Ge Jinhong of Yangzi Sheet Metal: Good things will never be unwanted.
Yangzhou, known as the "hometown of sheet metal," is home to many sheet metal production and manufacturing enterprises. The local talent pool in this field is also abundant. Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was established, developed, and strengthened on this land. From a workshop-style enterprise in 1998 to becoming one of the top producers of engineering machinery cabins, Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd.'s annual sales have at least doubled every year. In 2010, its sales reached nearly 5 billion yuan. 5 billion yuan may seem like a small amount for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but for companies producing sheet metal parts, it is already a considerable scale. Currently, domestic brands of excavators have mostly collaborated with Yangzi Sheet Metal. Additionally, many foreign-funded brand OEMs also procure products from Yangzi Sheet Metal. Among them, more than half of the excavators produced by Sany Heavy Machinery are equipped with cabins manufactured by Yangzi Sheet Metal, showcasing its prominent position in the cabin domain. Why has it gained such high market recognition? Recently, I interviewed Ge Jinhong, Chairman of Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd., hoping to uncover the reasons behind their success.
Chairman Ge Jinhong of Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Sany crawler cranes also use cabins made by Yangzi Sheet Metal.
Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yangzi Sheet Metal") was founded in 1998, originally a village-run enterprise. Initially, they produced cabins for the Jiefang brand "Yuejin" trucks and provided mid-sized bus cabins for Yangzi Tourism Bus Factory under Asia New Bus Corporation. Starting from 2000, they targeted the engineering machinery industry and redirected part of their efforts to produce engineering machinery cabins.
At that time, apart from loaders, the domestic engineering machinery market was predominantly dominated by foreign brands, with a relatively small share held by domestic engineering machinery. Very few domestic companies could produce compatible cabins, making cost reduction a significant opportunity for Yangzi Sheet Metal to enter the market. Based on market research, Yangzi Sheet Metal began with loader cabins and also produced some for excavators and tractors. Due to the lack of reputation and experience in engineering machinery cabin manufacturing, OEMs were initially skeptical and observed them. However, after some time of communication and relentless effort, leveraging their previously accumulated technical expertise in the bus sector, their products quickly gained market recognition. Later, as the Chinese engineering machinery market continued to grow and domestic engineering machinery companies advanced, the trend of replacing imports with domestic products became increasingly evident. During this period, Yangzi Sheet Metal continuously adjusted its business strategies, achieving record-breaking production and sales volumes. Subsequently, due to overcapacity in the loader market and the initiation of "price wars," loader cabin manufacturers had to reduce prices alongside OEMs, leading to increasingly chaotic market competition. As a result, companies like Yangzi Sheet Metal gradually exited the loader cabin market and instead focused on cabins for products like excavators, mining vehicles, and crawler cranes, which had higher added value.
The past decade since Yangzi Sheet Metal entered the engineering machinery industry coincides with the rapid development period of China's engineering machinery industry. During this time, numerous products such as loaders, engineering cranes, and concrete machinery have fully realized the replacement of imported products with domestic ones. Domestic excavators accounted for about 30% of the entire excavator market in 2010 and approached 40% this year. Through their relentless efforts and leveraging their previously accumulated technical expertise in the bus sector, their products have achieved high market recognition. They have successively provided components for companies like Sany, Xugong Excavator, Shandong Zhongyou (Shantui Construction Machinery), Luoyang Yituo, and later cooperated with well-known enterprises such as Wodetech, Longgong, Sunward Intelligent Equipment (stock code: 002097), and JCB. Currently, Yangzi Sheet Metal has become a professional manufacturer capable of producing engineering machinery cabins, thin plate parts, excavator counterweights, as well as special cabins for aircraft tugs, mining vehicles, port machinery, etc., while also possessing sheet metal mold development and body manufacturing experience.
Hualing Mining Vehicles
Unveiling the Secrets of Rapid Development: Producing Quality Products is the Key to Survival
Yangzi Sheet Metal’s sales have at least doubled every year, with a growth rate that is astonishingly fast. According to Mr. Ge, they will definitely exceed 5 billion yuan this year and might even reach close to 6 billion yuan in sales. Why have Yangzi Sheet Metal’s products gained customer approval? Mr. Ge provides the following answers.
Firstly, always focusing on product quality. While increasing sales volume, they gradually improved their production processes and equipment, optimized their process structures to enhance quality. Yangzi Sheet Metal was among the first in the industry to pass the ISO9001:2000 quality management system certification and strictly implemented it, adopting information management and 6S management. When discussing Yangzi Sheet Metal's emphasis on product quality, Mr. Ge firmly stated: "Product quality is the foundation of a company's survival; good things will never be unwanted." This statement left a deep impression on the reporter, hence it serves as the title of this article.
Secondly, accurate positioning. Yangzi Sheet Metal's product positioning can be explained from three aspects: Firstly, in product research and design, Yangzi Sheet Metal aims at the most advanced international cabins, absorbs their advantages, and optimizes them according to their own situation, ensuring no infringement while combining with OEM requirements to produce relevant products; Secondly, during the manufacturing process, Yangzi Sheet Metal produces engineering machinery cabins with the requirements of passenger cars, putting a lot of effort into the strength and appearance of the cabins, so their new products are quickly favored by OEMs after entering the market; Thirdly, price positioning, their product prices are moderate, less than half of foreign brands.
Fourthly, Yangzhou is the "hometown of sheet metal," offering a talent advantage. The management team and technical staff of Yangzi Sheet Metal are very familiar with engineering machinery cabins. For the engineering machinery industry, which currently lacks specific cabin standards, Yangzi Sheet Metal's experience in the bus sector gives it a clear advantage. Additionally, boldly employing people is a major feature of Yangzi Sheet Metal. Talent selection and promotion are based on capability, not age or education level. Many of the backbone members of Yangzi Sheet Metal's design team are young people from the "post-80s" generation.
Fifthly, continuously improving products. Whether through customer feedback, after-sales service, or exchanges and learning at various exhibitions or events, using various channels to obtain the latest product information, exploring the development trends of cabins, then analyzing these trends with their professional R&D team, and finally conveying feasible concepts to OEMs. "Only by proactively leading the development of the industry can we remain in the leading position." Mr. Ge said. To date, the cabins produced by Yangzi Sheet Metal have applied for nearly 20 patents.
Engineering Machinery Cabins: No Best, Only Better
When Yangzi Sheet Metal first entered the engineering machinery industry, there was a significant gap between domestic cabins and foreign products in terms of performance and appearance. At that time, domestically, it was mostly manual workshops, and there was no large-scale production through molds. Since foreign production is highly mechanized, their products lead both in appearance and performance. However, after years of effort by everyone, this gap is gradually narrowing. A number of excellent engineering machinery cabin production and manufacturing enterprises have emerged domestically, and Yangzi Sheet Metal is an outstanding representative of domestic cabin manufacturers. Now our domestically produced cabins have a very high degree of automation in production, and the product quality continues to improve. Due to our price advantage, the product's cost-performance ratio is higher, attracting many foreign brand OEMs to choose domestically produced cabins for their equipment.
When discussing the future development trends of the engineering machinery cabin industry, Mr. Ge said: "There is no best, only better! Continuous improvement and innovation must occur during use." Mr. Ge pointed out that the future trends mainly focus on performance, appearance, and safety: the demand for performance is getting higher and higher, domestic products need to basically reach the level of imported brands; the appearance should be simpler and more practical, and rich in personality; safety will be increasingly valued, for example, structural components used to be mainly thin plates, now all use special-shaped steel pipes, providing better protection for the human body.
As one of the main cabin suppliers in the engineering machinery industry, Yangzi Sheet Metal plans to gradually expand its production capacity reserve. It plans to increase production by 20% next year compared to this year, expecting to maintain a 20% annual growth rate during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, reaching 1.2 to 1.5 billion yuan in sales by 2015. Currently, Yangzi Sheet Metal has more than 1,200 employees, with a maximum daily production capacity of 150 units and an annual production capacity exceeding 40,000 units. They now have three factory areas and recently merged with a state-owned fertilizer production company. Their next step is to quickly activate its assets, especially for constructing new factories to expand production capacity. Expanding production capacity during industry adjustments demonstrates Yangzi Sheet Metal's sharp insight and confidence.
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