In 2012, Guilin Rubber Machinery pushed development through a technological renovation and asked all divisions to focus on micro-innovation in accordance with continuous improvement ideas, for increased income and lower costs. By the end of November, it had completed 27 renovation projects and saved hundreds of thousands of yuan. The shot-blasting chamber was the key welding shop and generated a large amount of scrap iron, and the original circuit box on the outside was easily damaged. In October 2012, it was replaced by a wire slot and an iron tube was used to protect the circuit, keep scraps from causing a short circuit. The workers used some spare parts from a cabinet to fashion a new electric cabinet. The whole thing cost a few thousand yuan but saved tens of thousands.
The couplings on the 2.5-m and 3.4-m vertical lathes in the metalwork shop need to be replaced once a month, but, after arguing over this for some time, workers replaced an elastic rubber ring connection with a nylon pin, which reduced the number of main drive coupling failures. Since they were replaced back in September, the couplings have worked just fine. There have been many of these micro-renovations, with little investment and a greatly reduction in production costs.
Thanks to a joint effort by everyone, the company’s World Class Manufacturing (WCM) and Corporate Identity (CI) have hit a new high in recent years and the management level has improved a great deal. The shops are better organized, while the company pays more attention to worker incentives and has laid a good foundation for healthy, rapid development.