On November 16, 2016, the MFI Qingdao office celebrated its 10th anniversary. MFI Qingdao Trading Company, based in China, was established to develop China suppliers for MacLean-Fogg’s businesses around the world. Today, MFI Qingdao operates as the Global Sourcing entity for MacLean Power in China. It is dedicated to identification, development and maintenance of the MPS China supply chain. Additionally, the Qingdao team manages the commercial, engineering, and logistics functions for quality and on-time delivery of product to MPS divisions from China’s factories and ports.
Using a continuous development process, MFI has identified and evaluated hundreds of suppliers in China over the past 10 years. The typical supplier development cycle is 8 – 12 months. To date, 20 suppliers in China have been qualified as production suppliers to MacLean-Fogg divisions based upon MFI’s Supplier Development Process. These criteria, and a combined team approach, provide the screening necessary to supply product to MacLean-Fogg divisions. Following the qualification process, MFI’s suppliers are subject to continued goals and performance monitoring, which includes both operational and financial performance, and adherence to pricing systems.
The qualified pool of suppliers under the MFI Qingdao umbrella encompasses processes for ductile iron, steel and aluminum and bronze casting, hot forging, cold forming, stamping, tapping, flame cutting, metal fabrication, sintering, silicone shed molding, machining and galvanizing. Products include transmission hardware, distribution hardware, anchors, porcelain insulators and a variety of ancillary parts to serve the company’s wide-ranging product lines.
Quality is critical for all MacLean-Fogg divisions. To ensure quality objectives are met, MFI Qingdao conducts annual process audits and reviews for all Chinese suppliers. In conjunction with this surveillance, MFI Qingdao develops suppliers to maintain standardized quality control measures with the goal of 0 PPM and a safety mindset.
To optimize productivity, MFI Qingdao introduced Lean Manufacturing concepts to China suppliers beginning in 2015. The Qingdao team provides training for lean manufacturing and implements Kaizen activities on an ongoing basis throughout the China supply deck.
Qingdao is the 20th largest city in China and is home to 6.2 million people. Qingdao is located midway between Shanghai and Beijing and is the capital of Shandong Province.