« Wer oder was ist ein ToST? • Startseite | Mein augenblicklicher Traum - Central de Compras! »
Production rotation for R&D-Trainee
Lei • 25.Februar, 2008 @ 06:44 • Abgelegt unter: Forschung und Entwicklung
“Do you have 400RMB?” my colleague asked urgently. I know borrowing money from friends and relatives is very common in China. But, at work? “The valve is there, I need to pay the express service, cash,” the engineer added excitedly. After three days of down-time due to a machine failure, we finally see the light of success. The valve is a key part, which we need to prevent the same failure from occurring again.
The problem appeared after everyone came back from holiday on Monday, within two days, the engineer in charge of the machine has talked to colleagues in Germany and Spain, had the supplier come to us, and finally found out the reason. The parts he needed to fix the machine were easily obtained, one within a day, the others even within a few hours. I am impressed by the speed that the problem is solved. Aside from the effective work of the engineer and the good international team-work, the perfect location of our factory also plays a major role, as we can find many flexible local suppliers here in China that can provide the parts we need with a very short notice at a very reasonable price. Also I see again the difference in production from development: everything needs to be very fast, and effective. Of course, the do-away with formalities in China sometimes helps to expedite the process.
A small problem also occurred today in the machine I am in charge of. After a few heated discussions with the technicians and engineers in the team, we fixed the problem within 20 minutes and managed to meet the deadline of building samples for our customers. As a young engineer, I also needed to reason with the technicians, all male and have many more years of experience than me in manufacturing. It is challenging but in the end, everyone learned something and the result was good.
One of my major tasks here as a R&D-trainee is to transfer the knowledge about the machine and the process related to it we developed in Germany during the ramp-up phase of the production line. This is a perfect opportunity for me as well to learn about Bosch production and many typical functions related to it, such as quality control (both supplier and customer sides, as well as our own production), logistics, customer applications, etc. All Bosch plants follow the same system called BPS (Bosch Production System), which means things are run pretty much the same way as in Europe or anywhere else. Seeing the production helps me gain a more down-to-earth view of the products, which is crucial for a researcher/developer because one cannot come up with innovative designs that are cost-saving and most effective without knowing exactly where the costs are and how the products are made. That’s why many R&D-trainees have a rotation in the production. Besides, the workers on the production floor are usually different from the engineers who work in a development office. To become a future leader, it is necessary for us to be able to communicate well with all kinds of people. Here is the place to learn.
9.März, 2008 @ 09:22
Hi Lei,
this is a great post.
I’m writting my master’s thesis about Balanced Scorecard for reserach units.
As you know, most of the cost of a new product is designed in during the research and development stages. Thus opportunities for substantial cost reduction are limited once the product enters the production stage. It is very important to instil a sense for product-cost responsibility among researchers/developers… but as you said, it is hard for them to come up with such solutions, if they don’t have a produciton background.
Thank you very much for this post. It helped me a lot to better understand the relationship between production and research.
1.April, 2008 @ 04:14
Hi Elena,
Thanks for the message.
Yeah, I have heard about the Balanced Scorecard when I was at CR. I definitely agree with you that most of the cost is already determined during the development phase. Therefore, I think the Balanced Scorecard is a good thing, if it works as a tool to make the cost measureable and visible to the researchers/developers at the beginning stage of product development.
Keep up the good work!:)