Adherence and Responsibility of Qicai Knitting: Painstaking Efforts for Every Stitch and Thread
This is the daily scene of Qicai Knitting. The light shuttling of yarns on the needle bed and the busy figure of workers weave a symphony full of rhythm and vitality.
Threading, shuttling and stitching constitute an eternal scenery in our workshop. In the roar of machines, our workers shuttle in the clearance between machines to skillfully adjust the tension of yarns and the operation speed of machines, so as to ensure the best texture and appearance of every inch of yarn, thus producing products that can best meet the needs of customers.
This is the daily scene of Qicai Knitting. The light shuttling of yarns on the needle bed and the busy figure of workers weave a symphony full of rhythm and vitality.
Starting from scratch
Located in Yuanshi County (Hebei Province), a thousand-year -old county, Qicai Knitting has engaged in the field of knitted mesh fabric for more than 20 years and evolved from a small workshop with two people to a modern enterprise with more than 100 people, achieving a gorgeous transformation from 0 to 1.
Globally, the market expansion of Qicai Knitting is still in the beginning stage of the transformation from 0 to 1. Gao is the person in charge of the overseas market of Qicai Knitting and also the daughter of the founder of Qicai Knitting. She has been working in Qicai Knitting since graduation. To get familiar with every step of knitting, she started from odds and ends, and worked in various positions such as machine operation, material handling, document sorting and cleaning on the production line to experience and accumulate knowledge about products, technologies and raw materials.
Gao said, “my father is one of the old-generation textile practitioners, who often says that ‘every stitch and thread entails painstaking efforts’. I didn’t understand it very well before I joined the company, and only after experiencing every aspect of every position do I really understand what it does mean.”
Qicai Knitting is exploiting the global market starting from scratch. “I majored in international trade in college as I want to engage in international trade, and the company also has the need for international trade, which is exactly an opportunity for me. At that time, I only had but one thought — ‘just do it’…”. After making her mind, Gao opens the road to globalization of Qicai Knitting.
Reality is always full of challenges. “Graduating from college for many years, I have to learn a lot of things once again. I have the cheek to ask all kinds of people, and when meeting customers, I even ask more questions than customers do, because I don’t know what to do and have no other choice but ask and learn. In fact, I ask and learn from almost everyone I can contact no matter whether I am familiar with them and which difficulties I may experience...” said Gao. She not only asks and learns on her own, but also leads her team to study the market and constantly adjust strategies.
Day after day, and year after year, Gao repeats her efforts in such aspects as online and offline communication, sample production and delivery, and market exploration and research in a dedicated and determined manner. She believes that upturn comes from constant efforts and perseverance.
“Luck”
“Luck” always comes quietly, and opportunities always favor those who are prepared.
“Our first overseas order was very unexpected. At over 10 p.m., a customer suddenly sent me a message and asked for my quotation. Then I made accounting with relevant personnel, which took about two hours”, Gao said, “later, feeling that our price was acceptable, the customer communicated with me about sample issues, and I began to organize the production of sample, which, however, was not that smooth. The customer required us to incorporate a rarely used raw material into the product, while we had just used up that material in stock then, and the new raw material would take at least 2 days to arrive, so I began to make phone calls. It was in the early morning, and I basically disturbed all the peers who might have the aforesaid raw material, and finally found a peer who had that raw material in stock... Fortunately, the samples were finally made and delivered to the customer.”
“At that time, I didn’t think about whether the order can be completed”, Gao said, “upon the delivery of sample, I hadn’t received any message from the customer for a long time, and I rested at home then due to a fever caused by weather change. When feeling a little more comfortable, I opened the mailbox and found an email received two days ago, which was exactly the order from the customer. I was quite a surprise to me as I had thoroughly lost hope then. So I began to arrange the production of the order, which cured my fever...”
When mentioning the first order successfully completed, Gao always says that it was mainly attributable to luck. However, this luck comes from the long-term persistence and waiting of Gao and her team. In addition to studying market demands, customer preferences and cultural differences day and night, they also carry about threads and dyestuffs, and learn about the latest machines and technologies in workshop. “The responsibility for customers entails us to understand all such aspects as market, product and technology, as understanding these is the fastest way to determine whether we can serve customers” Gao said.
The successful delivery of the first batch of export goods marks the first step of the global development of Qicai Knitting, while making Gao and her team believe that the more you pay, the more you get, and sufficient efforts may bring “luck” at any time.
Continuous accumulation becomes the “luck” of seizing opportunities. Bearing in mind the adherence to the original aspiration and the responsibility for customers, Gao, together with her team, is working to guide Qicai Knitting to go global.
Responsibility
Enterprise development mainly depends on the two aspects of customers and employees.
As Qicai Knitting goes global, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, accompanied by ever-changing customer needs. How to meet customer needs in a high-efficiency and high-quality manner has become one of the challenges faced by Gao’s team.
To ensure product quality, Gao and her team almost participate in all production links starting from raw materials. Paying continuous attention to knitting dyeing, Gao often goes to the dyeing factory to supervise the dying process. “Not that I do not believe others, but that I may feel more reassured by doing so...” Gao said. As to overseas customers, considering their importance and the necessity of reserving logistics time for them, Gao typically works together with staff in the production workshop to speed up the production schedule. “I am proficient in rolling cloth now, and once rolled up to 5 tons of cloth one time”, said Gao. In addition to keeping an eye on each production link, Gao also engages in “quarrels” from time to time. “We often quarrel with the factory director in charge of production for purpose of processing our own orders as early as possible, but we can hardly win...” Gao said.
“Our factory director in charge of production is very ‘stubborn’ in terms of quality, and he is so stubborn that he may quarrel with everyone for product quality.” He would write down every order demand, repetitively emphasize the importance of quality, and implement constant inspection to ensure quality for each production. He only cares about quality, and in case that the use of any raw material as required by customers may produce a certain impact on product quality, he would communicate with us and customers to avoid the use of such material, failing which he would rather not implement production. In his words, being responsible for products is exactly being responsible to customers and to ourselves.” Gao said.
Only through being responsible to customers can we win the trust of customers. Qicai Textie is not only responsible to customers, but also to employees.
The strength of a single person is limited, and the development of Qicai Knitting must rely on the collective team strength. Qicai Knitting has arranged employees to participate in learning and training at Jiangnan University to improve their skills and lay the foundation for upgrading the quality system of Qicai Knitting. “Previously, we mainly rely on experience to determine whether we can meet customer needs, but now, as we have set up a R&D team through learning, we may conduct a comprehensive analysis of customers’ samples, so that we can reassure customers and ourselves no matter whether we can meet customer needs finally”, Gao said, “we may also make recommendations to our customers based on our analysis, so that we can achieve win-win results and establish long-term trust.”
Under the guidance of responsibility and motivation, Qicai Knitting will continue to concentrate its efforts on the knitting industry, so as to gain the trust of both customers and employees while becoming increasingly mature step by step.
Innovation
We should also attach importance to innovation in addition to quality.
Matsushita Konosuke once said that employees are the most valuable asset for an enterprise. “Innovation is the result of continuous efforts. We are currently endeavoring to create a positive atmosphere, stimulate everyone to learn from, help and encourage each other, advocate innovative thinking and the spirit of daring to try, and ensure that we can jointly verify and put into practice every valuable idea proposed by any single person, as we are clearly aware that only continuous innovation and try can enable us to survive in the fierce competition...” said Chairman Gao of Qicai Knitting.
As we go out and see an increasingly large market, Gao finds that there is still a large market share for anti-pollen mesh fabrics and sandwich mesh fabrics for high-pressure oil pipe.
Where there is a market, there is a demand. Upon a series of investigations, Gao communicated and discussed with the chairman, R&D personnel and production workshop about her ideas, finally wining unanimous support.
Gao said: “We have made a breakthrough in the field of anti-pollen mesh fabrics and sandwich mesh fabrics for high-pressure oil pipe and carried out a series of experiments and improvements in material selection, knitting process improvement and cost control, while taking into account safety, health, durability and environmental protection factors.”
During the R&D of anti-pollen mesh fabrics, Gao personally participates in the testing of samples with different materials and weaving modes to ensure that the products can effectively filter pollen, dust and other particles in the air, while maintaining great air permeability and watertightness (if required) to improve the comfort and health level of users. The sandwitch mesh fabrics for high-pressure oil pipe are typically applied in the industrial field, whose strength and pressure resistance are highly demanded. Gao and engineers repeatedly perform pressure tests to ensure that each product can maintain stability and reliability in extreme environments.
At present, the anti-pollen mesh fabrics and sandwich mesh fabrics for high-pressure oil pipe of Qicai Knitting have already been marketed with wide acclaim.
Remaining committed to the original aspiration, Qicai Knitting strives to provide the best products for customers in a responsible manner, so as to win the permanent trust of customers. Every yarn of Qicai Knitting carries the sweat and wisdom of workers, and every detail reflects our persistent pursuit of quality.
Every stitch and thread entails painstaking efforts. Qicai Knitting is writing its own story in the global market.
Contact Our Team Now