Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/550307
46 tobaccoasia The tobacco machinery manufacturing sector in China went through a systemic transformation in recent years, making rapid progress in develop- ment and introducing both advanced production technology and equipment. The year 2013 was a particularly good one for the industry with many new developments, includ- ing a prototype of an ultra-high-speed cigarette rolling-tipping-packing unit which passed strin- gent technical assessment in flying colors. Tobac- co companies across the country also established comprehensive marketing centers, and lean man- agement of production equipment was introduced and implemented industry-wide. The machinery manufacturing sector also saw stronger capacity of providing services, support, and guarantees to the tobacco industry. This was achieved through measures undertaken by com- panies such as China Tobacco Machinery Group (CTMG), which included a reform of systems and mechanisms, innovative business models and de- velopment of human resources. The two-track approach In June 2013, a prototype of the ZJ116 ultra-high- speed cigarette rolling, joining and packing unit, developed and manufactured by Hunan's Changde Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd., passed stringent assessment at a workshop held in Shanghai. The development of ZJ116, a major project in itself, introduced advanced foreign technology to the lo- cal industry. Passing the assessment was a major milestone that signified not only the completion of the first phase of the project – the utilization of imported technology – but also marked the ad- vancement of the machinery manufacturing sector from the production of high-speed units to ultra- high-speed ones. With the successful development of ZJ116 as a benchmark, CTMG continued to achieve more success in foreign technological cooperation in 2013, including the successive completion of the conversion of imported technologies used to pro- duce the GDX6S (600 packets/minute) soft-pack- et packing unit, the DF10 (1,000 meters/minute) China's Machinery Sector: Systemic Transformation A technical personnel of Hauni Maschinenbau AG is teaching assembly techniques of the KDF4 plug wrapping unit for Xuchang Tobacco Machinery staff