Not long ago, the author accompanied the leadership of Dawn Polymer to conduct a research visit to the Qingdao division. Upon entering the parking lot of the Haina New Factory of Qingdao New Materials Company, a sign for the "Outstanding Employee Honor Parking Space" stood prominently under a big red floral ribbon.

The "Honorary Parking Space" is a designated parking spot reserved for outstanding employees, marked and displayed with a plaque. According to the introduction, Xue Kai, the director of Workshop Five of the company and recipient of the "Production Excellence Award," took the initiative to undertake the strategic positioning of "high production, high efficiency, low consumption," achieving record-breaking production volumes for two consecutive months in September and October of 2023.

At the awarding ceremony held in November 2023, Xue Kai also received a notebook with an inscription by the company's general manager Tan Weihong. "In the whole-process efficiency improvement activities, you led the team to continuously improve and strive for excellence. You demonstrated the 'craftsman spirit' with the excellent results of improving efficiency by 10% for three consecutive months, and created a very excellent benchmark workshop."

Qingdao New Materials Co., Ltd is dedicated to the research, production, and sales of high-performance general plastics, special engineering plastics, and specialty modified engineering plastics. In June of 2023, after the full operation of the Haina New Factory, in order to further enhance equipment utilization and unleash greater production capacity, a 10-month-long comprehensive efficiency improvement project was initiated at the end of August.

Li Hongbin, the Director of Order Management, stated, "In reviewing the issues at the new factory, we conducted a retrospective analysis, identified gaps through benchmarking, established a manufacturing control system, enhanced equipment efficiency, fostered an atmosphere of overall efficiency improvement, and created a platform with the industry's leading competitiveness in the manufacturing system."

The Deputy General Manager, Ren Xinbo, mentioned, "We decomposed tasks layer by layer, assigning them to workshops, teams, and production lines. Goals were set for individual production lines, with line employees taking the lead in driving progress. Each department of the manufacturing department provided efficiency and quality improvement resources and gap plans, formulated promotion measures for stubborn projects, and conducted competitions, evaluations, and incentives according to a single line.”

A series of data highlights the efficiency improvement achievements. The production output of Workshop Five, led by Xue Kai, increased from 2,194 tons in August of last year to 4,046 tons in December, with a growth rate of 184%. The average monthly growth rate was 16.3%, and for four consecutive months, Workshop Five maintained its position as the leader in production output. It was understood that the company has established 23 efficiency improvement teams, and by the end of the project in June this year, they would achieve a production increase of over 60%.

The exclusive parking space for outstanding employees has attracted admiring glances from colleagues. Xue Kai, speaking about this with pride and confidence, stated, "This honor belongs not only to me but also to my team. In the future, we will turn this honor into motivation, lead the team to continuous improvement, constantly challenge ourselves, surpass ourselves, become the leading force in the materials industry, and assist the company in becoming the preferred material solution provider for users, offering customers the best end-to-end experience."