Gear Industry Twelfth Five-Year: Cracking Dependence on High-end Parts Import

"Reversing the import situation of high-end gear transmissions and their parts and components is an important task in China's gear industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan period."

When saying this, Li Shengzhi, secretary-general of the Gear Professionals Association, said with a firm attitude, "It is necessary to solve common problems in the industry and overcome key problems."

At the recent gear professional annual meeting, he elaborated the outline of the industry's "12th Five-Year Plan" development plan to the China Industry News reporter.

"In the meantime, we must cultivate the sustainable innovation capability of the industry, enhance the overall strength of the industry's international competition, and lay the foundation for us to become a global gear country."

The industry situation is not optimistic. "At the end of 2010, the total demand of the gear market in China will exceed 140 billion yuan at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, more than double the 68.3 billion yuan in 2005, and it can be named as a world-renowned gear manufacturing country." Told reporters.

In recent years, driven by the rapid development of automobiles, wind power, high-speed rail, and infrastructure, the gear industry has shown rapid growth, and industry leading companies have initially developed new product development capabilities.

However, it cannot be avoided that at present, the comprehensive technical level of product quality, product design, process development, manufacturing equipment, and testing and testing in the gear industry in China is only equivalent to that of developed countries in the mid to late 1990s.

On the one hand, the overcapacity of low-end and middle-end products is homogenous, and the vicious competition is homogenized. On the other hand, the capacity of high-end products is insufficient. High-end gear transmissions for automobiles, construction machinery, high-speed railways, coal mining machinery, and large-scale agricultural machinery rely heavily on imports, and import and export The deficit has increased year by year. "Compared with the advanced level in foreign countries, our R & D cycle is 2 to 3 times that of foreign similar products, but its service life is only 30% to 50% of foreign similar products. The situation is rather severe," said Li Shengqi.

"In the next five years, the uncertainties that will constrain the development of the global economy will increase," he said. With the resurrection of trade protectionism, the pressure of RMB appreciation and the risk of export exchange rate increase, the declining consumption levels in developed countries, the “re-industrialization” policy, and the increasing manufacturing competitiveness of neighboring developing countries, export competition will intensify. “The industry must rely on new advantages such as technological advancement, quality improvement, and cost-effectiveness to expand exports while maintaining some of its cost advantages.”

During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China’s gear industry faces historical development opportunities of adjustment and rejuvenation, and changes from strong to strong. Competition in domestic and foreign markets is intensifying, and domestic deep-seated conflicts will inevitably affect the progress of the industry. “But the basic forces that promote the innovation and development of technological progress in the industry are irreversible. The entire industry will achieve stable growth with an average annual growth rate of around 10% in the process of transformation and upgrading,” Li Shengqi told reporters.

As a result, the industry has established a development strategy of “Catch-up in learning and transcendence in innovation”. "We must open up our learning, integrate global resources, and shorten the gap with developed countries; win-win cooperation, surpass our own innovation, master the core technology of the industry, and transfer to the high end of the industrial value chain."

To lock in five development goals: “One of them is to break through and master the core technologies in the field of sustainable development and improve front-end R&D capabilities and high-end manufacturing capabilities.” For the industry's five development goals, Li Shengqi gave detailed explanations to reporters one by one.

This includes the autonomy of self-branded auto transmissions, the autonomy of the 200-km speed trains and 5 MW wind gear transmissions; the autonomy rate of major equipment spare parts reached 85%, and the autonomy rate of major equipment key spare parts reached 70%. The industry's average R&D investment accounted for 1.2% of sales revenue, and the new product output value increased to 35% of the total industrial output value.

Second, we must optimize the industrial structure and enhance the overall competitiveness of the industry. Cultivate 3-5 domestically-owned, internationally-oriented, internationally competitive multinational corporations and world-renowned brands; construct 5 gear manufacturing bases with annual sales of over 5 billion yuan; create 2 annual sales of more than 200 100 million yuan in industrial clusters; 20 specialized, sophisticated, and specialized parts and components manufacturing companies participating in the international division of labor; on this basis, the industrial concentration is increased by 10%.

Third, change the mode of growth, improve product quality, and transfer to the high end of the industrial value chain. "The utilization of raw materials will increase by 5% to 10% during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, and the energy consumption per unit of added value will be reduced by 15%. At the same time, the quality level of gear transmissions for major equipment will meet the requirements of the host and the quality of the backbone enterprises in the industry. The level must reach the international advanced level of similar products. In addition, the proportion of sales of modern service industry increased by 15%, said Li Shengqi.

Fourth, the industrial scale and market share have steadily increased. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the average annual growth rate will reach about 10%; the domestic market share will increase to 85%; in 2015, the domestic industry's total sales volume will reach 220 billion yuan and the export value will reach 30 billion yuan.

Fifth, build an industry innovation system and build a team of three talents. To establish an industrial technology center, two national engineering laboratories, three engineering technology centers, five product testing centers, and eight state-certified enterprise technology centers. Li Shengqi said that at the same time, it is necessary to achieve 95% or more of the top management of senior management in key enterprises, more than 60% of the training level of middle managers, 10% of the training master of engineering, and transfer to the industry during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. 500 high-quality modern professional and technical workers.

Focus on the implementation of the six major projects "On the basis of the five major projects, now adds a quality improvement project." Li Shengqi told this reporter.

The so-called “five major projects” refer to the product breakthrough projects, industrial structure adjustment projects, platform construction projects, standardization projects, and technological transformation projects that the industry will focus on during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period.

After increasing the project, Li Shengqi explained that after years of quality education and fierce market competition, the overall quality level of industry products has increased in recent years, and the physical quality of some products of some companies has reached the international advanced level. “But overall, we have existed in terms of product life, stability, reliability, consistency and assembly product noise, leak tightness, early failure rate, and first average failure work time (mileage), compared with similar foreign products. With a large gap, the situation is not optimistic."

"We must understand the special urgency and importance of improving product quality while standing at a new historical high point," he cautioned. In today's global market competition, quality is both a technical management issue and a political and economic issue. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, it is of great significance to enhance industry product quality in an all-round way, to enhance the competitiveness of the industry and enterprises in the international and domestic markets, to increase market share, to change the mode of economic growth, and to achieve industrial upgrading.

Li Shengqi believes that with the unremitting efforts of 5 to 10 years, excellent companies with high market share and good reputation will certainly be able to create world-famous brands. To this end, the entire industry should focus its efforts on the following aspects.

First, we continued to conduct in-depth comprehensive, full-staff, and full-process quality management advocacy and education and training focusing on user needs, and extensively launched QC group activities, relying on the standardization of employee quality behaviors, improving employee operating skills, and giving full play to the stability of employees' subjective initiative. product quality.

Secondly, focusing on product quality issues, we have targeted technological transformation and personnel training, and improved product quality through technological advancement, technological breakthroughs, and all-round innovation.

Second, establish and improve the quality management system, combined with the actual situation of enterprises, and vigorously promote the "high performance model", "lean production management", "Six Sigma management" and other international advanced management techniques and methods, using modern quality management ideas and tools to improve product quality.

In addition, establish the concept of winning quality, establish brand awareness of all employees, establish a global awareness of competition, and build a distinctive corporate quality culture. "The highest level of competition is the competition between entrepreneurial thinking and corporate culture," said Li Sheng-chi.