The factory in China's breadbasket.

At seven in the morning, it's still quiet in the factory grounds in Gaomi, China. While some are preparing for the workday, the employees from out of town and residents of the dormitory are quickly grabbing some breakfast in the company cafeteria before things get underway. Everywhere you can hear employees greeting each other; across departments and regardless of their positions: they all know each other.

For many outsiders, this is initially an unfamiliar scene. Traditionally, hierarchies in Chinese companies are stricter, and direct interactions between managers and employees are less frequent. But at CLAAS in Gaomi, the focus is on an open corporate culture. The idea behind it: anyone who builds CLAAS agricultural machinery must meet the highest quality standards – and this is best achieved when everyone at the site pulls together.

Flat hierarchies and open communication.

To foster a culture of openness, various formats have been introduced in recent years, including quarterly town hall meetings. Here, employees are informed about the latest business developments, and management answers their questions, which anyone can submit in advance via an app – anonymously if desired. The goal is to strengthen communication and encourage employees to contribute their ideas. Because in a market where quality and innovation count, it is often the minor details from everyday work that make the crucial difference.
The format is popular and appreciated among employees. The newly introduced suggestion system has also been a great success: employees can submit improvement ideas via an app, which has led to numerous optimizations in production. The open communication and positive approach to mistakes are also well-received.

All of this is supported by an app that everyone from the boss to the intern has on their phone. It allows users to record working hours and access permissions, request business trips and vacation time, register visitors, and even pay for meals in the cafeteria.

Several hundred machines per year.

These changes in corporate culture over the past few years have contributed to the site's success. It was founded in 2014 as a joint venture with a Chinese company. Since 2016, the plant has operated as "CLAAS Agricultural Machinery (Shandong) Co. Ltd." and is wholly owned by the German corporation.
After the initial challenges with regard to establishing itself in the Chinese market, CLAAS now produces several hundred machines per year in Gaomi – primarily combine harvesters. These are manufactured under the CLAAS name, as well as under the local brand name, CHUNYU, mainly for the Chinese market. For several years now, preparations have been underway in Gaomi for exporting to foreign markets.
The site employs a total of 600 people and boasts an extensive sales and service network in central and northern China. To date, CLAAS remains the only German company in Gaomi. The city – relatively small by Chinese standards, with 900,000 inhabitants – is located in Shandong Province, one of China's main agricultural regions, considered the country's breadbasket. The metropolis of Shanghai is a seven-and-a-half-hour drive away, while the journey by train takes approximately six hours.

Better than many German suppliers.

Every morning at nine o'clock, the so-called "Morning Operations Briefing" takes place in the meeting room next to the assembly area. During this half-hour meeting, the department and division heads discuss current topics. In this forum, they are briefed on progress and challenges. Shirley Wang is always present. The 37-year-old is head of the quality department at CLAAS in Gaomi.
“The CLAAS corporate culture is characterized by mutual support and trust,” she says. The Quality Department must work particularly closely with production, the design department, and customers to achieve the best possible results. And the work of Shirley Wang and her 37-member team is paying off.
This is particularly evident in the fact that Gaomi also supplies CLAAS Industrietechnik – a subsidiary of the CLAAS Group based in Paderborn. The resulting components are used in CLAAS machines worldwide. The group's headquarters in Harsewinkel recently certified that the Gaomi plant produces higher quality products than many German suppliers.

This is due in no small part to the close cooperation across national borders. In recent years, German and Chinese employees have regularly worked in tandem teams in Gaomi and Harsewinkel. Furthermore, CLAAS invests heavily in the professional development of its specialists in Gaomi. Even during the pandemic – amidst China's "zero Covid" policy – ​​Chinese colleagues flew to Harsewinkel to attend seminars.
Xiandian Meng greatly values ​​the exchange within the CLAAS Group. The 35-year-old Head of Purchasing was, until the end of 2022, Head of the CLAAS Industrial Technology division in China and maintained close contact with his German CLAAS Industrial Technology colleagues in Paderborn. Meng holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University and is convinced that German and Chinese cultures complement each other well. He explains that Chinese people are often extremely efficient and flexible, while Germans place a high value on accuracy.
“My colleagues in Gaomi just need to get used to the fact that Germans are more direct in their communication than we are.” Points that the Chinese tend to address politely and indirectly, Germans often address directly. “But over time you learn that it’s not personal, but purely matter of fact,” he says with a laugh.

Dual education and training: a recipe for success.

Another aspect of German corporate culture is the dual vocational training program for technicians in Gaomi. The system is hardly known in China, explains Qian Liu, the plant's Dual Education Training Manager. The 38-year-old engineer, who joined CLAAS in September 2021, previously worked for BMW in China, among other companies, and is a fan of the German training system.
Chinese companies typically recruit college graduates after they complete their studies and then train them. At CLAAS, however, trainees spend a significant portion of their time working at the factory alongside their college studies. "By the time they graduate, the young technicians are already familiar with the company and have a clear career goal in mind," says Liu. "They really appreciate that." Twelve graduates have completed the program so far – and if the company has its way, there will be many more.

A key future market.

This aligns with CLAAS's plans for China: The company is developing the export share of its Gaomi plant – producing combine harvesters for Europe, Africa, and Central Asia. The business of supplying components to other plants is also gaining importance, as it helps CLAAS leverage advantages in procurement and in-house manufacturing.
“China remains an important market for us in the future, but we must always critically monitor its specific characteristics and framework conditions,” says Bernd Kleffmann, Senior Vice President of the Product Unit Combines Range C-F at CLAAS. “Food self-sufficiency is of paramount importance to China. Therefore, products from various CLAAS locations find their customers in China. Not least among them are combine harvesters in green and red from Gaomi.”

The plant in Gaomi is growing – and with it, the ambitions of its workforce. The flat hierarchies and open communication are paying off: those who want to contribute are heard, and those who take on responsibility can actively shape the future of the site.

While the canteen is quieter on weekends, it fills with voices again on Monday mornings. At seven o'clock, the new workday begins for the employees – and with it, another step towards an increasingly modern, future-oriented production process.

From agriculture to literature: five facts about Gaomi.

1.

Gaomi is a district in the Weifang region with a long track record of manufacturing farm machinery, such as combine harvesters and tractors, dating back several decades. As a thriving business center, Gaomi has a mixed economy of agriculture and industry. Shandong Province, where the district is located, is famous for being China’s breadbasket and for its produce.

2.

With a population of 877,000—by comparison, the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has 753,000—the city of Gaomi, which bears the same name as the district, is small by Chinese standards. This is hardly surprising, given that Shandong Province has over 101 million inhabitants—more than Germany, Austria and Switzerland combined!

3.

The city of Gaomi has a population density of 213 inhabitants per square mile, more than double that of Germany and the USA or more than 100 times that of Canada.

4.

The novelist Mo Yan—the first Chinese winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—comes from Gaomi. Most of his novels are set in the city, including ”Red Sorghum,” which gave him his literary breakthrough in 1986. Director Zhang Yimou adapted it for film to critical international acclaim.

5.

Thanks to Mo Yan's novel, Gaomi in China is known for its red sorghum. This type of millet is cultivated in the region. Sorghum is not only a global staple food but also serves as animal feed.