Ge Jinhong of Yangzi Sheet Metal: Good things will never be unwanted
Yangzhou, known as the "hometown of sheet metal," is home to a large number of sheet metal production and manufacturing enterprises. The local talent pool in this field is also quite abundant. Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was established, developed, and grew strong on this land. From a workshop-style enterprise in 1998 to becoming one of the top producers of engineering machinery cabs, Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd.'s annual sales have at least doubled every year. In 2010, sales reached nearly 5 billion yuan. Although 5 billion yuan may seem like a small amount for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), for companies specializing in sheet metal parts, it is already a considerable scale. Currently, domestic brands of excavators have largely collaborated with Yangzi Sheet Metal, and many foreign-funded brands' OEMs also procure products from Yangzi Sheet Metal. More than half of the excavators produced by Sany Heavy Machinery are equipped with cabs from Yangzi Sheet Metal, showcasing their significant position in the cab sector. Why have they gained such high market recognition? This reporter recently interviewed Ge Jinhong, chairman of Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd., hoping to uncover the reasons behind their success.
Ge Jinhong, Chairman of Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Sany crawler cranes also use cabs from Yangzi Sheet Metal.
Yangzhou Yangzi Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yangzi Sheet Metal") was founded in 1998, originally as a village-run enterprise. Initially, they manufactured cabs for Jiefang brand trucks ("Yuejin") and provided cab components for Yangzi Tourist Vehicles produced by Asia New Bus's mid-sized bus factory. Starting from 2000, they targeted the engineering machinery industry, dedicating part of their efforts to transition into producing cabs for engineering machinery.
At that time, China’s engineering machinery market, aside from loaders, was predominantly dominated by foreign brands. The domestic share of engineering machinery was relatively small, and even fewer domestic companies could produce matching cabs. Domestic brands were eager to reduce costs, providing Yangzi Sheet Metal with an excellent opportunity to enter the market. Based on market research, Yangzi Sheet Metal began with loader cabs and also produced some for excavators and tractors. Due to lack of name recognition and experience in manufacturing engineering machinery cabs, OEMs initially held a skeptical and observational attitude towards them. However, after a period of communication and relentless effort, leveraging the technical expertise accumulated from the bus industry, their products quickly gained market recognition. Later, as China's engineering machinery market continued to grow and develop, domestic engineering machinery enterprises made continuous progress, and the trend of domestic substitutes replacing imports became increasingly evident. During this process, Yangzi Sheet Metal continuously adjusted its business strategies, achieving record-breaking production and sales volumes. Due to overcapacity in the loader market and the outbreak of "price wars," loader cab manufacturers had no choice but to lower prices in tandem with OEMs, leading to increasingly chaotic market competition. As a result, Yangzi Sheet Metal gradually exited the loader cab market and focused instead on cabs for products like excavators, mining vehicles, and crawler cranes, which offered higher added value.
Yangzi Sheet Metal's entry into the engineering machinery industry coincided with a decade of rapid development in China's engineering machinery sector. During this period, numerous products such as loaders, engineering cranes, and concrete machinery achieved complete domestic substitution of imports. By 2010, domestic excavators accounted for about 30% of the entire excavator market, with this year's market share approaching 40%. Through their own relentless efforts and leveraging the technical expertise accumulated in the bus industry, their products gained high market recognition. They have successively supplied products to companies such as Sany, Xuzhou Excavator, Shandong Zhongyou (Shantui Construction Machinery), Luoyang Yituo, and later collaborated with well-known enterprises such as Wacker Neuson, Longgong, Sunward Intelligent Equipment (stock code 002097), and JCB. Currently, Yangzi Sheet Metal has become a professional manufacturer capable of producing engineering machinery cabs, thin plate parts, excavator counterweights, as well as special cabs for aircraft tugs, mining vehicles, port machinery, etc., while also possessing sheet metal mold development and body manufacturing experience.
Hualing Mining Vehicle
Unveiling the Secret of Rapid Development: Making Good Products Is the Way to Survive
Yangzi Sheet Metal's sales have at least doubled each year, with a growth rate that surprises many. Moreover, according to Mr. Ge, sales will definitely exceed 5 billion yuan this year and could reach close to 6 billion yuan. Why have Yangzi Sheet Metal's products received customer approval? Mr. Ge provided the following answers.
Firstly, always emphasizing product quality. While increasing sales volume, they gradually improved production processes and equipment, optimizing the process structure to enhance quality. Yangzi Sheet Metal was the first in the industry to pass the ISO9001:2000 quality management system certification and strictly implement 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 and thus serves as the title of this article.
Secondly, accurate positioning. Yangzi Sheet Metal's product positioning can be explained from three aspects: First, the positioning in product R&D design, where Yangzi Sheet Metal aims for the most advanced cabs internationally, absorbing their strengths and optimizing them based on their situation while ensuring no infringement and combining requirements from OEMs to produce relevant products. Second, positioning during the manufacturing process, where Yangzi Sheet Metal produces engineering machinery cabs with car-like requirements, putting a lot of effort into the strength and appearance of the cabs, allowing their new products to quickly gain favor from OEMs after entering the market. Third, price positioning, where their product prices are moderate, only half or less than those of foreign brands.
Fourthly, Yangzhou is the "hometown of sheet metal" and enjoys a talent advantage. The management team and technical staff of Yangzi Sheet Metal have a thorough understanding of engineering machinery cabs. For the current engineering machinery industry, which lacks specific cab standards, Yangzi Sheet Metal's experience in the bus field gives it a clear advantage. Additionally, bold recruitment is a major feature of Yangzi Sheet Metal. Talent selection and promotion are based on ability, regardless of age or education. Many of the backbone members of Yangzi Sheet Metal's design team are 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, utilizing various channels to obtain the latest product information, exploring the development trends of cabs, then analyzing these trends using their professional R&D team, and finally conveying what they consider feasible concepts to OEMs. "Only by actively leading the development of the industry can we remain in a leading position," Mr. Ge said. To date, Yangzi Sheet Metal's produced cabs have applied for nearly 20 patents.
Engineering Machinery Cab: No Best, Only Better
When Yangzi Sheet Metal first entered the engineering machinery industry, there was a significant gap between domestic cabs and foreign products in terms of performance and appearance. At that time, domestic production was mostly done by manual workshops, without any large-scale production through molds. Due to the high degree of mechanization in foreign product production, their products led in both appearance and performance. However, after years of effort, this gap is gradually narrowing. A batch of excellent engineering machinery cab production and manufacturing enterprises have emerged domestically, and Yangzi Sheet Metal is a representative of domestic cab manufacturers. Now our domestic cab production automation level is also very high, and product quality continues to improve. And due to our price advantage, our product cost-performance ratio is higher, attracting many foreign-brand OEMs to choose domestically produced cabs for their equipment.
When talking about the future development trend of the engineering machinery cab industry, Mr. Ge mentioned: "There is no best, only better! We must continuously improve and innovate during use." Mr. Ge indicated that future trends mainly lie in performance, appearance, and safety: performance requirements are getting higher and higher, domestic products need to basically reach the level of imported brands; appearances should be more simple and practical, and have personality; safety will be increasingly valued, for example, structural components used to be mainly thin plate pieces, now all use irregular steel pipes, which provide better protection for the human body.
As one of the main cab suppliers in the engineering machinery industry, Yangzi Sheet Metal plans to gradually expand its production capacity reserve. It is planned to increase production by another 20% next year compared to this year, aiming to maintain an annual growth rate of 20% during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, reaching sales of 1.2 to 1.5 billion yuan by 2015. Currently, Yangzi Sheet Metal has more than 1200 employees, with a maximum daily production capacity of 150 units, and an annual production capacity exceeding 40,000 units. They currently own three factories and have recently merged with a state-owned enterprise that produces fertilizers. The next step is to strive to activate its assets as soon as possible, especially for constructing new factories to expand production capacity. Expanding production capacity during industry adjustments clearly demonstrates Yangzi Sheet Metal's keen insight and confidence.
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