Stackey was born in South Carolina, a 10-minute drive from the Haier plant. After graduating from high school, this black girl did not continue to go to college, but went to work in a local factory in the U.S. In 1999, Haier just built a factory in South Carolina, and she quickly learned about it by virtue of its location. 2000, Starkey was hired by Haier, and became a machinist in Haier's factory. Stuckey received Haier's "Star of Quality" award for outstanding work.
Stackey told reporters that she is now working well at Haier, earning $13 an hour, 40 hours a week, or more than $2,000 a month, which is a lot of money in South Carolina, where wages are generally low. Hale also gave Starkey health insurance, which she pays only $10 a month, and Hale takes care of the rest. Now Starkey's family has added a small refrigerator made by Haier, which Starkey bought at a discounted price for Haier employees at the plant, and has been using it quite well. "I love working at Haier, and I really enjoy the peace and quiet!"
Davis is also a South Carolina native. After high school, the young black man served three years in the U.S. Army and National Guard. At that time, he lived in the army dormitory there is a Haier production of small refrigerators, but Davis at that time did not dream that he would one day become Haier people. 2000, Davis quit his job in DuPont, came to Haier U.S. factory, was soon promoted to a team leader of the refrigerator production line. When he first started working at Haier, Davis was nervous about the uncertainty of his future. After a few months, Davis realized he loved the job. "Of all the jobs I've had, Haier is my favorite place! I believe I have another chance to be promoted again!"
Jennifer is also a South Carolina native. After graduating from high school, the white girl worked as a caregiver at a local home for the elderly, and in 2002, she made the jump to Haier, where she worked in the packaging, compressor, and assembly plants, and has now been promoted to a team leader in the assembly plant. Jennifer told the reporter seriously: "Is a team leader a big official? Of course it is! There are two team leaders in the assembly plant, each of whom is responsible for 65 workers, do you think it's a big official? I found that working at Haier, there are a lot of opportunities to get promoted. One day I will move from downstairs (factory floor) to upstairs (management)! I'm going to realize my American dream at Haier!"
Haier in the United States to capture five "hilltop" is a huge challenge In the interview, the reporter learned that Haier in the United States to build more than eight years, the achievements can be described as fruitful, but also encountered a lot of difficulties and challenges. These difficulties and challenges, like a "hill", some have been Haier U.S. companies to overcome, some still in front of the Haier people.
The first "hill" is the Haier headquarters and Haier's U.S. understanding of the efficiency of the different. Pikes told reporters, Haier Qingdao headquarters of the efficiency is quite high, Haier executives also set an example, self-pressure, in his view, to the United States to study the Haier senior management are almost all "workaholic". In addition, Haier's influence in China is very large, a lot of things can be done very quickly, so Haier also hope that its U.S. branch can be as efficient as the headquarters. "Our Chinese colleagues are always urging us to say, you can not move faster! But we also have our difficulties. The U.S. side is more concerned about the rules, many things must be done step by step, there is no use to rush! What's more, unlike China, the United States has a huge labor force, and it's hard to recruit satisfactory workers in a short period of time!"
Ed Westerhoff, technical director of Haier America, echoed the sentiment. He told reporters that in the U.S. refrigerator industry, it takes at least one and a half years from design to put into production. Before putting into the market but also after three months of user testing, if the user feedback is not satisfied, but also to modify. In order to speed up the progress, Haier headquarters, "our requirements are, from design to production must be completed within one year, and we are required to bypass user testing, directly into the market!"
Worker Davis also told reporters that there are often Chinese engineers from Qingdao, to Haier's U.S. factory to the American workers "to pass on". "These Chinese engineers are very smart and responsible, but the only thing that makes us feel uncomfortable is that they always think we are too slow, always urging us to hurry up, due to teaching too many things, we often feel difficult to digest!"
The second "hill" is the issue of visas for Chinese employees to come to the United States. Pikes said that all Chinese employees from Haier can only get a three-month visa to the U.S., and must leave the U.S. once the three-month period is up. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the U.S. visa law, if you want to extend the U.S. visa of a Chinese employee, you must submit documents to prove that the employee has a special skill that can not be replaced by U.S. employees.
"Normally, it's very difficult for us to provide such proof. So only in rare cases do I apply to the U.S. government to extend a Chinese engineer's visa." Pikes said with some reluctance.
The third "hill" is that the design of the refrigerator must take into account all the complexities associated with the U.S. and Chinese conditions. Westerhoff told reporters that "redesigning the refrigerator assembly line was the biggest challenge he encountered". China has abundant labor resources and low labor costs, so designers do not require a high degree of automation when designing assembly lines, and many processes can be completed by hand. In the U.S., on the other hand, labor costs are much higher, so the assembly line requires a very high degree of automation and as few workers as possible. "So we want to make the refrigerator mold as one piece as possible. To this day, we're still figuring that out!"
The factory's technical director said Haier has a very strong after-sales service network in China. Once a user's refrigerator has a problem, Haier can immediately send someone to repair it. American users generally want to buy their own refrigerator "perfect", once they find their refrigerator problems, they usually do not hesitate to throw away the old to buy a new one. "So, for American consumers, after-sales service is less important, while quality is crucial."
He added that the different characteristics of Chinese and American consumers demand different treatment of refrigerator features. Unlike Chinese people, Americans absolutely can't live without ice in their daily lives, so all refrigerators sold in the U.S. market must have strong and fast ice-making ability; unlike Chinese consumers, American consumers are less concerned about the freshness of food and vegetables, and Americans like to purchase a large number of food and vegetables to put in the refrigerator at one time, so all refrigerators sold in the U.S. market are on the large side. Haier's U.S. factories used to produce small refrigerators, but now the size of the refrigerators they produce is getting bigger and bigger. We have just launched the world's first temperature-changing folio three-door, four-door refrigerator, these are "to adapt to the needs of the mainstream market".
The fourth "mountaintop" is the cultural differences between the United States and China, which make management more difficult. Haier's human resources director, Glad Reeves told reporters that the U.S. and China have similarities in business management, but because of cultural differences, some of the management methods that work in China in the U.S. may be ineffective.
"At the beginning of the establishment of the Haier factory, we introduced the concept of labor model from Haier headquarters, often regularly selecting the best employees and posting their photos to the workshop in a conspicuous place. We found that American workers were not particularly concerned, which made us realize that Chinese people value spiritual rewards, while Americans focus more on material stimulation. Later, we made some adjustments in the actual operation, in addition to posting portraits of model workers in the workshop, but also issued shopping vouchers to award-winning workers, allowing them to go to the mall to buy a lot of things for free. This trick really worked."
Like at Haier's Qingdao headquarters, at Haier's U.S. factories, top-performing employees wear a smiley-face badge on their chests, though the crying faces at the Qingdao plant are nowhere to be seen here. In response, Reeves explained that U.S. companies seldom criticize their employees in public because doing so tends to demotivate them and can lead to legal disputes.
The fifth "hill" is that Haier's brand reputation still needs to be improved in the United States. Although Haier already has a certain degree of visibility in South Carolina, but from a national perspective, Haier is still a long way from a well-known brand. To increase its visibility, Haier has launched a number of promotional campaigns, including the purchase of a landmark building in New York to serve as its U.S. headquarters.
The president told reporters that Haier has established a partnership with the NBA, and this summer, advertisements for "Haier and the NBA" will appear everywhere in the mainstream media in the U.S. Haier's advertisements will also be aired on TV during halftime of NBA basketball games. Speaking of which, Pikes took out a basketball from the bookcase in his office and said to the reporter with a smile: "This is our gift to you, with the pattern of Haier and the NBA league on it. Remember, this ball can have the NBA star's signature!"