2023 is a significant milestone for Sino Manufacturing Solutions, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary in business. Founded in 2003 by Rob Harris and Li Xie, Sino Manufacturing Solutions has come a long way from being middlemen for Chinese manufacturers to owning our own state-of-the-art factory in Shenzhen and expanding our operations globally. So how has Sino evolved over the past two decades? What’s our unique structure, and what’s behind our success in the manufacturing industry?
The Beginning of Sino Manufacturing Solutions
Rob Harris and Li Xie have decades of expertise and developed the idea of establishing a joint British and Chinese company to capitalise on the growing trade between their two countries. That decision proved to be a good one – but the journey, through the financial crisis of 2008 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, was seldom easy.
Initially, they acted as middlemen for Chinese manufacturers in Shanghai, Ningbo and Jinan, providing the UK market with injection mould tooling and engineering components.
Sino Manufacturing Solutions Today
Today, Sino Manufacturing Solutions has its own 54,000 sq ft ISO 9001:2015 certified factory in Shenzhen and corporate headquarters in the UK. The company also has well-established facilities in Canada and Germany. In recent months, it has also opened an operation in Mexico to service the North American market.
Growth Achieved Organically
This growth was achieved organically, not by acquisition. In 2010 the company set up its own relatively small factory in Shenzhen and invested in machinery for tool making, injection moulding and metal pressing. The business continued to grow, investing in CNC lathes and adding turned parts to their expanding range of services.
The company achieved ISO 9001 status in 2015 and continued to pick up fresh customers across an increasingly wide spectrum of market sectors. The Shenzhen factory steadily recruited more staff while sales and technical support was extended beyond the UK into Europe and North America.
Unusual Combination of British and Chinese Capabilities
Sino’s Technical Manager, John Hemming, relocated to the Shenzhen factory in 2018. A time-served toolmaker, he began sharing his wealth of manufacturing experience with the Chinese management team and engineers. Sino now have a highly skilled team of English experts working along the Chinese team. John’s wife, an English teacher, also began tutoring the team in Shenzhen so customers in the UK, Europe and North America could speak directly to the Sino team without the need for interpreters. John and his wife also began learning Mandarin.
This unique combination of fully integrated British and Chinese capabilities continued to attract fresh customers from around the globe.
This enabled Sino Manufacturing Solutions to move into their current state-of-the-art 54,000 sq ft factory in Shenzhen in 2020. An Epicor ERP system was introduced to provide enhanced project, production, quality, customer relationship and supply chain management. A product development and realisation service were added, along with a Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) service to provide supply chain support for larger contracts.
Expansion and Investment
In January 2023, Sino Manufacturing Solutions opened a new sales and technical centre in Quertaro, Mexico. This latest expansion comes on the heels of the company’s strong year-over-year growth in the region and is one of several new investments Sino Manufacturing Solutions has made in recent months. Jon Harris, Vice President North America Division, has relocated there and has already landed several significant projects from large local manufacturers.
Joint British and Chinese Ownership
Robert Harris, founder, and Executive Chairman, comments:
“Our unique company structure is joint British and Chinese owned, combining British standards and management with Chinese precision and cost efficiency. Now, with over 20 years’ experience of manufacturing complex injection mould tooling and components, we’re continuing to attract, and earn the respect of, a growing list of major manufacturers around the globe.”
