Site tour: Defond Electrical

Site tour: Defond Electrical

by Team B (Mathew, Kyle, Dorothy, Emily)

Defond Electrical was an eye-opening experience, serving as an example of how Chinese manufacturers have moved rapidly up the value chain and are now delivering high-quality solutions.

Defond is a family-owned manufacturing company located in the Guangdong province that produces switches and electrical components.

More than 8000 employees are employed in two factories in China, and Defond also has an R&D facility in North Carolina, and production facilities in Germany and Italy as a result of recent acquisitions.

The factory we visited implemented lean production techniques in 2013, and now uses it on more than 70 lines. Like other companies we saw, Defond is grappling with balancing automation with manual labour as labour costs rise.

What impressed us most was not only the consistent message around quality of production, but also Defond’s focus on developing and protecting its brand.

As one of the engineers noted, Defond’s customers see timely delivery as a hygiene factor, and so quality is the firm’s key competitive edge.

The family-owned nature of the firm showed itself most in the palpable sense of pride that all of the management staff exhibited during our tour and the exemplary hosting they displayed which made this visit a clear highlight of the tour.

Defond officials noted that they have no direct competitors across its whole product range, but have competitors for individual products.

We were also interested in the lack of price sensitivity shown by Defond’s customers as its components make up such a small part of the overall cost of a product.

Health and safety of staff was also clearly a priority, with only two to three notifiable accidents occurring on a monthly basis.

Looking to the future, Defond wants to be an integrated service provider, and recent acquisitions were designed to supplement this goal by providing access to new technologies, or new customers/geographical locations.

Technologically, the firm is moving into "sensing, measurement and monitoring", taking advantage of the new Internet of Things.