CIMC Vehicles: Digital Transformation Driven by Intelligence

CIMC Vehicles was founded in Shenzhen in 2002 and invested and established by China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd. After years of operation, it has formed a full range of logistics semi-trailers and various special vehicle product clusters. The business scope is all over the world. At present, it has 25 production bases at home and abroad, and its semi-trailer products are sold in mainstream international markets such as the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as emerging markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South America.

In 1987, Li Guiping joined CIMC Group. In 2002, Li Guiping was instructed to start CIMC's special vehicle business. In the course of entrepreneurship and development from scratch, from weak to strong, CIMC Vehicles has become the fastest-growing leading company of special vehicles in China, and has become the second largest industrial segment of CIMC Group.

Focus on award-winning management practices

As a leader in the global semi-trailer industry, CIMC Vehicles has not only vigorously promoted transformation and upgrading, but also achieved fruitful business results.

Under the general trend of digital transformation, Li Guiping, CEO and President of CIMC Vehicles, put forward the important proposition of "dedicated to building a lighthouse factory and building an agile organization", which is becoming a beacon leading the direction of China's semi-trailer.

At the end of 2014, CIMC Vehicles forward-lookingly proposed the "Lighthouse Factory" project plan, which aims to upgrade the original traditional manufacturing factory into an automated, digital and information-based factory. Subsequently, by establishing an agile organization, it implemented the series of projects of the "Lighthouse Factory" in an efficient and orderly manner.

At present, 4 factories of CIMC Vehicles are being upgraded to lighthouse factories, and 5 factories are under planning. It is understood that the lighthouse factory can replace about 45% of labor, the production efficiency can be increased by about 66%, and the logistics efficiency can be increased by about 90%. In 2017, CIMC Vehicles produced more than 120,000 semi-trailers, ranking first in the world in production and sales for four consecutive years.

Talking to Award-Winning Entrepreneurs

CEConline: When your company decided to implement the management practice of "intelligence-driven digital transformation", how was it doing?

Li Guiping: In the digital age, Chinese manufacturing is moving towards the upgrade of intelligent manufacturing. Opportunities At present, enterprises are also facing challenges - not only to build high technical barriers in the field of hardware, but also to build a team of high-caliber professionals in the field of software, and to cultivate high-end talents with both technology and management in the field of operations.

Under the general trend of "Made in China 2025", many Chinese special-purpose vehicle companies, including CIMC Vehicles, have two major challenges: one is the outdated production line, and the other is outdated organization . Therefore, CIMC Vehicles hopes to build a digital factory that utilizes digital modeling, automated production, and manufacturing execution systems to realize all-round intelligent manufacturing.

CEConline: How does this management practice relate to your company's corporate strategy?

Li Guiping: CIMC Vehicles advocates the business philosophy of "global operation, local wisdom", makes full use of its advantages in management, technology, brand and supply chain, integrates global resources, and achieves large-scale expansion. Committed to building a complete semi-trailer operation system. In the face of digital challenges, we should continue to implement our business philosophy, further promote technological progress, transformation and upgrading, and devote ourselves to the construction of a "lighthouse factory" to build an "agile organization".

"CEConline": As a company leader and decision maker, what methods have you taken to promote the implementation of this management practice? What was your main role in this process?

Li Guiping: CIMC Vehicles mainly promotes digital transformation from the aspects of "production line upgrade and organizational remodeling". In terms of "production line upgrade", the main purpose is to build a modern "lighthouse factory", and CIMC Vehicles has been intelligently upgraded from three aspects: production line, products and ecosystem. In terms of "reshaping the organization", in the face of the shortage of digital talents, it is urgent for enterprises to transform the original talents into the required talents and find the professional talents suitable for the development of the enterprise. To this end, CIMC Vehicles mainly adopts the dual-track mode of "internal training" and "external recruitment". For example, it has established a professional digital manufacturing technical team internally: a technical director's office has been established at the headquarters of CIMC Vehicles, and three major Center - digital model design center, automated production technology center, and digital management technology center.

"CEConline": Up to now, what positive impact has this management practice brought to your company's business development, especially in terms of performance, and what achievements have you achieved? What are your customers/partners saying?

Li Guiping: In 2017, CIMC Vehicles not only achieved fruitful operating results, but also strongly promoted transformation and upgrading. The production and sales volume of CIMC Vehicles' semi-trailers has been ranked first in the world for the 4th time in a row. At the same time, CIMC Vehicles achieved sales revenue of RMB 19.521 billion and net profit of RMB 1.018 billion.

In 2017, we started the construction of "Zumadian Lighthouse Factory" and "Yangzhou Lighthouse Factory". At present, several CIMC vehicles are under planning. Our direction has always been to create value and quality services for customers, and win customer recognition and trust with leading technology products.

"CEConline": What is your company's focus on management optimization and upgrading in the next stage?

Li Guiping: In the next step, under the general trend of "Made in China 2025", 25 companies under CIMC Vehicles plan to fully upgrade to lighthouse factories in the next 3-5 years. It is hoped that by 2025, the lighthouse factory of CIMC Vehicles will be fully implemented, and the digital manufacturing technical team will not only consist of 4 existing teams, but 14 organizations. It is planned to increase the number of professional and technical personnel to 400 or 500 to support our 25 manufacturing companies around the world. enterprise.

"CEConline": In the face of today's market environment, when formulating the development plan of the company in the future, how to choose the management practice suitable for the actual development of the company?

Li Guiping: From the enlightenment of our practice to the industry, I think there are three points: First, the traditional manufacturing industry can be successfully transformed and upgraded; Second, the reproducibility of innovative projects has been further improved. Verification; thirdly, for transformation and upgrading, we must first make preparations for innovation in the organization, reduce the constraints of traditional factors in culture, and work hard in talent cultivation. If you don’t do it solidly, you will rashly invest, and you may spend a lot of money to buy a lesson of failure.

Comments from reviewers

Tian Xinmin

Vice Dean, Antai School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University

The development of China's manufacturing industry, In the past, we mainly relied on the three real elements of labor, capital and land, but this situation has changed in recent years, the demographic dividend is no longer, and the effect of capital is no longer obvious. To make further breakthroughs in China's manufacturing industry, it can no longer rely on the physical factors such as labor, capital, and land, but rely on residual factors such as technological progress, institutional innovation, and structural optimization. CIMC Vehicles is an excellent example of the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing, which is worthy of China Manufacturing Exploratory Learning.

Hu Zuohao

Professor, Department of Marketing, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University

Under the tide of digitalization, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries is an urgent issue faced by many manufacturing enterprises in my country. Focusing on the global semi-trailer industry, CIMC Vehicles has built a replicable intelligent-driven digital factory and an agile organizational system with customer value co-creation as the core, and has achieved the world's largest production and sales volume for four consecutive years. The management practice of CIMC Vehicles can become a benchmark for the transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing enterprises in the digital age.

Wang Sai

Partner of Kotler Consulting China, well-known growth strategy expert

The transformation of large enterprises has many constraints, so it takes a long time to experience "Pain Period". Mr. Li Guiping insightfully pointed out that organizational innovation is the premise of transformation, starting from culture and talents, going deep into the essence of management, and promoting the digital transformation of CIMC Vehicles, which is worthy of reference for all large enterprises that want to implement digital transformation.

Xie Zhaohui

Founder of Zhixue Consulting and Chinese Partner of Balanced Scorecard

The company's global vision and forward-looking layout, with " "Intelligent manufacturing transformation" is the fulcrum, creating a "lighthouse factory" and "agile organization" with both soft and hard drives. The supply chain efficiency brought by digital intelligent manufacturing and the enhancement of global resource integration strength are large-scale expansion and lead the global semi-trailer market. core. It has extensive reference significance for the "smart" transformation of Chinese traditional manufacturing enterprises.

Ye Xiaosong

India Group-Chairman of Xiamen Hill Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd.

Transformation and upgrading have been mentioned in the industry for many years, but the real transformation and upgrading There are not many successes, and CIMC Vehicles has provided us with a good sample of success. As Li Guiping said: CIMC Vehicles mainly promotes digital transformation from the aspects of "production line upgrade and organizational remodeling". Upgrading production lines is the goal and demerit of enterprise transformation, and reshaping the organization is the key. If the organization fails to transform and upgrade, other transformation and upgrades are empty words, but to successfully transform and upgrade the organization, the core lies in the construction of talents and culture.

Zhang Zhenghua

Founder of Best Consulting Group

As a leader in the automotive segment, CIMC Vehicles is also a pioneer in the practice of digital transformation. In the face of changes and impacts in major industries and the economy, "cost reduction and efficiency enhancement" have been fully reflected in CIMC's "Lighthouse Factory". Breaking tradition, copying success, and embracing change have become the most successful driving forces for CIMC Vehicles to achieve digital transformation.

Shuangxi Zeng

Partner of Kellogg Consulting Group

In view of the current demand for special-purpose vehicles, which is characterized by multiple varieties, small batches, and scattered customer groups, CIMC The vehicle has seized the opportunity of China's manufacturing to upgrade to intelligent manufacturing, and took the lead in realizing digital transformation in the field of special vehicles. The team of operation and management talents with both management and management realizes the intelligent manufacturing of "chariots" driven by talents, which greatly improves the production efficiency and economic benefits, which is commendable!

Luo Huan

Founder &Chairman of Shenzhen Shengbang Design Consulting Agency

Digital and intelligent are the only way to upgrade Chinese manufacturing enterprises. In the process of industrial upgrading, CIMC Vehicles prudently does a good job of model projects, and works steadily and steadily. Through "committing to the construction of lighthouse factories and building an agile organization", it runs fast on two legs of talent training and technology upgrade to achieve production line upgrade and organization. Remodeling, it has won the global semi-trailer production and sales champion for four consecutive years, and has become a model for the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry.

Interpretation of Relevant Classic Theories

With the development of emerging technologies, the global economy has entered a period of digital transformation. How to carry out digital transformation is a major issue facing traditional enterprises today.

It is understood that IDC, a world-renowned research organization, has previously conducted a survey on 2,000 CEOs of multinational companies. The results show that by 2018, 67% of the world's top 1,000 companies and China's top 1,000 companies will have 50% will place digital transformation at the core of their business strategy. More and more enterprises are deeply aware that digitization will become a new asset and new resource for enterprises. Especially for manufacturing companies, with the disappearance of demographic dividends and the rising cost of raw materials, companies urgently need to subvert traditional business models and processes in order to boost new economic growth points.

What is digital transformation? Professionals said that for enterprises, successful digital transformation is not only limited to IT technology transformation, the integration of IT technology and business, but also includes the redefinition of all aspects of enterprise organizational activities, processes, business models and employee capabilities.

Under the trend of the general environment, the market competition is extremely fierce, and the needs of users are increasingly personalized. In order to strengthen the competitive advantage of enterprises, improve the operational efficiency of enterprises, provide users with personalized products and services, digital transformation Imperative. According to the analysis in Accenture's report on digital transformation, "Digital transformation cannot be achieved simply by carrying a big data platform. The integration of technology and the company's business transformation, the change of company culture and mentality, the adjustment of organizational structure, the establishment of corresponding systems, etc., All need to have a complete set of solutions to implement the transformation step by step. At the same time, enterprise decision makers should also have a deep understanding of digitalization, so that the entire enterprise can change its thinking and establish a data-driven thinking to meet customer needs as its mission. .”

Accenture believes, “Digital transformation is not a simple technological innovation, but the innovation of corporate philosophy is equally important. Enterprises need to enhance the recognition of digital transformation across the company and establish a The digital way of thinking has transformed from self-sufficiency to open cooperation in shaping competitive advantages.”

As a leader in the global semi-trailer industry, CIMC Vehicles has achieved fruitful results in digital transformation. No matter in terms of production line reform or organizational reform, the transformation of CIMC Vehicles can be regarded as a model for the transformation of traditional Chinese manufacturing enterprises.

CIMC Vehicles is committed to building a lighthouse factory and an agile organization. In the construction of the lighthouse factory, CIMC Vehicles has upgraded the original traditional manufacturing factory to an automated, digitalized and information-based factory; in the construction of an agile organization, it has established a team of highly sophisticated professionals, and has also cultivated technical skills in the field of operation. High-end talents with both management and management skills; a technical director's office has been established in the headquarters of CIMC Vehicles, which consists of three centers - a digital model design center, an automated production technology center, and a digital management technology center. Under the dual transformation of production line and organization, CIMC Vehicles has implemented a series of projects of "Lighthouse Factory", realizing the goal of digital transformation in an efficient and orderly manner.

Picture/ CIMC Vehicles