Perhaps just another little effort to retain talent in China's highly undersupplied and fluid labor market, an automotive and motorcycle supplier in Zhejiang province is now using a "mood board" to make sure every worker is happy.

Zhejiang Zhenan Vehicle Industry Co. Ltd. set up the board in its injection molding shop, where workers post their moods - sunny, cloudy or rainy, according to a recent report from Zhejiang Daily.

General manager Chen Fenlan noted that injection molding of precision parts requires operators' full concentration. "Good moods benefit both the company and the employees."

One employee posted a rainy mood a few days ago, the company said, which prompted the supervisor to investigate and discover that the employee had difficulty paying his child's tuition. The company chipped in with money from an employees' fund.

Those who believe that smaller manufacturers in China pay no attention to psychological health and safety in the workplace are wrong, the company added.

I wonder whether this idea, or something along the line, would help China's largest employer of migrant labor workers Foxconn to solve its worker suicide problem. Foxconn is Apple's main manufacturing partner. Apple recently banned a game by Italian developer Molleindustria that is believed to be a reference to factory suicides related to Foxconn.

A Coca-Cola China executive said last week that the company is interested in setting up R&D for plant-based bottles in Central China, taking advantage of the local agricultural resources.

During a sustainability forum at the Expo Central China 2011, Coca-Cola Greater China vice president Bai Changbo told the audience that the company is developing plant-based bottles and encourages more companies to use agricultural waste to replace some of the current feedstock - such as corn - for bio-based packaging materials.

Considering the high R&D cost at the earlier stages, he was quoted by the Taiyuan Evening News, "If the six central provinces can provide preferential polices and support, we are willing to give it a few tries in this region."

The central six provinces include Shanxi, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Henan and Anhui.

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced last year announced a specific outline to build this region into a base of grain, energy and machinery production, aiming to boost per capita GDP up to 36,000 yuan ($5,295) by 2015.

As China's banks continue to tighten lending, and the gray market for credit -- which takes spare cash from households and businesses and lends to small business at relatively high rates -- stumbles, formal sources of private capital have become highly sought after by entrepreneurs.

At a capital matchmaking event in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, last month, a few plastics-related projects managed to attract investment, according to the Ningbo Evening News. A local angel investor offered 5 million yuan (US$780,000) to fund a LED automotive headlamp project. Two institutions decided to jointly invest a total of 44.5 million yuan (US$7 million) in a project that aims to develop energy-saving control systems and servos for injection machines.

Robot maker Ningbo Well-Lih Robots Technology Co. received 21.5 million yuan (US$3.4 million yuan) of investment from Cybernaut (China) Investment to develop high-speed, high-precision, full-servo robots.

An executive from Cybernaut said he chose Well-Lih not only because industrial robots can replace increasingly expensive labor in China and improve product quality, but also because Well-Lih's existing customers include some large firms.

Well-Lih said it had contacted a handful of investors before the event. Cybernaut stood out with its offerings beyond capital -- value-added services such as business planning and talent management.

Well-Lih revealed ambitious plans at Chinaplas to add three assembly plants across China and triple capacity in the next five years (see our archived coverage). Like many other domestic equipment manufacturers, it's essential for Well-Lih to improve its products, rather than replying solely on capacity expansion for growth.