and Mengniu walked away with top honors.
The key takeaway from the event was that organizations are steadily embracing the shift to Industry 4.0 with impressive results. This bodes well for the China Manufacturing 2025 initiatives and the future growth and evolution of the manufacturing industry in China.
For more CI insights from best practice leaders who attended the TRACC Alliance, click here.