Made in China

(Reis) While we were in Hong Kong, the 6 explorers adventured to mainland China. Mom and Dad wanted to show us what the inscription “Made in China” really means, and the only way to show us is to visit a factory outside of Qing Xi in the Dong Guan region. My dad’s business friend, Tommy Liu, set up a factory tour with Kwonnie Electrical Products Ltd. Leaving our hotel, we drove through the tremendously developed Kowloon Peninsula, admiring its urbanization. We drove past a port littered with Lego-like containers, as littered with containers as the Nile is with water bottles. When we reached the Chinese border, they checked our passports and the visas we had purchased in Hong Kong for a ridiculous price. Once we got through the tight security of the border, we drove through the countryside of mainland China. When we arrived at the Kwonnie factory, an enthusiastic looking man walked up and introduced himself as Bang Lo, our designated guide. We introduced ourselves and proceeded to the conference room where Mr. Lo showed us some of the products the company produced. Now it was time to see the multi-step processes of mass production.

A woman polishing the injection moulding tooling

The first step of manufacturing is the lab. There, we saw the engineers creating 3D versions of the products on computers. It was surprising to see all men working on the technological engineering — no women. Next, we saw the employees constructing molds, which are used to make the plastic bodies, and astonishingly all men again. Next to the dirty-work room, there was a small room where women polished the metal molds to make them mirror-like. Once the molds were mirror-like, they could be used for plastic injection. The person in charge of the machine infused searing hot plastic-lava into the mold and waited for the molten plastic to dry. As the piece came out of the machine, he/she would clean up the messy edges until the next one came out. The worker would repeat that for 11 full hours, with one lunch break in between. It was at that time when I grasped that these factory jobs were bor-ing! After that, we got to see the assembly line. I thought it was really extraordinary that 2 dozen people each had a special job to make one product. The factory we saw currently has 2700 workers — each one doing a special part to make the company work. And I learned that’s the key. If everyone does their part, you can make a whole mass of things in a short period of time. It’s teamwork.

On the assembly line