KML Acquired the New Certificate of ISO 9000
[Reported by Danny Zhang]

June 26, 2006 is the date for KML to renew the ISO 9001 certificate. Authorized auditors from AJA International Certification Services Limited followed the complete procedure to audit KML quality system and all relevant activities. The audit result is that KML is totally qualified. AJA provided a new certificate of ISO 9000 to replace the original one that has been expired. The expiry date of the new certificate is June 2009.

On the other hand, KML is going to apply for the certificate of ISO/TS16949. It is planed that KML will adopt ISO/TS16949 in next 2-3 years.

The KML Customers First Workshop
Reported by Sam Ko

Hong Kong, July 7 - KML Sales and Marketing teams attended a workshop in Panyu office named "Customers First Workshop" , which is one of the vital training programs of the departments.

The workshop was held by KML together with the Hong Kong Productivity Council aiming at making KML customer service quality even better.

KML Sales and Marketing teams showed enthusiasm about the workshop. There were more than 99% team members attending almost a whole day on Saturday, when is their day off.

In order to reinforce the practicality of the workshop, the Customers First Workshop requested members to join various exercises and games. On that day every members indulged and learnt a lot. It is believed that they can use what they learnt in this workshop in future.

Before the end of the workshop, each member provided some valuable comments on the workshop. KML have discussed with the Hong Kong Productivity Council about the comments and both parties agreed to make improvement in future. Members commonly thought that the practicality could be further improved. However, in general, all of them got in-depth understanding about outstanding customer services performance and control.

The Hong Kong Productivity Council is a non-profit organization providing different business solutions and services to companies in China and Hong Kong, and so to increase the competitiveness of their brands. In near future, KML will have more opportunities to work with the organization.

Although tapered wheel bearings are common for rear wheel applications on older car models, hub units are increasingly used. Since 80' s, special wheel bearing "Hub Units" have became more common in each new generation of vehicles:

The 1st generation hub unit includes a separated hub and a bearing. The bearing is called "Double Row Angular Contact Ball Bearing", that has special features particularly for car wheel applications.

The 2nd generation hub unit is designed with the experience gained from the 1st generation. It has an outer ring with an integral flange to replace the function of the separated hub in the 1st generation..

The 3rd generation hub unit is based on the design of the 2nd generation. It has a fully integrated system which provides a significant simplification in handling when compared with the previous designs.

Nowadays, more and more automotives are equipped with hub assemblies on wheel ends. Data show that the mileage of vehicles most likely to need wheel bearing replaced is between 80,000 and 118,000 miles (about 130,000 kilometers and 190,000 kilometers). This trend triggers the demand of aftermarket hub units, particularly high quality hub units that can well replace the original units.

KML Bearing and Equipment Ltd., the leading bearing specialist, keeps pace with the trend to offer premium hub units. We offer different generation hub units (from the 1st generation to the 3rd generation) totally more than 500 kinds for different automotive model needs.

For more information about KML hub units, please click here to contact us.

Dear colleagues,

My name is Jeff Kwan. I grew up in a small city called Saskatoon and the province is called Saskatchewan. It is in the central part of Canada. The weather is very similar to Harbin, China as I understand.

After I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology and before I joined KML Canada, I was working in the bearing and power transmission industries for fourteen years. I started in the bearing distributing warehouse as a shipper / receiver, then moved up to the order desk as an internal salesman and after that I was promoted to be a purchasing agent. My expertise is in bearings, electrical motors, reducers, v-belts drives and couplings.

An opportunity came up; I joined KML Canada in April 2005 as a Sale Representative for Western Canada. My responsible sales territory is so big that I look after four provinces (British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) in Canada and I need to travel extensively. Being single allows me to work far away from home without any concern.
It is a great experience to work for an international company like KML. Someday I would like to work with our oversea colleagues. Please feel free to send me an e-mail. I do read Chinese and speak Cantonese.

KML has a plan to upload more technical information of truck & trailer parts to its website: www.kml-bearing.com. By such arrangement, KML can offer more online technical support to customers or anyone who are interested in KML truck and trailer parts.

Thank you

Jeff kwan

Saving Our World Together
[Reported by Irene Gao]

The year of 2006 is regarded as the hottest year in record. According to the National Disaster Reduction Center, China is suffering from natural disasters that are the most serious ever since 2001. The southern provinces always fight with the frequent typhoons; the western and inland provinces are always affected by draining, high temperature and droughts. By the end of Aug, the drought in Chongqing was seriously increased like hundred year drought accumulated: the average temperature was above 40 degree for consecutive 50 days; 7,838,100 people suffered from shortage of drinking water; over 10,000 cattle died of thirst; the earth ruptured itself under the heat; peasants in their heartache cut the dying seedling to feed their cattle. This high temperature also affected US, Europe and India.

Maybe it is hard to really know what it is like if you have never experienced it. However, we have reasons and responsibility to imagine, think and explore the reasons. The professional explanation given by meteorologists is the influence of Subtropical Anticyclone. In terms of the atmosphere, there is a lot to do with the global warming, which is the main reason. The development of industrialization has led to the deterioration of the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect resulted from industrialization is a major reason that has contributed to the appearance of extreme climates in recent years.

Industrialization  who can say that he is not a promoter and a beneficiary? The whole species of man, who have destroyed the earth and its environment, will be punished. Maybe some day, we will have to confront the situation where there is no more clean water flow out of the tap. Water is the source of life; how can we survive without clean water. When life becomes endangered, nothing else makes any sense.

KML has a corporate culture that all our activities and behavior must take into consideration on how to reduce the harm to the natural environment by our products from production to supply, application, replacement and disposal. We shall strive to reduce the consumption of paper and office equipment, to take care of the maintenance of calculators, improve their lifespan, the application cycle of batteries in particular. Our responsibility and activity shall cover all our routine production and operation&"

Therefore, every employee of KML is at first an environmentalist; he/she not only must cherish the office resources while at work, but also cherish the energy at home, passing on the concept and method of frugality to your family and friends. Talking is easy, but action needs decision. As the old Chinese saying : "Do not give up good things though they may be minor matters." I hope that our colleagues will share with each other their methods/tips in economic use of resources. Below is a list of methods that I usually use:

1. Preview before printing: try to cut unnecessary pages and remove bold/black font setting before printing;
2. Use those outdated archives and documents as printing paper for internal use;
3. Try to send faxes directly from the computer, and avoid printing it out before faxing;
4. Buy a larger bucket for home use so that water from the washing machine and after washing foods can be used for flushing; the saving effect is obvious: a family of two can save about 2-3 tons of water per month;
5. When shopping at the supermarket, put multiple types of vegetables together in one plastic bag to save many bags (Personally I am not so good at this point);
6. Refuse or reduce to buy the over packaged products.
8. Turn off lights when they are not needed; turn off the TV power before going to bed&

Please, do not consider the energy saving is always a little thing; actually, doing your own work well and acting a good example for your colleagues simultaneously can prevent from unnecessary inconveniences and high communication cost. Besides, please do not always link to money. We do environmental protection because of what we believe but not making money. With one more person enabled with such a concept, there will be one more hope on the earth.

Moscow Impression (2)
[Reported by Tony Chen]

Moscow Metro

We were lucky to run into Mr. Wu in Moscow, and still luckier to visit Moscow Metro showed by him. This was very important, as it was only after this first step that Mr. Liang and I were able to begin our economic journey later.

Almost all entrances of the metro were not very obvious. They were not as magnificent and conspicuous as those in Guangzhou Subway, at best with a small M" sign to show passengers. After entering the metro, you would find there were quite a few two gates and also many people. To reach the ticket office, you had to get across three gates at least. The more inner side you reached, the warmer you felt. Imaginably, gates were used to maintain the temperature and disperse people. On both sides of the pedestrian crossing, there were some small shops, selling jewelries, magazines, audio-video products, beverage, bread and the like. These were almost the same as those in Guangzhou, and they are finely decorated as the shops in Guangzhou.

The metro ticket was not expensive, fifteen rubles each. As long as you stay in the metro, the ticket will remain in effect for the whole day.

We felt marveled at the scale of Moscow Metro, which was quite magnificent. To get to some places, we had to take an open escalator handrail downwards. The vertical height might be some fifteen to sixteen meters, and it might take about two minutes in descending. Seeing from the upper part of the escalator, the platform was clustered and thickly dotted with lots of people. Seeing from the platform, the rooftop was almost dome, deep and broad. On the rooftop, gigantic ancient European-style droplights were hung, in good order, grandeur and solemn. On the platform, there were several large arched doors (not for every platform), and at the foot of a wall between doors, stone benches were placed for people to have a rest while waiting for the train. On the entire platform, there were no working personnel, nor safety fences between the edge of the platform and rails, nor yellow warning lines, so I was very afraid of being squeezed off the platform by the crowd, and always stood relatively far away from the edge. And I also asked Mr. Liang: aren' t they afraid of being squeezed down? Mr. Liang could not think of anything to say either.

The metro train came and left roaring. It seemed majestic and awful, but was in fact very old, just like green steam trains" in the 1970' s and 1980' s of our country. Wasn' t Russia a heavy industrial country, but why were their trains so backward?

Signs and marks on the platform were all in Russian. At the beginning, we walked with sense, but were still wrong. I was somewhat slow-minded, and did not know how to help, as firstly I did not understand the language, and secondly Moscow metro was also very complicated. We lost our sense of direction completely. Mr. Liang asked someone for help, but we could not understand them though they knew the way. Fortunately, Mr. Wu consulted some young people with a metro map, and finally knew the way, as they could still speak some English. Therefore, a map is a requisite when we are away from home.

Moscow Breakfast

I said to Mr. Liang, I was interested in Moscow breakfast on the first day, felt it acceptable on the second day, was able to persevere in it on the third day, and lost interest in it on the fourth day. We were after all Chinese!!

Breakfast was self-helped, rich in varieties yet lacking in originality. Breakfast was almost the same every day. After we entered the dining hall, on the first table were placed fruits and oatmeal with milk. Most of the fruits were bananas, apples and oranges; the second table was a U-shaped table, on which there were vegetables and meat. Most of them were potatoes, carrot strips, cabbage strips, cauliflowers and cayennes, followed by sliced ham, sliced luncheon meat, sliced preserved ham and sausage, in addition to a kind of meat balls braised with brown source and croruette, as well as some cheese, wasabe and potato mud. In spite of the rich varieties, one would easily get bored with them; on the next table, there were many types of bread which I was not able to name. Only a kind of brown bread and brioche catered most for my appetite. Mr. Liang said that brown bread was the most famous bread in Russia, sour and sweet. At the end of the first lobby of the dining hall, two small square tables were placed in the corner, on which there was coffee, tea and boiled water. I drank two cups of orange juice and one cup of grape juice every day. Mr. Liang drank much tea and ate many vegetables, as his corners of the mouth were broken due to the dry weather.

(To be continued...)