Master-apprentice inheritance, the oldest ingenuity relay. As old as it gets, there is an iron rule of comparable belief in Moutai: quality above all else. Few companies can turn the harsh product awareness into a strong consensus covering the whole group, and in Moutai, which has more than 40,000 brewers, this is a "community of ingenuity" handed down from the ancient handicraft workshop. Chongyang is here again, and this majestic "ingenuity community" is opening a new round of precise operation at a new starting point, and its fragrance is lovely.
The years that have come from the 39-man roster have not changed.
Chongyang, Moutai Liquor Festival, a solemn apprenticeship ceremony was held, and 5 masters from the wine-making, koji-making, hooking and storage systems accepted the apprenticeship posts and apprenticeship wine from 5 apprentices respectively. The master presented tokens to the apprentices, and exercised the ritual of "adding a ruler to the body" - a knock on the head, a clear mind, quality first;Second, knock on the shoulder, bravely shoulder the heavy burden, and inherit the craft;Three knocks, physical and mental demonstration, both virtue and art.
Prior to this, Wang Gang, the chief blender of Moutai, together with Peng Chao and Ren Jinsu, the chief brewers, and Peng Jing, the first taster, solemnly presented the aged Moutai to the ancestors as a tribute to the ancestors.
Ren Jinsu's 17th apprentice, Mu Zhen, stood in the crowd and saw the back of **, and couldn't help but recall the scene when he apprenticed two years ago.
5 major construction methods, 30 processes, 165 process links, 5 years, in a grain of sorghum, quenching a drop of spirits.
Mu Zhen feels that she is also a sorghum.
12 days ago, the 2024 Annual Production and Quality Conference, an annual conference of Moutai Group to take stock of the harvest and commend the advanced, was held at the headquarters of Moutai, where thousands of craftsmen gathered together to welcome their own "New Year" with a solemn ceremony of collective commitment and oath.
Moutai has stood at the "altitude" of achieving 100 billion yuan of revenue in the first three quarters, following a number of top honors in the global spirits list such as revenue brand value, market value, and single product revenue, and has launched a challenge to a new height in the heart.
Without ingenuity as a solid foundation, Moutai's footsteps cannot be so solid.
Today, a bottle of Moutai is about 8,100 people involved from feeding to delivery.
In fact, this number continues to increase as the process improves.
Corresponding to the complicated wine-making process, in recent years, the qualified rate of Moutai's base liquor storage has continued to approach 100%, and the utilization rate of base liquor and the qualified rate of blending have also been continuously improved.
Mu Zhen in the crowd remembered Zhang Yuanyong, who died on October 14. At the age of 89, the last of the first batch of 39 employees at the beginning of Moutai's establishment waved goodbye to Moutai, who had devoted his life to his life.
Zhang Yuanyong, who was born in the late spring of 1934, witnessed the industrial miracle of Moutai from an old workshop to a global spirits brand in 72 years. And the list of 39 people has become Moutai's most precious ingenuity memory.
Mu Zhen felt that he could become one of the many inheritors of the old man Zhang Yuanyong, which was something to be proud of.
Master and apprentice are the eternal ingenuity inherited by Moutai.
From the 39 employees of the state-owned factory to the more than 40,000 brewers today, Moutai's "belief in ingenuity" has always been as solid as a rock.
Moutai Group's 2023 Quality Work Report shows that in 2023, Moutai Group's quality management level will be significantly improved, its quality assurance capabilities will continue to be enhanced, and its product quality will remain high-quality and stable.
The 2023 annual production work report of the joint-stock company also shows that the production in 2023 will achieve high quality and stable quantity, and the goals and tasks set at the beginning of the year have been successfully completed.
Seeking into the depths of time, you can grasp the entity of this faith more truly. On October 16, at the beginning of Moutai's 2024 annual production, the first liquor making workshop where Moutai Zhiyuan is located is also the realistic filming location of Xunfeng's digital world, as the carrying place of Moutai's liquor culture with the longest history and the deepest spiritual and cultural heritage, it has officially returned to the team and reproduced the production scene after being discontinued in 2003 and changed to a landmark building for tourists to visit and protect cultural relics.
If you carefully read the latest edition of the history of Moutai Group, and replay the development process of Moutai over the past 70 years through those small historical fragments, any observer will praise the insistence on quality of this spirits company that has gradually expanded in the depths of the mountains
In 1957, Moutai Distillery fully restored the traditional operation mode of Moutai and drafted the draft of the Moutai Standard for the first time. This year, the annual output of Moutai increased by nearly 4 times compared with the establishment of the new factory, and it was also the best year for product quality since the establishment of Moutai.
In the 80s of the last century, Moutai conformed to the development of the times and introduced a foreign quality management team model, so that grassroots employees could get in touch with new tools for quality control, and the concept of quality control blossomed everywhere internally, and Moutai's quality management entered the era of "active management". In 1989, the sales of Moutai Distillery exceeded 100 million yuan for the first time.
In the 90s of the last century, China's liquor industry ushered in a new round of growth, and the business philosophy of many enterprises turned to scale first and efficiency first. Ji Keliangli, the director of the factory at that time, overrode public opinion, and successively put forward the concept of "four obedience principles" and "quality-centered" for quality, and insisted on quality first when there were different opinions.
Entering the new millennium, Moutai has stepped into a broader track. In 2001, Kweichow Moutai was successfully listed, and in this year, Kweichow Moutai was approved as a "national product of origin protection", marking that the quality of Moutai was more widely recognized. Two years later, the annual output of Moutai exceeded 10,000 tons for the first time, and Moutai also won the "National Quality Award" for the first time.
Under the stable pattern of output, the pace of quality improvement has not been delayed at all, from micro exploration to intelligent production, it has accumulated into a spectacular modern ingenuity system in the context of modernization.
A modern script with deep ingenuity.
Faith is built on institutions.
In 2017, Moutai launched the chief quality officer system to implement special responsibility and special personnel to perform the quality work of liquor subsidiaries, so as to promote the steady implementation of Moutai's quality control and the continuous improvement of the quality level of subsidiaries. On January 22, 2021, Moutai implemented the quality officer stationing system. This is an extension and upgrade of Moutai's chief quality officer system, releasing a strong signal that Moutai continues to extend the connotation of quality.
In 2021, at the 2022 Annual Production Quality Conference, Moutai's senior management proposed to adhere to the "quality is the soul of life", establish the "five craftsmen" quality concept of "always maintaining quality ingenuity, building a solid quality craftsman's soul, refining quality craftsmanship, refining quality craftsmanship, and forging quality craftsmen", accelerate the construction and improvement of the "365" quality management system, and jointly open a new chapter of Moutai's high-quality and strong industry from the two paths of concept and practice.
Commended Moutai craftsmen.
Among them, the practical measures include the implementation of the quality officer stationing system, the establishment of quality specialists, and the establishment of a "matrix" quality control network of subsidiaries. The establishment of this series of jobs has formed a complete quality responsibility decomposition system, and realized the top-level design and special management of production quality work.
In terms of scientific production quality management, Moutai follows the PDCA closed-loop management of "plan-execution-check-ACT", continuously improves the "4Q" three-dimensional quality control system of quality planning, quality control, quality improvement and quality foundation, implements the quality control of the whole process, all scenarios and all employees, and continuously improves the management level. Moutai has been able to truly build a good quality ecology of full quality co-governance, global quality coordination, and full life cycle quality control.
After two years of exploration from practice to experience to theory, Moutai once again gave a new connotation to the "five craftsmen" quality concept: always maintain ingenuity and strengthen the quality belief of all employees;Build a solid craftsman soul and strengthen global quality control;Practice craftsmanship and consolidate the five major construction methods of Moutai;Refined craftsmanship to create output Moutai standards;Forging craftsmen and building a highland of industry talents.
What is 'ingenuity', we should look for the answer from the history of Moutai. "The ancestors who lived in Chishui River very early were called Pu people, and they have the reputation of "Pu people are good at brewing" since ancient times. In the view of Ding Xiongjun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Moutai Group, the most essential form of Moutai people's "ingenuity" is derived from and embodied in the word "Pu".
The 'three points of water' on the left side represents the Chishui River, and the word 'human' in the middle symbolizes the unity of heaven and man.
1. Heaven and man brew together, the word "industry" in the upper right is family business, career, which can also be understood as dedication and refinement, and the word "beauty" in the lower right represents Moutai to "beauty" as the company's development philosophy, so we must take beauty as the direction and walk towards beauty. Ding Xiongjun dismantled the word "Pu" and vividly explained the origin of Moutai's "ingenuity" in the way of speaking and interpreting the words.
Ingenuity is a matter of thought. The soul of the craftsman is a matter of path. Craftsmanship is a matter of method. Craftsmanship is a matter of ability. Craftsmen are a matter of talent. Ding Xiongjun interprets Moutai's "five craftsmen" in this way.
If it is said that the "oral teaching" and "mentoring and apprenticeship" in the past were the realistic choices of many Moutai brewers in the middle of the last century due to their low cultural level, today's Moutai master-apprentice inheritance is the most dynamic ingenuity factor in the production quality management scientific system of "the whole group army coordinated operations".
The "eight-step craftsman talent training mechanism", including mentoring and apprenticeship, has become the core component of human resource generation in Moutai's "Five Craftsmen Quality Concept". Mu Zhen admits that she has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and as long as she steps on the song three times around the song embryo, she will step on the song well, and she always likes to step on the song that has been stepped on more. If it weren't for Ren Jinsu, Mu Zhen might not have been able to change this problem by now.
Ren Jinsu used his mobile phone again and again to record the process of Mu Zhen stepping on the song, and played it back to her, pointing out which movements were redundant.
Mu Zhen also told reporters that when she used to talk to strangers, she was nervous and even stuttered as soon as she spoke, and ** Ren Jinsu always called the apprentices to her home for dinner on holidays, so that the new and old apprentices could know each other, communicate, and learn from each other's strengths. After two years of mentoring and apprenticeship, Mu Zhen was reborn, and she was able to talk eloquently in front of the reporter's camera, sunny and confident.
Gong Shixiong was admitted to Moutai in 2018 and became a member of Deng Wei's workshop team.
As a worker in a sake brewery, you must get up early every day. Early in the morning, the workshop started in full swing before dawn. In the past night, the fermented rice was either piled up in the drying hall or sleeping in the cellar, and at this moment it was shoveled and ......retorted by Gong Shixiong
Moutai Town is surrounded by mountains, but its own altitude is only about 400 meters, and the high temperature and high humidity weather in low latitudes is fully displayed here. A threshold in the workshop is the dividing line between "hot" and "very hot", and water seems to be squeezed out of the air.
The inheritance of traditional skills gives this ancient liquor brand the confidence to embrace the world.
Deng Wei generally does not accept apprentices casually, and new employees have to go through about two years of running-in in the workshop before they can have the conditions for apprenticeship. In the past two years, Deng Wei took a fancy to Gong Shixiong's sincerity, steadfastness and hard work.
In 2020, Gong Shixiong officially became Deng Wei's third apprentice.
Deng Wei has a "Xi" that has adhered to for more than 20 years, that is, to record data with a pen, because of the special geographical conditions of Moutai Town, key data points, climate, temperature, air humidity, etc. are not static, only a large number of records, comparisons, summaries can obtain appropriate use data.
The "secret" of 20 years of precipitation, Deng Wei taught him.
Ingenuity is Moutai's confidence to embrace the world.
With the continuous improvement of quality control, Moutai's brand value has continued to break through the ceiling in recent years, and its position among global liquor brands has risen one after another, complementing Moutai's international expansion.
In 2016, Moutai was listed in the "Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the World", ranking 93rd with a brand value of nearly US$10.5 billion, ranking first among Chinese liquor brands. In the overseas market, Moutai's revenue this year was in the early 2 billion yuan, which is just emerging.
In 2017, Moutai ranked 64th in the "2017 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the World", with a significant increase of 48% in brand value to US$17 billion, ranking second among the top 100 in terms of growth. This year, the number of foreign distributors of Kweichow Moutai exceeded 100, and its market value surpassed that of the international spirits giant Diageo for the first time, and the popularity of the Moutai brand abroad accelerated.
Entering the challenging year of 2020, Moutai's brand value has risen instead of falling, entering the top 20 of the "Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the World" for the first time, ranking 18th with a brand value of 53.8 billion US dollars, and the brand value has increased by 58%, ranking first in the world.
In 2021, Moutai became more and more courageous, rising to 11th place in the "Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the World", and its brand value exceeded the 100 billion US dollar mark for the first time, with a growth of 103% in just one year. This year, Kweichow Moutai's revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time.
In May 2021, the Ministry of Commerce issued a document stating that the Agreement on the Protection and Cooperation of Geographical Indications between the People's Republic of China and the European Union officially came into effect, and the first batch of 100 well-known geographical indication products recognized by the European Union in China were announced, and Kweichow Moutai was selected as a representative of the liquor industry.
In 2022, Moutai will continue to remain in the top 15 of the "Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the World" with a brand value of nearly US$103.4 billion, proving the resilience of the brand. This year, Kweichow Moutai greatly expanded its international business, and its annual overseas sales revenue exceeded 4 billion yuan, a significant increase of 60%, hitting a new high. On international platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, Moutai's overseas marketing activities are also popular.
2023 is the year of Moutai's internationalization strategy, and Moutai continues to actively carry out overseas travel activities in many countries. A series of popular innovations such as i Moutai, Moutai Ice Cream, Xunfeng Digital World, Sauce Latte, and Mao Xiaoling Liquor Heart Chocolate are also continuing to boost Moutai's brand value.
Quality is Moutai's greatest persuasiveness, and it has also become Moutai's core competitiveness to impress the world.
From the colorful Moutai brand communication site, back to the Moutai workshop, the new round of production season, the newly ripened red tassel glutinous sorghum is properly crushed and poured into the boiling Chishui River water, and then enters the wine retort, steamed to seven maturity, and then spread to cool down, mixed with koji powder, and begins to fermentEvery month or so of fermentation, it is necessary to enter the distiller, distill the liquor, and the mission is completed after seven rounds of circulation. During this period, it seems simple, but it is not simple, and the temperature and koji powder are not well controlled, which will affect the quality of the wine. When retorting, the temperature of cooked grain or dregs should be around 100 degrees Celsius. Moutai's brewers shuttle between the rising steam, use shovels and rakes to quickly spread out the steaming grains, and when the temperature drops to about 30 degrees Celsius, which is suitable for microbial survival and metabolism, they begin to splash koji powder, stir and mix well, and then gather the grains into small hills. Every time you control the retort with precision, countless details need to rely on your senses and rich experience to grasp the quality of the wine.
On September 24th, the first "Moutai Cup" China Liquor Body Design Competition was held in Moutai, with more than 150 players from 67 liquor companies from 22 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country learning from each other. Among them, the top 15 sauce flavor types are all covered by Moutai Group.
The first test is just a test and summary of my past learning Xi and work results, which does not mean that I am better than anyone else in wine design, and I can rest easy, only by Xi constantly learning and improving can I maintain the best competitive state. I would like to thank the company for the careful training of me, the teacher Chen Liangyan for the careful guidance of me, and the colleagues for their encouragement and help. I will continue to work hard to do better. On the day of the competition, Ge Banggui, the blender of the liquor design center of Moutai Co., Ltd., who won the first place in the sauce fragrance group, was interviewed by **, and he was a little nervous because he was not good at words.
The persistence and inheritance of skills have made Moutai as always solid.
Interestingly, the apprentices Ge Banggui and ** Chen Liangyan are both "post-80s", in this competition, Ge Banggui won the champion, and Chen Liangyan won the sixth place. The apprentice is blue, and Chen Liangyan is happier than he won the first place.
In 2016, the pair of "post-80s" who were only two years apart became masters and apprentices.
Every time he hooked the wine, Ge Banggui always carefully observed on the sidelines, and gradually increased from 10 base wines to 20, 30, 40, and 50 ...... each time he tasted wineSlowly, I became more familiar with the stylistic characteristics of the base wine.
Be detailed, not in a hurry, and there will be problems in a hurry. This is the most valuable thing I learned from Mr. Chen. Ge Banggui said.
Another award-winning "post-80s" Ye Caihu is an on-the-job graduate student with many Xi titles such as Guizhou Provincial Liquor Evaluation Committee, Brewing Engineer, and National First-Class Wine Taster.
The apprenticeship was in 2020, but in fact, Mr. Wang Gang has been my teacher since the day I stepped into the Moutai blending room in 2016. Ye Caihu said.
In Moutai, Wang Gang, who has just passed the year of the Mandate of Heaven, is a master-level figure, the chief blender of Moutai, and one of the four chiefs of Moutai craftsmen.
Wang Gang's ** is his father Wang Daoyuan.
When guiding us to hook wine, we always go back and forth, and often have to blend it one or twenty times to meet the requirements. Ye Caihu described ** strictly.
When the competition started, Wang Gang didn't go to the competition site because of work, but when the news of Ye Caihu's third place reached his ears for the first time, Wang Gang couldn't help it, put down the work in his hand, and arrived at the award ceremony after a while, grabbed Ye Caihu, and patted the apprentice's shoulder with his big hand ......
One brewer after another, it is precisely in this way that the brewing is made.
On the journey of aiming for the global spirits brand palace, Moutai has always taken a solid pace, and in the face of the eternal proposition of quality, Moutai will always surpass only Moutai itself.
*Wine & Spirits Globe magazine.
Guizhou ** Tianyan News reporter Li Xun, Shen Shiwei, Liu Xianyu.
Visual Editor: Chen Sibei.
Edited by Chen Du.
Second instance Chen Sibei.
Zhou Qing of the third trial.