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Editor’s note:
Beijing WBL Peking University Biotech Company (WPU) is a subsidiary company of Luye Pharma Group. It is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research, development, production and sales of natural medicines and modern Chinese medicine. The company's manufacturing team is mainly responsible for the production of one of the Group's core products-Xuezhikang. This year, in the face of the external impact of the epidemic and the Winter Olympic Games, as well as the challenges posed by high production plan, the manufacturing team of WPU is managed to conquer all the difficulties and get into the government key enterprise list to prevent from production suspension. Production in the first quarter of 2022 has increased by 75% over the same period, providing strong support for the completion of the Group's production target of 1.5 billion capsules set for this year. This month we are pleasure to have 2 colleagues from the manufacturing team of WPU to share with us their story of persistence.
Left: Liu Jun, Government Affairs Director; Right: Song Jiangang, Manufacturing Manager of WPU)
Q: Thank you very much for taking this interview, please introduce yourself to start with.
Song: My name is Song Jiangang, I joined the company in 2013 and am currently the manager of the manufacturing department, responsible for managing the daily work of the three workshops of fermentation, extraction and preparation and the manufacturing department.
Liu: My name is Liu Jun and I joined the company in 1994. I am currently the Director of Government Affairs, responsible for the coordination of government affairs and General Administration Department.
Q: Could you please give us a brief introduction of your department?
Song: Our project team includes production, quality, engineering, materials and general administration departments. The production department is responsible for the production of products; the quality department is responsible for the compliance control of the production site and the inspection and release of materials and products; engineering department is responsible for equipment and power security; materials department is responsible for production materials and medical supplies; general administration department is an integration of company’s functional departments, which is responsible for government affairs, HR, administration , IT and other relative support.
Q: The epidemics in recent years have had an impact on the work and life of many cities, and Beijing is no exception. This year Beijing also successfully hosted the Winter Olympics, will this have an impact on your production?
Song: Indeed, as the political, economic and cultural center, Beijing has many political conferences and international games throughout the year, for example the Two Sessions and Winter Olympic Games, which require us to make early preparation, especially in this year considering the annual production plan has increased by 50% compared with 2021. For example, the ethanol used for extraction is a hazardous chemical and will be subject to transport controls in the event of a major event such as the Winter Olympics, so the manufacturing department needs to start preparing emergency production plans 2-3 months in advance, while the general administration also maintains active communication with the government to understand the requirements and feed back to business units and adjust our plans accordingly.
Q: WPU is really facing many challenges internally and externally, how does the team managed to overcome all these difficulties?
Song: The production plan has to be customer-oriented and developed based on market demands. In the face of this year's challenges, we actively promoted the company's principles of scientific decision-making and results-orientation, all department started to prepare and communicate 2 months before the Winter Olympics. Materials Department works with suppliers and transportation companies to understand updated policies and adjust manufacturing plan dynamically. General Administration Department makes effort to get favorable policy. Take the ethanol supply for example, we applied to get into the government key enterprise list, so that ethanol transportation can go through green channel, which enabled smooth manufacturing during the Winter Olympics.
Liu: During the first half of this year, we were influenced by the Winter Olympics, the Two Sessions and the pandemic, it is inevitable that some non-urgent transportation and logistics were limited. Xuezhikang is listed in the medical insurance, and we use this as an argument to negotiate with the government to apply for the key enterprise list, preventing from manufacturing suspension, because if the production is stopped, it would be very difficult and time-consuming to restart. Aside from transportation and supply issued that Song has just talked about, labor is another problem to be solved. We have many employees don’t live in Beijing, they have to commute from other adjacent cities to Beijing every day, which means the manufacturing department has to ensure both smooth production and pandemic prevention to make sure our production plan is not affected by policy and force majeure.
Q: What are the requirements to get listed into government key enterprise list?
Liu: The bottom line has always been that we cannot give up production. At the height of the epidemic in Beijing this year, Haidian District, where WPU is located, imposed elevated controls and companies (not in the government list) were in a state of shutdown. We were allowed to continue production since we are in the government list, however, according to the requirement, we have to implement closed-loop production, which means some colleagues have to stay in the company to work. Mr. Du (General Manager of WPU) and Ms. Pei (Manufacturing Director of WPU) also stayed in the company during this period of time. Only 30% of employees were allowed to stay in the company, and we were able to maintain a minimum production scale with limited staff, and it secured the continuity of follow-up production. This was a special experience for us and we are the only company in the Group to have such special experience. We also reviewed our emergency production plan afterwards to improve the relevant planning measures in case other similar situations arise in the future, and it was a good emergency response case for us.
Song: When we started to make the emergency plan, we have not received the government notice. We made prejudgment based on the situation during that time, and communicated with the government on our plan and got approved. When we received the notice from the government, we initiate the plan immediately and notified employees to get to the company before transportation shutdown in the next day. The production chain of red rice is quite complicated, we can’t afford production suspension even for a few days, therefore the continuity of production means a lot to us.
Q: During closed-loop production, what did the company do to provide better support to employees?
Song: The staff working in the workshop were under a lot of pressure and the first priority is to ensure that they are provided with meals and logistics. Secondly, considering that they work continuously in the factory, the company also organized some recreational activities during the break to ensure that everyone can enjoy working and living in the factory.
Liu: During the lockdown, aside from providing them with sufficient food and living necessities, company also paid attention to their mental health by providing them with a relaxed working environment. We have organized a variety of activities such as dragon boat festival celebration, children’s day online interaction with their kids, as well as birthday parties. After the lockdown, we did a questionnaire and received very good feedback from employees.
Q: Although WPU has encountered many challenges in the first half of this year, you have worked together to overcome one difficulty after another and also won the President’s Award this year for your excellent performance, which cannot be achieved without teamwork, please use keywords to describe what is successful teamwork.
Song: I think the key is collaborative effort, because our work is related to multiple departments, we have to work together to achieve the same target.
Group photo of the manufacturing team of WPU
Liu: I work in the functional department, and from my perspective, the key is partnership. No matter it is a short-term task or a long-term strategic goal, I think it is very important to build up partnership between functional and business department. We have to achieve mutual understanding, so that we can better support each other. We have to become a good business partner that have our own expertise, know the business and have the ability to implement, so that we can achieve our mutual targets.
Q: Do we have any team building activities to enhance team unity?
Liu: As a pharma company, we use the best product and technology to serve human health, and also we care employees’ health. During the Winter Olympics, we organized a running activity to encourage employees to learn from the spirit of athletes, to work in a healthy and energetic state, running toward this year’s target. The activity lasted 1 month, over 250 employees signed up for it. Many of them continued to run in their spare time as a healthy lifestyle.
Group photo of the running activity
For front-line workers and managers, we all need to have a clear understanding and integration of the company's strategy and immediate goals. The company organizes various activities to create a positive working atmosphere and a high level of team cohesion. We also actively promote the power of youth role models, Ms. Pei was awarded the title of Haidian District Youth Role Model for 2021, driving the growth of young staff. The union uses a wide range of mass organizations to collaborate with the company to implement corporate culture, play the role of a mentor and enhance team unity.
Ms. Pei awarded the title of Haidian District Youth Role Model for 2021
Q: As we all work together to help each other move forward in the face of challenges, please share the growth and takeaways you have gained from your work.
Song: We further practiced the company culture in the process of dealing with the challenges, and all departments broke the boundaries to form a closer link. We need to communicate the work plan clearly to all staff to get aligned, and then gradually implement the target to ensure the execution and completion of the task, and collaborate to achieve the final target.
Liu: Although everyone's role in the company is different, we are all working together for the company's immediate, medium and long-term goals, to grow together and achieve a win-win situation. From the perspective of a functional department, my takeaway is to learn to switch from transactional mindset to business mindset and to gain an in-depth understanding of the company's business direction and strategic planning, so that we can achieve efficient synergy with the company's core business and face new challenges and goals together.
In terms of the external environment, the company has been subject to various external challenges in recent years, which are related to the specificity of the pharmaceutical industry and the positioning of Beijing as a political and economic centre. We need to adapt to this, to stay highly attentive and sensitive to external information at all times, and to be able to adapt quickly to various changes and adjustments and make forward-looking forecasts in relation to our business.
Q: Thank you and I believe your sharing will give our colleagues a deeper understanding and learning about teamwork.