Suri KohChief Operating Officer · Essays & perspective

Suri Koh / Chief Operating Officer

Three arguments about what happens after the auditor leaves

Perspectives from a life in leadership.

The latest essay

China+1 relocation5 min read

A relocated line is not moved until its night shift can run it

Customers sign off a transferred production line when its first articles pass inspection. In my experience that is the midpoint of a move, and the second half, in which the receiving plant learns to run the line without its visitors, decides whether the move was worth making.

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The archive.

China+1 relocation

  1. China+1 relocation5 min read

    A relocated line is not moved until its night shift can run it

    Customers sign off a transferred production line when its first articles pass inspection. In my experience that is the midpoint of a move, and the second half, in which the receiving plant learns to run the line without its visitors, decides whether the move was worth making.

    Open essay

Migrant labour

  1. Migrant labour5 min read

    A recruitment fee is the factory's debt, not the worker's

    Manufacturers in Malaysia that export to multinational customers now prohibit recruitment fees in their policies, yet many of their workers still arrive owing agents at home. I argue that the fee is an operating cost the factory has merely deferred, and that operations, not compliance, should own the recruitment chain that creates it.

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Customer audits

  1. Customer audits5 min read

    Customers should audit our records, not our tour route

    A precision contract manufacturer may host forty customer audits a year, each following a route the plant has prepared. Having been an auditor before I ran plants, I argue that fewer visits and continuous access to the underlying records would tell customers more and cost everyone less.

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