Best of East and West Meet at Shercon's New Wholly-owned Production Facility in Hangzhou, China
Santa Fe Springs, CA, April 27, 2005 --(PR.com)-- Shercon's new state-of-the-art Hangzhou, China production facility is now online -- and fabricating high-quality rubber parts for the OEM market.
Shercon owns and operates the plant (a wholly-owned foreign enterprise or 'WOFE'), and all design and engineering work is performed at Shercon's Southern California headquarters. The 72,000 sq. ft. Hangzhou facility has already received QS9000 Certification from BSI, and TS16949 Certification process is underway.
"Our OEM rubber products customers enjoy the best of the East and West," said Keith Ennis, Shercon's CEO. "We retain total control over production and quality. This allows us to leverage our considerable design expertise yet still offer extremely competitive pricing. Customer feedback has been great."
"WOFE" avoids offshore production traps
"Offshore manufacturing offers lower costs, but also offers traps for the unwary," said Ennis, who cited uncertain quality control, lot-to-lot inconsistency, exposure of trade secrets, and communications difficulties as chief among them.
Shercon's Hangzhou plant bypasses these by conducting mixing, production and testing under one roof, while all engineering and project management remains in the hands of Shercon's USA-based engineering teams. Enabling this trans-continental workflow is Shercon's Streamline project software, which tracks and manages project flow, and allows real-time, online collaboration between designers, production staff, and customers.
"Our US-based design and project teams eliminate the communications gap that many experience due to time or language differences -- you can pick up the phone and find out exactly what's happening with your project" said Ennis.
"Streamline makes it possible for everyone to collaborate on a part design, and then keeps everyone current on what's happening. It's very effective, and very efficient with everyone's time."
Focus on repeatable quality
The Hangzhou facility includes an on-site test laboratory, and the entire manufacturing process is specifically geared to producing repeatable, high-quality production runs which exceed customer specifications. To make this possible, Shercon created a sophisticated, in-house test facility that performs a wide range of tests (to ASTM standards) including Tensile, Elongation, Tear, Compression Set, Heat Aging, Ozone, MDR, Hardness and di-Electric Strength.
"Every step of the process -- from our Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) system to production control to final parts inspection and packaging -- has been designed to produce parts of the highest quality, and to do it production run after production run" said Ennis.
As a result, compound formulation is handled on site as opposed to using outside suppliers, and all production batches are subjected to MDR, SG, Hardness, Tensile & Elongation tests.
After mixing and preliminary testing, Shercon's OEM rubber products are fabricated using brand new, state-of-the-art equipment. "Our production is the best we could get," said Ennis. "Feedback from customers who have visited the site is that we're years ahead."
About Shercon
Shercon manufactures OEM rubber products for use in the automotive, heavy agricultural equipment, appliance, fluid control and plumbing industries. Founded in 1947, Shercon also produces high-quality masking products for use in the finishing industry. Headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, CA, Shercon is a solutions-driven company which leverages its considerable design and engineering expertise to fabricate the highest-quality products.
###
Shercon owns and operates the plant (a wholly-owned foreign enterprise or 'WOFE'), and all design and engineering work is performed at Shercon's Southern California headquarters. The 72,000 sq. ft. Hangzhou facility has already received QS9000 Certification from BSI, and TS16949 Certification process is underway.
"Our OEM rubber products customers enjoy the best of the East and West," said Keith Ennis, Shercon's CEO. "We retain total control over production and quality. This allows us to leverage our considerable design expertise yet still offer extremely competitive pricing. Customer feedback has been great."
"WOFE" avoids offshore production traps
"Offshore manufacturing offers lower costs, but also offers traps for the unwary," said Ennis, who cited uncertain quality control, lot-to-lot inconsistency, exposure of trade secrets, and communications difficulties as chief among them.
Shercon's Hangzhou plant bypasses these by conducting mixing, production and testing under one roof, while all engineering and project management remains in the hands of Shercon's USA-based engineering teams. Enabling this trans-continental workflow is Shercon's Streamline project software, which tracks and manages project flow, and allows real-time, online collaboration between designers, production staff, and customers.
"Our US-based design and project teams eliminate the communications gap that many experience due to time or language differences -- you can pick up the phone and find out exactly what's happening with your project" said Ennis.
"Streamline makes it possible for everyone to collaborate on a part design, and then keeps everyone current on what's happening. It's very effective, and very efficient with everyone's time."
Focus on repeatable quality
The Hangzhou facility includes an on-site test laboratory, and the entire manufacturing process is specifically geared to producing repeatable, high-quality production runs which exceed customer specifications. To make this possible, Shercon created a sophisticated, in-house test facility that performs a wide range of tests (to ASTM standards) including Tensile, Elongation, Tear, Compression Set, Heat Aging, Ozone, MDR, Hardness and di-Electric Strength.
"Every step of the process -- from our Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) system to production control to final parts inspection and packaging -- has been designed to produce parts of the highest quality, and to do it production run after production run" said Ennis.
As a result, compound formulation is handled on site as opposed to using outside suppliers, and all production batches are subjected to MDR, SG, Hardness, Tensile & Elongation tests.
After mixing and preliminary testing, Shercon's OEM rubber products are fabricated using brand new, state-of-the-art equipment. "Our production is the best we could get," said Ennis. "Feedback from customers who have visited the site is that we're years ahead."
About Shercon
Shercon manufactures OEM rubber products for use in the automotive, heavy agricultural equipment, appliance, fluid control and plumbing industries. Founded in 1947, Shercon also produces high-quality masking products for use in the finishing industry. Headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, CA, Shercon is a solutions-driven company which leverages its considerable design and engineering expertise to fabricate the highest-quality products.
###