Manufacturing Productivity in China

Chinese manufacturing industries continue to impact the world economy. It is important to understand what is happening in China and the uniqueness of Chinese manufacturing industries. Manufacturing Productivity in China brings together a group of authors from academia and industry to give an industrial engineering micro viewpoint instead of an economical macro viewpoint to this subject. It includes first-hand case studies to better understand the competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing industries.

Although many researchers attribute China’s manufacturing success to the competitiveness of low labor and materials cost, in reality, many other factors are at play. Investment in manufacturing engineering education and innovation also plays a role. With twelve case studies written by foremost authorities from Tsinghua University, this book covers a broad range of manufacturing industries--transitional, state-owned, and private enterprises. However, each case study highlights the innovation of Chinese manufacturing and enhancement of production efficiency, with concepts bolstered by a significant number of figures and tables.

The book explores the history of China’s success, beginning with the planned economy from 1949-1977, to the reforms of the latter part of the twentieth century, to the emergence of industrial engineering and innovation. An inside look at the stories behind the successful manufacturing processes, this book provides an unbiased view of the success of ＂Made in China＂.

LiZheng, Ph.D., is currently a Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, China. He was a visiting Professor in Georgia Tech during 1994 - 1996. He has authored/coauthored over 300 publications, and ten book chapters. His research interests include production and operation planning and scheduling, production system analysis and information Driven manufacturing. He won several important award, such as, the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2005, the National Invention Award in 1990, Excellence Young Faculty Award from MOE in 2000. Dr. Zheng is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and founding chair of IIE, China Chapter.He teaches courses on Production Systems and Automation; Introduction to Industrial and System Engineering.

Simin Huang, Ph.D. is currently a Professor of the Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, China. He received a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from SUNY at Buffalo in 2004. He has published papers in many peer-review journals including Annals of Operations Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, IIE Transactions, International Journal of Production Research, Naval Research Logistics, Omega, The International Journal of Management Science, Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, etc. Dr. Huang has served as associate editor of IIE Transactions since 2005, the editorial board member of Industrial Engineering Journal (Chinese) since 2011, the executive council member of the China Society of Logistics since 2006. He won the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1997. His current research interests include supply chain risk management, scheduling and network design.

Zhihai Zhang, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University. He received Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2002. He was a visiting scholar of Department of Industrial Engineering and operations research at University of California at Berkeley during 2008-2009. His research area includes resource allocation and optimization, production planning and scheduling. He has published numerous papers and participated in many government and industrial projects.