"Year-end summary: First, in response to the country's call for industry 40 upgrade, the company introduced the MES system to achieve production data management; The second is to update the equipment list, and introduce 29 sets of high-precision five-axis equipment, 7 sets of precision three-axis equipment, and 3 sets of three-coordinate measuring instruments......On the last day of 2023, 36-year-old Zhang Peixiong recorded in the circle of friends, "Everyone is still working overtime today, and my gray hair is not dyed." ”
As the general manager of Shenzhen Zhihuimei Technology Co., Ltd., Dongguan Zhihui Precision Technology Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as "Zhihuimei" and "Zhihui Precision"), Zhang Peixiong's high-intensity work is behind the transformation and upgrading of the company, ushering in the tuyere period of precision manufacturing localization after more than 6 years of transformation and upgrading, and obtaining orders from head customers "olive branch", since its inception, the annual turnover has maintained a growth of 100%, and Zhihuimei was rated as a "high-tech enterprise" in November last year.
Zhang Peixiong said in an interview with a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News that he is still young and energetic, "not to mention that we want to make a money-making factory, but we must make the factory valuable."
"Second entrepreneurship" from service to manufacturing
Zhang Peixiong, who has a science and engineering background and CNC programming technology, once served as a department head in a foreign-funded enterprise, with an annual salary of nearly 500,000 yuan, which can be called the "ceiling" treatment of existing workers. But in 2017, he noticed that there was a serious shortage of professional and technical personnel in the high-end manufacturing industry in the market, which made him ignite the enthusiasm of "doing technology alone", and after resigning, he and two friends raised 100,000 yuan of start-up capital to set up Zhihuimei in Shenzhen, specializing in providing training services for five-axis CAM software programming applications and practices, and cultivating five-axis programming technical talents for various production enterprises.
What is "Five Axes"? For the birth of a part or mold, three-axis is the most traditional processing method, the cutting tool moves along the up and down, left and right, front and back directions, but the table position is fixed, and only one surface can be processed at a time. In contrast, the precision five-axis can realize multi-sided machining in one clamping, which can not only produce parts with complex structures, such as impellers, scalpels, etc., but also improve processing efficiency while ensuring the overall dimensional accuracy of the product.
Gradually, the domestic market has higher and higher requirements for precision manufacturing, and the demand for five-axis machining is growing geometrically. Zhang Peixiong recalled, "It wasn't until 2018 that the first domestic five-axis machine tool arrived at the company, and we finally started real manufacturing production!" After that, it was out of control, and in 2019, 7 new precision five-axis equipment were added. ”
The problem of switching from service to manufacturing came that the original production site could not accommodate more manufacturing equipment, but the rent of expanding the factory in Shenzhen was quite high. At this time, they set their sights on Chang'an, Dongguan, where the land cost is relatively low, and established Zhihui Precision in the local area, which is a workshop for mass production, mold design and manufacturing of five-axis precision parts.
Walking into the production workshop of Dongguan Zhihui Precision, a "big block" covering an area of about 20 square meters came into view. According to the directive, high-end five-axis equipment is processing aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, high-temperature alloys, stainless steel and other parts at high speeds. In the finished product display area, molds of different shapes and sizes are displayed in turn, with clear edges and corners and bright surfaces.
Zhang Peixiong introduced that the company's products cover aerospace, new energy vehicles, high-end medical equipment and other industries. "For example, we have worked with scientific research teams such as Tsinghua University to transform minimally invasive surgical robots from design drawings into physical objects. In the process of project implementation, for the parts that are difficult to achieve, through the coordination of material selection, part processing verification, precision measurement, finished product assembly and testing, etc., the scientific research results will finally fall from the 'paper' to the 'ground'. In addition, it cooperates with domestic leading mobile phone companies to participate in the front-end of product research and development, and has shortened the cycle of high-end folding screen smartphone projects after many production verifications. ”
All the money earned is invested in the equipment.
Automobile engine block mold inserts, drone propeller injection molds, facial massager parts molds, polymer resin braces, femoral ankle prostheses ......At present, the business territory of Zhihui Mei and Zhihui Precision has covered the ground running, flying in the sky, and even for the human body, and the annual turnover has increased by 100% since its establishment, including orders from well-known companies such as Honor Mobile Phone and Tesla.
However, all the money we make goes into the equipment. Zhang Peixiong told reporters that at present, there are more than 30 sets of equipment such as precision five-axis machine tools, precision three-coordinate measuring instruments and precision spectrometers in Shenzhen and Dongguan, with a total value of nearly 60 million yuan, of which the lowest cost is nearly 1 million yuan, and the best imported equipment is worth more than 4 million yuan.
In the nearly two years from 2021 to 2023, we have invested more than 20 million yuan in the purchase of equipment. Friends in the same industry always joke that we buy equipment like clothes. But this is what we have to do, and now the requirements of the entire manufacturing industry are increasing year by year, and equipment upgrades are a must. And every year the customer's demands are updated, not only to do supporting research and development, but also to require small batch trial production, in the past we only need to do one or two sets of mold products, but now it may take about 20 sets, the equipment is not enough, there is no productivity. He explained.
Zhang Peixiong's "art master is bold" is also reflected in the construction of digital factories. At the beginning of 2023, he hired a professional team to customize a set of MES system for the company to realize the intelligent management of equipment, personnel and production processes. Nowadays, on the monitoring board in the production workshop, office, conference room and other places, the total output and task volume of the current shift, and even the specific data of each machine tool, utilization rate, operation rate, pass rate and other data are clear at a glance. In particular, he mentioned that digital factories are mostly used in mass production, and there are only a handful of people like them who do supporting R&D and small-batch customization.
These seemingly aggressive measures actually bring a lot of pressure. Zhang Peixiong said frankly, "All of my cash flow is put into the purchase of equipment, and it is basically purchased through a leasing company, and the interest cost is very high, like a snowball; And because our factory is rented from a 'second-hand landlord', the cost of water, electricity and rent is higher than normal. If the customer does not return the payment in time, the financial burden is overwhelming, and I sometimes can't sleep at night. ”
The scarcity of technical talents also gave him a headache, "many fresh undergraduate students are reluctant to take root in the workshop, and we basically can't recruit young people with high educational levels."
But for him, the biggest pressure is "fear of being eliminated" - China's industrial level has upgraded too quickly, and if we only seek comfort and do not work hard and do not change, we can only wait to be eliminated by the industry. We are still young, let's not talk about making a money-making factory, but we must make the factory valuable! ”
Seize the tuyere of precision manufacturing localization.
365 days a year, maybe 360 days in the factory" "Every day from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., at the latest two or three a.m. home" "Sometimes during the New Year's holiday, employees have returned to their hometowns, and I have to work overtime to meet the deadline" ......
Talking about such a "high-intensity" work routine, Zhang Peixiong unconsciously sighed. "My mother said that she hadn't seen me for a long time, because everyone at home was asleep when she went back, but she still left me food on the table every night, whether I ate it or not, every time I saw it, my heart was very warm. In addition, the two of us basically have no time to take care of the company, so the children are boarding at the school, and they may come to the factory to play with me on weekends. ”
Whether it's as a son or a father, to be honest, I feel very indebted in my heart. "What is it that keeps him going? Zhang Peixiong said, "We are all enthusiastic about the manufacturing industry, we are still young, and the thought of doing things is very energetic, like playing chicken blood." What's more, the country is vigorously promoting industrial upgrading, and I am full of confidence in the domestic precision manufacturing industry. ”
In his view, in the past, the scarcity of domestic high-precision equipment, the weak localization of the supporting industrial chain, and the dependence on imports of a large number of key components have restricted the development of private small, medium and micro enterprises in precision manufacturing. The turning point occurred around 2020, when the import chain was blocked to a certain extent, resulting in the extension of the procurement and processing cycle of precision parts, and some high-end customers began to transfer orders to domestic enterprises.
When the opportunity comes, we must seize it tightly, and even those who come will not refuse. In order to gain the trust of new customers, at that time, we were providing them with precision parts and mold processing at a high cost, and (hopefully) let them see that domestic companies can also respond to demand and produce high-quality products. He said that the delivery of orders on time and quality has gradually won the trust of customers in the localization of precision manufacturing, and he finally gave them the new project with confidence.
On December 29, 2023, the Economic Work Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee held in Guangzhou once again released a signal, emphasizing the need to adhere to the real economy-oriented and manufacturing industry, vigorously promote new industrialization, promote the mutual promotion of industry and science and technology, accelerate the construction of a whole-process innovation ecological chain, promote the transformation of more scientific and technological achievements in Guangdong Province, accelerate the cultivation of emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, and vigorously develop new quality productivity.
The promotion of industrial manufacturing upgrading by the policy also makes Zhang Peixiong determined to go further on the road of this industry. "The small goal in 2024 is to expand the equipment list and business volume, so that the intelligent management of the factory can be further improved. When it comes to 2025, I'll go out and have a look and look for new market expansion points. I look forward to the day when Zhihui Mei and Zhihui Precision can stand at the forefront of the field of precision five-axis manufacturing. ”
Text reporter Huang Yinglin.
Figure |Reporter Pan Liang Yan Jincheng