The first hiring experience
Lei • 13.Juni, 2008 @ 05:33 • Abgelegt unter: Forschung und Entwicklung, Allgemein
I have, for the first time, the feeling that someone else´s fate lies in my hand, when I stood in our line participating in the new operators selection process. “He might not have soldered very well, but he asks many questions, which shows good initiative.” Many Chinese are afraid of asking questions, especially when they are not in an authoritative position. “How about the girl?” my boss kept asking. “She´s very nervous. But I think she has a very good sense of quality control, which is very important for us. She threw that piece she dropped on the floor in the scrap bin without us telling her to do so.” In the end, we decided on which operator to hire, not based simply on their experience and skills, but also on their sense of quality control and their ability to work and think individually.
When the candidates had been taken to the line by the personnel colleague, they marched wordless and automatically formed a line one following another. The awkwardness is not unusual among the Chinese - they usually do not strike up conversations with strangers easily, especially not when they are all nervous about what´s coming up. During the first interviews, they all claimed their experience with soldering, the skill we are hiring them for. But the reasons why they left the previous company often seem ambiguous and strange to westerners. “I just quit because I needed to go home to get married.” “I had to take care of my sick parents at home.” Just to name a few that´s most common. They were most likely not untrue, as the line workers usually come from the countryside, where the way of life is still very traditional – children are supposed to take care of the elderly at home and marriage is the biggest event in one´s life, so as birth and death. However, they seldom mentioned the other main drives behind the move, e.g. the career or compensation aspect, which are also deciding factors in China.
No matter, I learned a lot from the hiring process and felt lucky to have been allowed by my boss to take part in the decision making. This is surely one of the highlights of my trainee rotation in China.
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.
The Joint AdVenture in Shanghai - II
Lei • 17.Januar, 2008 @ 07:34 • Abgelegt unter: Forschung und Entwicklung
AdVenture 2: The Joint Venture – UAES
The actual event was a lot of fun. We learned a lot about our host: UAES, the biggest player in the Chinese market for gasoline engine management system. UAES is a 50-50 joint venture of Bosch and a conglomerate of Chinese manufacturers, among which SAIC is the major player. It currently runs 900+ customer projects simultaneously, which is said to be unthinkable in Germany considering its relatively small size. That is because the OEMs in China like to start at a time with big number of projects, or experiments, as you may call them, instead of just a handful, like the Germans do. (Only a few of these projects end up in mass production provided the market shows good response). But the point is, as supplier to these OEMs, UAES has to show their flexibilities and manage the projects accordingly given the very limited number of experienced engineers. On the other hand, the German specialties are not forgotten. Because of the increasingly demanding situation, a bit streamlining and planning from the German experts will help expedite the progress of the projects.
The plant tour was very special indeed. On first sight, the plant looked very much like the German Bosch plants I’d seen. The interesting differences were in the details. The absence of blond hair, for example. There are only 21 Expats at UAES out of approximately 2450 employees. This is probably one of the success factors from UAES: highly localized to keep the cost down. A less expected phenomenon were the numerous black and white patterns all over the plant, some are like zebras, some like chessboards. Turned out they are prototype cars in protective covers. As opposed to the uniform black covers in Germany, the Asians do enjoy a bit of variations – it feels a bit like jungle here. :)
Christmas - the Chinese way
Lei • 27.Dezember, 2007 @ 03:16 • Abgelegt unter: Forschung und Entwicklung
“Merry Christmas!” A crowd of people with red Santa hats rushed through the restaurant, blowing paper whistles and hitting people in the restaurant with air-filled plastic hammers. “Ouch!” the few foreigners in the restaurant fell victims to the relentless hammers and looked more than disconcerted by this Chinese way of X’mas. In the background children are screaming “Jingle Bell” happily through the stereo. The guests all got excited about this new crazy atmosphere and had big smiles on the face.
Next door, a woman standing outside of the grocery store was yelling into her cell phone: “No, they don’t have those Santa Claus chocolate any more!! What else can we do?” Several meters away, a street vender was buried in Santa Claus balloons of different sizes and a sea of flowers. He was busy selling and telling the other customers that he’s only there for one day.
Everywhere I go, there’s X’mas music and salespeople or waiters in Santa hats or Santa suits. If you call my home phone, you’ll hear Jingle Bell as opposed to a normal ring tone. China is celebrating X’mas in its own way: almost purely commercial. Very few people know the meaning behind it, and ultimately nobody really cares. For many people, it’s fun, it’s new, and it’s something western and festive. Why not? For street vendors and entrepreneurs, it’s another great opportunity to make money; and in the big scheme of things, it boosts the economy!
On the other hand, what I found interesting was that almost all the Chinese associates at Bosch I talked to told me “it’s not our festival, why should we celebrate?”, when I asked them what they do on X’mas. Perhaps people who have western contacts have better understanding of the culture and therefore, for them, the kind of mystery and curiosity exists no more. On the other hand, they can appreciate the cultural differences more and distance themselves from anything not belonging to their own culture but with due respect to the others.
Prelude - 2 Days in Spain
Lei • 1.Oktober, 2007 @ 08:30 • Abgelegt unter: Forschung und Entwicklung
“Si, si…”, I nervously pointed to the Tapas in the glass case, “no, no…no…” It seems, without speaking Spanish, one really had to starve a little in Spain. I should have taken a colleague with me from the plant when I go out for dinner.
In contrast, within the Bosch plant, everyone is multi-lingual - the Spanish speak fluent German at Bosch, which I found rather amazing. This, I heard, is a prerequisite for all engineers applying for jobs at Bosch in Spain. Luckily, that is not a prerequisite for the trainee program in Germany.
My name is Lei and I was recruited into the Bosch trainee program for Research and Development in the USA, when I was finishing my Ph.D. there in mathematics. This is a little bit unusual for the technical trainee program. I was born and raised in China, in one of the biggest cities, Guangzhou (used to be Canton), on the Pearl River Delta in southern China. It is a city with a population of 6-10 million people (depending on how one counts:)) and is the heart of one of mainland China’s leading commercial, trading and manufacturing centers. Therefore, most mathematics students in my hometown find jobs in one of these manufacturing or commercial businesses after gaining the Bachelor’s degree. Contrarily, I headed to California to pursue mathematics further. The technique of acquiring and processing information, the communication skills, as well as the problem-solving skills I gained during my Ph.D. program prove very beneficial for my daily work at Bosch.
With that said, I should explain what I am doing in Spain. I am here in our lead plant to be trained about the manufacturing processes of the product I am dealing with in the hardware development department in Germany. The training helps me with my current task, which is to develop a key manufacturing process of this product for our new low-cost production line in China. In December, I will then start my next trainee station in China, working with other engineers to start up this new line. Therefore, in Spain, I also get to be trained on other functions related to the manufacturing of this product, such as quality management and logistics.
During the two-day training, there are also some surprises of a quality that I had not expected. “The problem is, they lied to us,” said the quality manager. Shocked, I sat in his office, looking for the right thing to say. We are talking about a supplier here, which we badly need. But without the quality manager’s approval, we cannot get this supplier on boat. This would be a tough one. I will have to look into that when I get back to Germany.
This is one of the challenges we face every day. In a multi-cultural environment, communication is one of the most important factors in success. That is also why I decide to write this blog in English, because I understand how difficult it was as a foreigner living or working in Germany without understanding the language. And I know how important it is to keep up with my English, because in an international company like Bosch, once you have anything to do with other people outside of Europe, being able to speak and write good English is a must. (I will give you enough examples that you can be convinced by this, if you are not right now.) Therefore, I assume everybody could understand what I write. If I write this in German, there is a small chance that some people won’t get it. (I could also write in Chinese, if you want, but then the chance of understanding it is still a little lower.) If you feel like writing me back in German, however, don’t let me stop you. And I will respond in German, if requested.
From now on I will write about my experiences in my Trainee Program in Research and Development regularly. Your Remarks, comments and questions are highly appreciated.
