Steve Reinecke, Sr. Global Director, Healthcare & Education Industry @ Ergotron

What does “Made in China” mean to you? To me, up until a few years ago, it meant cheap and low quality.  Or worse yet, dirty factories with employees being paid pennies an hour.  These impressions were completely debunked when I had the pleasure of being the first Ergotron commercial sales person to visit our Dongguan City factory in China in 2006.

Last month I had the occasion to visit again, and not only was I amazed by the growth of the facility in just three years (back then commercial products only took up 10% of the space; now it’s much more), I was also completely taken with the modern, high-tech facility this factory has become. 

Our factory is the cleanest factory I have ever seen and I have been in quite a few globally.  The number of quality control staff running around this place constantly testing and doing analysis of products is astounding. 

We have two very large testing areas where robotic arms test our products, with many of our products being tested to over 50,000 cycles.  Yes, 50,000 cycles without failure.  If a user adjusts an Ergotron product 25 times a day that’s over 5 years of use. 

The local Chinese government even uses the Ergotron factory as a showplace on how to run a factory in China and we are always ready for an inspection or plant tour.

Ergotron owns this factory run by Craig Thomas, General Manager, an American who has lived in China for many years.  He does a great job and encourages everyone in the factory to dig deeper within themselves and improve their lives through hard work. 

There is always room for advancement at Ergotron, and that extends to the China factory. Not limited strictly to manufacturing, it houses dozens of engineers, program managers, procurement staff, purchasers, human resources, and information technology specialists. 

Our factory communicates daily with our offices in the USA via phone and video conference; so in a sense, the global Ergotron team is literally working around the clock to manufacture its products. 

Nine to five doesn’t really exist at Ergotron.
 
What’s great about the growth as well, even though we have more products being manufactured in China, our USA employee count has not decreased as a result.  Actually it has increased.  

Terms like “world class,” “passion,” and “dominate” are over used in business.  I purposely try to avoid using them because of this fact.  I have a different perspective about this now after my visits to the plant. 

This is definitely one of those times where I feel especially passionate about giving you a peek inside this world-class facility where over 900 Ergotron employees are creating premium, high-quality, and entirely affordable products to help us dominate in the markets we serve.

Sounds like marketing-speak? See for yourself.  If you are ever in Dongguan City, be sure to contact Ergotron and come over for a visit. I’d like you to see our factory and experience it first-hand.

If you can’t tell already, I am really proud to tell people that many of our products are made in our China facility and to show pictures of all the great employees there.

Please contact me if you would like to know more about our products and our outstanding manufacturing and distribution facilities.