Thursday, September 12

Anton Vidal, VP, EPMS Asia Pacific Operations, welcomed the group to Lear Corporation's regional office located in a large  industrial park in East Shanghai. Lear is a Fortune 500 company that specializes in seating and electrical distribution systems. A brief presentation by Mr. Raymond, GM of Electric facilities, revealed that  Lear clearly benefits from a growing global automotive industry.  After a short walk to the manufacturing facility, we we put our safety coats, shoes and hats on to begin the factory tour (top picture). Observing manufacturing in action is always a sight to see: the amazing development of technology and machinery as well as the

precision with which the employees work to make the process go smoothly is quite impressive. Doug Gray, Global Supply Chain EMBA, General Manager, International Transportation at CAT expressed his thoughts on this visit, "It was very interesting to compare Lear's manufacturing operation to that of Ashley Furniture.  Lear was much more automated and controlled with a much more positive work environment. It is not surprising that Ashley's turnover rate is 80% and Lear's turnover rate was 6%. The influence of their automotive customers on Lear's operation was very obvious with their quality controls and Lean culture. It was a very interesting and enlightening 

visit."
After a delightful lunch at the cavernous and brash red-themed restaurant in the basement of the Bund Center (middle picture), we headed upstairs to learn about China's investment and tax environment from a Jeff Xu, Tax Partner, Deloitte. Jeff concentrated on the 12th Five-Year Development Plan, according to which the country should focus on facilitating trade and investment, streamline administration procedures for foreign exchange, and improve the foreign exchange administration system for goods and service trade. We found Mr. Xu to be very professional and knowledgeable.  At the end of the day, the students had over one hour to ask Mr. James Ran, GM Kelti Products, questions about China's business practices (bottom picture).