Machining Around the Globe: How Accucam Prepares for Chinese New Year

Accucam proudly operates out of two machining facilities, one in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada and the other in Qingdao, Shandong, China. Qingdao is on the Yellow Sea Coast in the southeastern part of the country. It has a population over 9 million and is a major seaport and naval base as well as a commercial and financial center. Our worldwide network allows Accucam to provide secure supply, both domestically and internationally, helping us to manage the needs of our customers globally.

Accucam opened its precision machining facility in Qingdao in 2005 to complement our world-class manufacturing partnerships and further enhance the confidence we've instilled in our OEM customers.

With our team in Qingdao, we’ve come to learn about the legendary Chinese New Year holiday season in terms of its significance to the people of China and their culture, as well as its impacts on the rhythms of business.

Significance of the Chinese New Year to the Chinese people

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is a weeks-long celebration based on the ancient Chinese lunar calendar that is marked by various rituals and traditions meant to usher in good luck for the coming year. It typically lasts about 15 days and is a time for honoring deities and ancestors, as well as for hosting family gatherings and feasts. The date of Chinese New Year varies from year to year. In 2021, the Chinese New Year falls on February 12, which kicks off a period of celebration ending February 26.

Ordinarily, hundreds of millions of Chinese travel across the country to see their families during the holiday, making a collective three billion trips (typically viewed as the world’s largest human migration) during the 40-day window the government considers “holiday travel.” For China’s massive labor force of migrant workers—those who are born in the countryside but move to cities to work—the New Year is often the only time all year they will return home.

Impact of the Chinese New Year on the rhythms of business in China

During the New Year holiday season, many manufacturing facilities in China shut down for an extended period, causing production to grind to a halt. This year, for the second year in a row, China’s largest national holiday is under threat from COVID-19.  Officials are taking the necessary restrictions to protect the population as well as their supply capabilities.

How Accucam is planning for Chinese New Year

The re-emergence of COVID-19 in China and subsequent travel constraints do not mean that manufacturing facilities will stay open during the New Year holiday. As a result, Accucam will implement the strategies outlined below to keep our customers around the world supplied in a timely manner with Accucam products. Our plan is to:

1. Use advanced forecasting and planning tools,
2. Have product shipped ahead of the holiday,
3. Book shipments in advance,
4. Maintain strong supply chain partnerships,
5. Plan for additional inventory to cover the period China is closed,
6. Maintain quality management and inspections, and
7. Add additional staff in the warehouse for receiving compounded container arrivals.

We wish all of our Accucam team members in Qingdao and their families a truly wonderful New Year’s holiday!

If you have any inquiries about Accucam’s machining operations, or would like to discuss your upcoming engineering and manufacturing project, please don’t hesitate to contact Accucam today.