Chris Gassner | January 26, 2026 |
When people ask me today when Shenzhen Muri was founded, I usually say 2010. That is the official version. The version with paperwork, stamps, and an address you can point to when needed. It sounds neat and reassures people who like clear timelines.
The honest version starts much earlier. Somewhere around 2007. Back then, it was not a company. More like a call. A side thing. Something you do because you cannot not do it.
When I first came to China, industry looked very different. Today we talk about Industry 4.0, smart factories, connected machines, digital twins. Back then, industry was often a garage. Sometimes a small one. Sometimes a very large one. The difference was less about professionalism and more about ceiling height.
Machines everywhere. Materials. Cables. Half finished parts. Leftovers from old projects that might be useful again one day. It often looked like a lot of work had been done, just not necessarily in the right order. That was not bad. Not at all. The people were good. Hard working. Skilled. Proud of what they could do. But the environment made everything harder than it needed to be.
On top of that, environmental awareness barely existed. I lived and worked for a while in Jiaxing. There was textile industry there. Denim, I think. Jeans are blue. And so was the water. The streams were blue. Not the symbolic blue you see in textbooks, but really blue. That was normal back then. Things were produced, disposed of, and production continued. Today this would be completely unacceptable. And that is a good thing. Industry here has changed massively. Visibly. Noticeably. Not perfect, but in many areas further ahead than people outside often assume. Other countries could learn a lot from that.
I have always been a Kaizen person. Lean manufacturing was never a toolbox for me, but a mindset. My roots there are in Japan. That is where I learned, or at least began to understand, that good production has nothing to do with perfection. It has everything to do with respect. Respect for processes. For people. For clarity in the head and order on the shop floor.
I quickly realized that this way of thinking was exactly what China needed at the time. Very much so. And to be honest, it is still needed today, just on a different level.
In the beginning, it was quite selfish. I started with my own suppliers. If they produced better, my life became easier. So I started changing things. Small steps. No big presentations. Clearing space. Shortening paths. Making processes visible. Assigning responsibility.
Suddenly, things worked better. Not dramatically, but noticeably. Faster. Calmer. Less stress. More control.
Then others came along. They did not say, we want Lean. They said, can you take a look at why things are not working here. And I found myself in companies where everything was there except structure. Improvements showed quickly. Not because I was a genius, but because the starting level was so low that every improvement had an immediate effect.
That feeling was incredible. Seeing people breathe easier because work became simpler. Seeing pride return. Seeing chaos quiet down. That does something to you.
Naturally, this did not go unnoticed. Quality issues were not only a topic with my suppliers, but with more and more customers. And sooner or later the next question came. Can you check this before we buy. Before we order. Before we end up buying a pig in a poke.
That is how inspections came in. Very straightforward. I went there, looked at things, checked, commented, wrote reports. Honestly. No sugar coating. What is good. What is borderline. What will cause problems later.
Today there are hundreds of such companies in China. Back then, there were far fewer. And inspection was rarely the core. Lean thinking always was.
Over time, this shifted. Lean and Kaizen are great, but they require time and energy. And they work best when you are personally involved. For me, Lean was always something very personal. Something I wanted to do myself. Not delegate. Not explain via slides.
The issue was not lack of conviction, but time. And the fact that I could not find anyone who could truly take over that mindset for me. I have my own head. And when I take care of a Lean project, I do it myself. Completely. In that sense, I failed. Not at Lean, but at delegation.
There is still endless potential. Many companies would be happy to receive support. But acceptance does not automatically lead to implementation.
I remember conversations that followed the same pattern. If we redesign the process, we only need ten people instead of twenty. And then came the reflex question. What do we do with the other ten.
The answer was simple. New projects. A second line. Double the speed.
The reaction was not. We do not need more capacity. We do not want to lay people off. So let us keep everything as it is.
So I gradually scaled back Lean. Not because I wanted to stop, but because it was extremely time consuming for me alone, while I had to take care of other things as well. Lean is not something you do on the side. And when I do it, I do it properly. I still do it today. And whenever someone asks, I am happy to take care of it. Preferably myself.
Then Covid happened. Suddenly, something became crucial that people had hardly noticed before. Being on site. While nobody could travel to China without weeks of quarantine, projects continued. Tools had to be approved. Production had to be accompanied. Decisions had to be made. During that time, Shenzhen Muri was not just helpful, it was necessary. Many things could only continue because someone was there to look, intervene, and take responsibility.
Next, customers asked whether I could take over full project responsibility. Not selectively, but from start to finish. It was no longer just about checking things, but about owning them. I took on these projects, structured them, coordinated them, and carried them through. And as so often, one project naturally led to the next.
Today, I no longer do everything myself. But I take care of the core projects. The ones where real help is needed. Industry is always the same. Something is produced, it is needed, and it is bought. What matters to me is that the customer is not left alone in the end.
I listen first. We can basically do everything. There is nothing I immediately say no to. A customer asks, can you do this. The first answer is yes. And if it truly cannot be done, at least that is clarified honestly. Where there is a will, there is a way. You just have to be willing to look beyond the obvious.
Today we do many things. Sourcing as well, of course. But honestly, anyone can do that. That is side bread. The core is project management, tooling, inspections. Doing things properly before they become expensive.
And if someone asks, yes, we still do Lean. And I still love it. It was one of the best decisions of my life.
In the end, Shenzhen Muri was never a classic business model. It was a mindset. The attempt to make things better before they become costly. And yes, production really happened everywhere back then. Under tables. In hallways. Between machines. Sitting, standing, sometimes it felt like even lying down. Wherever there was a bit of space. Order was not a concept. It was more a coincidence.
And maybe everything I have learned over the years can be reduced to one single sentence. My motto has always been the same: Kaizen is awesome and easy for everyone.
You just have to start.
Chris Gassner