Off to Shanghai

We flew out early this morning on a China Air flight to Shanghai. Very impressive airline. We took a taxi to Sykes Enterprises, one of the fastest growing call support centers in the world. We met with Michael Sun, IT/IS director, for a brief presentation on company history and strategy, followed by a Q& A session and a facilities tour. Sykes is a US company and trades on the NY stock exchange. http://www.sykes.com.cn/en/index.asp This office provides technical support for Microsoft and HP, among others. Micheal pointed out that many of the restrictions that required joint venture with the government, no longer apply, particularly if the company focuses on technology and tech applications. Sykes had recently moved to this facility, which is close by transportation lines for employee convenience. After our discussion, a Sykes driver dropped us off to a nearby Pizza Hut where we devoured everything in sight.

The next morning we toured GM's Shanghai plant. The plant produces 400,000 vehicles a year - largely Cadillacs. This joint venture between GM and the Chinese government has not taken advantage of recent GM technology advancements and employs 3-times the number of employees found in a comparably sized US GM facility. While the plant is designed with the T-production layout, jobs performed by robotics in the US are still performed by the workers (i.e., windshields/glass). In addition, inventory occupies a significant portion of the plant. JIT does not seem to be practiced.