After the Pilot SME Assessments held respectively in Shanghai and Foshan, another Pilot SME Assessment took place on 2nd June 2011 at Guangdong Fenghua Advanced Technology (Holding) Co., Ltd. from Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province. Fenghua focuses on R&D, production, marketing and export of new electronic components and electronic materials. As a pilot SME of the SWITCH Project, the company has been involved in the Capacity Building Programme already for more than one year and participated in several training activities, including the Pilot Training Workshop in Dongguan, Guangdong Province in April 2010. The main purpose of this visit was to assess the company’s current situation with regards to Eco-efficiency, OHS and CSR in order to evaluate the influence of the previous trainings on the company as well as to introduce the Conformity Model and to test its applicability.

Prior to the assessment, Ms. Su Hongjun, Manager Assistant / Engineer from the Technology Center of Fenghua welcomed the project team and gave a short but informative overview presentation of the company. The Project Leader Igor Darbo introduced the project achievements as well as the purpose of the assessment and its benefits for the company.

Opening the assessment, Mr. Zong Fang from the Chinese Institute of Electronics introduced the assessment’s base document, the Conformity Model from a new angle. He explained that besides its function as a self-assessment tool, the Conformity Model could also serve as an instrument for Chinese electrical and electronics enterprises to demonstrate to customers their overall performance on Eco-efficiency, OHS and CSR. After Mr. Zong's speech, Ms. Zhu Chunyan from the China Standard Certification Center presented the project's assessment methodology.

Subsequently, an in-depth interactive discussion on the aspects of raw material / process selection, procurement, energy consumption management, supplier requirements, greenhouse gas reduction, product information publishing, recovery / recycling, occupational safety and social responsibility was held between the project experts and the representatives of Fenghua from the fields of development & technology, environmental protection, waste treatment, quality control and human resources. The project experts helped identify key areas of potential improvement in the company production cycle and provided customized suggestions. At the meantime, the project team was also consulted on the specific training interest of the company in order to make the upcoming training activities more suitable for SMEs.

Finally, after the meeting, the project team paid a visit to two of Fenghua’s factories (branch companies) accompanied by Ms. Su and engineers from the corresponding branch companies: Guanhua Chip Ceramic Capacitor Branch Company and Duanhua Chip Resistor Branch Company.