June was a very eventful month for us at Siveco. As usual, some will say! We have signed very exiting deals including yet another multisite automotive account (with leading Italian auto supplier Magneti Marelli) and a flagship oil & gas project with state-owned Fushun Mining Group.

Lean Manufacturing is often seen as a silver bullet. Carried out with religious zeal, its tools will magically solve every problem a factory may have. A general manager in the Suzhou area once told me that obtaining a TPM Award for his plant was his only goal; anything else was just a waste of time, a distraction. This expat was obviously on an upward career path and has already left China.

Siveco is partnering with TechnoPro Engineering, a prominent technical services provider from Japan, in order to better serve Japanese companies operating in China.

Another month has passed, I have spoken at a few more conferences, we have recruited a few more people, signed a few more deals… Business as usual? Well, perhaps, but in that special Siveco way…

This month I am proud to introduce the second part of Tom Harada’s interview on the link between maintenance and lean manufacturing. In this month’s interview, Tom Harada provides deeper and more specific insight into the subject, which many of our readers will feel familiar with. Maintenance is at the core of operating a lean production system.

Since 1964, the year diplomatic relations were established with the People’s Republic of China, the French Embassy has occupied a small villa in Beijing’s Sanlitun embassies district.