Together against the odds

The Shenyang plant, which produces lightweight automotive parts for some of the world’s premium brands, including BMW and Volvo, broke ground on 1 July 2020, the same day the project was officially approved internally. Back then, the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging around the world, which turned the otherwise standard procurement process into a logistical nightmare. “The plan was, in a way, to copy and paste the technology from the Suzhou plant to Shenyang,” says Sean. “The issue was that we needed to reconfigure a critical piece of equipment to increase the capacity for the new plant.” Since the original manufacturer of that critical equipment is based in Austria, it would have taken anything up to 12 months to supply GF with the necessary components, and that would have delayed the plant’s overall schedule by more than six months.

“We needed to stay on course, so we tried something very unconventional,” says Sean. With technical support from the colleagues at Suzhou, the team came up with a bold idea – sourcing the majority of the parts from local manufacturers and assembling the equipment in China. The Austrian manufacturer eventually also agreed to participate, and its local partner was recruited as their supervisor. This was a complex collaboration involving GF, the Austrian manufacturer, its technical partners in China and the new Chinese suppliers that were found by Yang and the team. “We needed to work together around the clock to make sure the newly assembled equipment met our technical requirements. There were so many components – it was like changing a tire while the car was still running,” Sean recalls.

There were also some logistical issues within China. When delivery of production materials was interrupted due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the team rented a warehouse in a nearby city to function as a temporary logistics hub. The weather was a challenge too, as construction had to stop during winter due to cold temperatures in the region, which added even more pressure to the already tight schedule. Thankfully, all the effort paid off: the new equipment passed quality control on time and was successfully installed in the new plant. The Shenyang plant started production in October 2021 and has been continuously increasing its capacity ever since.

This winning culture is so pervasive that new hires such as Renlong can quickly get on board with the way things are done at GF. Sean believes that an effective and comprehensive training system also contributes to a smooth collaboration between existing and new employees. “Nowadays, all the training and learning can can be done online, which turned out to be very helpful during the pandemic.” Looking ahead, Sean expects that the plant will gradually reach its full capacity in the coming months. “This is another step towards our goal of being close to our customers and providing them with the same high-quality products anywhere in the world,” Sean says.