Economic Observer reporter Chong AngOn December 11, 2023, more than 400 well-known auto parts manufacturers at home and abroad, including Bosch Power, Woodward, BASF, and MAHLE, gathered in Haikou, an important fulcrum city of the "Belt and Road". What attracted them was the Weichai Power Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weichai Power") Global ** Chain Strategic Partner Conference.
In the past 25 years, Weichai has sold more than 11 million enginesToday, the annual sales volume has reached 1 million units, ranking first in the world, accounting for 10% of the global multi-cylinder diesel engine adaptation market and 30% of the Chinese market. Weichai's global procurement quota is as high as more than 40 billion yuan per year.
The top businessmen from all over the world are eager to know how this procurement quota will be divided in the future and how much cake they will get ......
On the same day, Tan Xuguang, chairman and general manager of Shandong Heavy Industry Group and chairman of Weichai Power, gave a first-class chain reform plan - to reshape the first-chain chain with chain innovation and build the world's largest power industry cluster with first-class businessmen.
Reshaping the global ** chain
Perhaps it is because he has been in the cyclical industry of heavy trucks for a long time, and in Tan Xuguang's heart, crisis and prosperity always alternately appear and transform into each other. In 2022, the heavy truck industry suffered the "worst year in history";Now that the market has bottomed out, the industry has rebounded significantly. Tan Xuguang attaches great importance to the security of the ** chain and wants to launch a new change in the prosperity period of the industry.
Since the beginning of this year, the performance of the entire Shandong Heavy Industry Group has set a historical record - the annual sales revenue is expected to increase by 32% year-on-yearThe industrial added value is expected to increase by 31% year-on-year;Export revenues are expected to increase by 57% year-on-year;Engine sales are expected to increase by 29% year-on-year.
Tan Xuguang specifically asked Li Jianwen, general manager of Weichai Power's ** chain management center, to emphasize the need to ensure the safety of ** chain, especially overseas ** chain.
Li Jianwen explained that Weichai Power and even Shandong Heavy Industry Group are implementing a global development strategy, especially this year's export revenue has increased significantly. With the increasingly complex and severe international political and economic situation, and with the increasingly rapid overseas development momentum of enterprises, the security of the global ** chain has become more prominent.
From January to September 2023, Shandong Heavy Industry Group's product export revenue increased by 66% year-on-year, hitting a record high. Among them, heavy trucks account for 67% of China's total exportsThe export of buses, excavators, loaders and other products has maintained a growth rate of more than 50%.
Tan Xuguang said that the dual circulation strategy has released a strong new momentum for development and has become an important engine to support the high-quality development of enterprises this year. But this also strengthened Tan Xuguang's determination to reshape the ** chain.
At present, Weichai Power has more than 800 leading merchants, including more than 600 domestic and more than 200 overseas. According to the plan, Weichai Power is planning to build a double-chain system to achieve "two-legged walking". These include the domestic ** chain and the overseas ** chain system with Europe as the core.
How to build this new **chain system?Tan Xuguang said that in the face of the new characteristics and trends of the global industrial chain, as a "chain master" enterprise, Weichai Power will take technology research and development as a cooperation link, link up with the world's leading businessmen, jointly build a "research and development community", share research and development results, and jointly build the world's largest power industry cluster.
Explore chain innovation
Over the years, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Shandong Heavy Industry Group, led by Tan Xuguang, has brought together many enterprises such as Weichai Power, Fast, China National Heavy Duty Truck, Shaanxi Automobile Heavy Truck, Weichai Lovol, Shantui Co., Ltd., KION Forklift Truck, Linde Hydraulics, Ferretti Italy, etc., covering different business areas such as engines, core components, and downstream OEMs. This gives Tan Xuguang's upcoming chain innovation an extraordinary depth of space.
Li Jianwen said that Weichai Power has begun to try to bring together upstream businessmen, intermediate power plants, downstream OEMs and related supporting enterprises into one platform, open up the R&D system, create a "R&D community", give full play to the industrial synergy advantages of the "chain master", and completely open up every link of the industrial chain. Weichai also plans to establish a joint venture company with individual business partners on the technological achievements of chain innovation to jointly invest in the construction of factories and achieve closer cooperation.
In the past, Weichai and the first business also carried out joint research and development, but this was only when the technology was close to maturity and started one or two years in advanceIn the future, the jointly built "R&D community" will carry out forward-looking R&D and technical reserves for uncertain technologies three to five years in advance, or even earlier.
This also puts forward a higher threshold for the best businessmen to be selected. According to Weichai's calculations, the annual R&D investment accounts for no less than 6% of sales revenue, and only the top business with positive R&D capabilities can meet Weichai's basic standards. For the outstanding businessmen who meet this condition and promote technological progress, Weichai will increase the purchase quota for them in the future.
Tianrun Industrial Technology Co., Ltd. was originally a small factory specializing in the production of crankshafts and connecting rods, and has developed into the world's second largest heavy-duty crankshaft and the world's largest connecting rod manufacturer through 30 years of cooperation with Weichai. Xu Chengfei, general manager of the company, said that chain innovation is a new challenge for all leading businessmen. However, he believes that in the new energy era, automotive technology is constantly updated, and it is increasingly difficult for a parts company to keep up with the changes of the times and industry if it is like in the past. Following the "chain master" enterprise and its global development strategy to create an innovation community is also a new way of development for parts and components enterprises.
Guo Jianjun, sales director of Bosch Powertrain in Germany, said that when one party's solution is not mature enough in the market, it may require a large amount of investment in the early stage. Chain development can concentrate their own superior resources and undertake their own specialized work, which helps to quickly bring mature products to the market. He revealed that at present, Bosch has signed a cooperation agreement with Weichai Power on chain research and development.
Wang Decheng, CEO and general manager of Weichai Power, pointed out that in the future, the direction of chain innovation between Weichai Power and leading merchants is to build a value chain, not low-quality and low-price competition. Value creation will be explored in two dimensions: function and cost. For example, by greatly optimizing product functionality while increasing product costs slightly;Or eliminate excess functionality while significantly reducing production costs.
On December 11, 2023, Tan Xuguang was selected into the "2023 25 Influential Enterprise Leaders List". On the same day, in front of hundreds of global leaders, he said that in the face of fierce market competition and complex and changeable environment, the global first-class chain partners have worked together to change the competitive pattern of the global power industry in the cooperation with Weichai Power. In the future, the two sides will jointly explore a new model of global first-class chain cooperation and build the first-class chain into a "win-win chain" for high-quality development.