The Factory： Organizational Culture,Organizational Structure,in the Small to Medium Size 21st Century Chinese Factory

China is the ＂factory to the world＂, but little is known outside of China about the small to medium size （SMS） Chinese factory. This ignorance can cause considerable misunderstanding, particularly among Western buyers of goods made in China. The Chinese factory originated in the 18th century and changed as China itself has changed. Still, the Chinese factory is different from factories that emerged in the 18th century Europe and the 19th century America, during their respective ＂industrial revolution＂ periods. This paper is a qualitative analysis of the SMS Chinese factory more than a decade into the 21st century, across industries, across regions, based on the author＇s participant observation in the course of 14 research trips to China lasting a total of two years across a 10-year time period. China has the most efficient SMS factories in the world, although many are working significantly below capacity. New Chinese factories are state-of-the-art, clean, healthful, safe, and able to deliver orders substantially on targeted schedule. Quality Control （QC） can be erratic and passed on to the buyer. On balance, strengths far exceed weaknesses, and opportunities outweigh threats, even as Taiwanese investments begin to be withdrawn from mainland China.