The influence of China-Europe Railway Express on the production system of enterprises: A case study of TCL Poland Plant

Abstract

The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative and the increasing frequency of the China-Europe Railway Express (CER Express) have brought new improvement to the production system of enterprises along the Belt and Road regions. On the basis of summarizing the evolution of production system of enterprises, this paper takes TCL Poland Plant as an example to conduct an in-depth study on the characteristics of the plant’s current production system and its differences from the original production system, and analyzes the impact of the CER Express on its current production system. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows. (1) CER Express had a great impact on the production system of TCL Poland Plant, which is mainly manifested in the following aspects. First, the transport of raw materials by CER Express improves the time efficiency and shortens the whole supply chain. Second, CER Express acts as a “moving inventory”, which realizes the flexibility of raw material inventory and “zero inventory” effect based on the punctual transport. Third, the time and inventory effects brought by CER Express speed up the response to European market. The comprehensive benefits brought by CER Express lead to a more punctual and lean production system, meet the diversified needs of consumers on account of product quality and diversification, and improve ability to expand European market. (2) On the basis of abandoning the original “Rigid Mass Production” system, we argue that TCL Poland Plant formed a unique production system—“Global Fluid Just-in-Time” which absorbed the essence of Toyota Production System based on the punctual transnational transportation of CER Express. (3) The differences between the current and the original production systems of TCL Poland Plant are mainly focused on the following aspects: the difference of transport and storage mode of raw materials, and the changes of production line, production mode and quality inspection organization, etc.

Keywords: production system; Global Fluid Just-in-Time; China-Europe Railway Express; TCL Poland Plant

中欧班列对企业生产体系的影响——以TCL波兰工厂为例

摘要

“一带一路”倡议的实施和中欧班列开通频次的增加带动了“一带一路”沿线企业生产体系的变化。本文在总结企业生产体系演变的基础上，以TCL波兰工厂为例，深入研究其传统的生产体系和现有生产体系的特征及二者的区别，分析了中欧班列对其现有生产体系的影响。结论如下：（1）中欧班列对TCL波兰工厂的生产体系产生了较大的影响，主要表现在以下几个方面：一，原材料运输时间成本降低，整个供应链由此缩短；二，中欧班列充当“移动仓库”，在准时运输的基础上，实现了原材料库存的灵活性和“零库存”效应；三，得益于以上两点，TCL波兰工厂对欧洲市场需求的反应速度加快。市场响应能力与效益的提升，逆向促进了产品生产准时化、精准化，由此不仅满足了消费者对产品品质同产品多样化的需求，还提升了其拓展欧洲市场的能力。(2 )我们认为，在中欧班列准时化跨国运输的支撑下，TCL波兰工厂摒弃传统的以“刚性大规模生产”为主的生产体系，吸收丰田制的精髓，形成了一种特有的生产组织方式——“全球流动的即时生产”。（3）TCL波兰工厂现行生产体系与原有生产体系的差异主要集中在以下几个方面：原材料运输和储存方式的差异，生产线、生产方式和质检机构的变化等。

关键词：生产体系；全球流动的即时生产；中欧班列；TCL波兰工厂

来源：Journal of Geographical Sciences

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11442-021-1866-4

发表时间：2021年6月29日

检索：高贺元

翻译：罗阳

一审：薛佳宇

二审：彭莉

三审：罗玲娟

上传发布：姜浩