The Transplants in Thailand and China

Although the Thai and Chinese transplants had manufactured an older type of car component until the mid-2000s, both transplants have utilized similar traditional assembly lines to produce the same standard type of car component as the Japanese mother plant and the U.S. transplant did using automatic transfer machine systems. The Chinese transplant has aimed to match the productivity goals of the Thai transplant, not of the Japanese mother plant. Productivity at the Thai transplant, which was by far the highest among the transplants utilizing traditional assembly lines, was higher by 10 % than productivity at the Chinese transplant in the early 2010s. Production workers at the Thai and Chinese transplants were prohibited from troubleshooting by assistant first-line supervisors. The assistant first-line supervisors at both transplants executed limited control over production workers. The roles of manufacturing engineers at the Thai and Chinese transplants were partial and limited. Manufacturing engineers at the Thai transplant played new supporting roles in other transplants in ASEAN countries. Facing difficulties in workplace control due to the plant’s history, the Chinese transplant retained energetic and high-potential manufacturing engineers.