Listening to the various speakers at the 8th Annual Process Industry Engineering and Maintenance Congress, and talking to attendees during the breaks, one could clearly distinguish two schools of thought on how the Chinese maintenance market will evolve. One is based on applying a Western models and waiting for China to adapt to it. The other believes in inventing new ways, “with Chinese characteristics”.

Maintenance is complicated business. As shown during the Q&A sessions at the last Annual Process Industry Engineering & Maintenance Congress (held in Shanghai on September 19-20), many maintenance managers are at a loss when faced with the need to financially justify their decisions.

1986, Founding of Siveco Group (France); a pioneer of CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Systems) in the French market, the company was to become the largest CMMS provider in Europe.

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.

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.

We first started working with Risk Prevention in 2009, in the wake of increasing media coverage of metro accidents, fire hazards and elevators mishaps. The government started to put more efforts on enforcing existing regulations and new rules were put in place, while companies’ managers also became more aware of safety issues.