Fengrun: Survive by quality

"The market competition environment is like a balance beam. Enterprises must not only maintain a balance on the balance beam, but also learn to do some somersaults." Lu Hang, chairman of Dongguan Fengrun Computer Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fengrun"), talked about When it comes to product quality, such a vivid metaphor has been made for us. Lu Hang believes that the width of the balance beam is the bottom line of product quality. If you step out of this safety range, the company is destined to "wrestle".

Adhering to the business philosophy of "survive by quality" with the goal of "zero defect", Fengrun, founded by Lu Hang, not only runs steadily, but also drives the progress of the entire industry with continuous innovation.

Introduction to Quality Management

When Lu Hang was a teenager, he visited his work unit with his father, which gave him the initial understanding of enterprise management - "There is no such thing as excellent quality. Products, enterprises can only have a dead end.” Chongqing Radio Testing Instrument Factory, a state-owned enterprise with advanced technology, can be said to be a veritable high-tech enterprise at that time.

In 1985, after graduating, Lu Hang followed in the footsteps of his father and came to work in this unit. His father was the chief engineer of the unit at that time. At that time, Chongqing Radio Testing Instrument Factory had a number of cooperations with Japan's Sanyo. In a certain project, Huaqiang Sanyo had equipment worth about 3 million yuan in need of maintenance. It was proposed that two Chinese engineers would be required to work in Huaqiang Sanyo for three years to complete all the work. maintenance work. However, the two engineers dispatched by the Chongqing Radio Test Instrument Factory completed the project in just over two months. This incident also ignited the boundless confidence and expectation of Chinese manufacturing and Chinese scientific research in the heart of the young Lu Hang at the time, and also strengthened his determination to become a Chinese entrepreneur who devotes himself to product innovation and improvement in the future.

Lu Hang, who is smart and has strong hands-on ability, was not so "smooth sailing" when he first joined the job. Once, Lu Hang needed to learn a certain test method to understand how to detect product problems. However, the master who was eager to take over the class gave Lu Hang only one hour of study time and left in a hurry. Lu Hang said that at that time, there were many Japanese colleagues in the unit, and they were regarded as technical "big cows". The test method that Lu Hang needed to learn had been studied by the colleagues for three years under the guidance of the Japanese. months long. In desperation, Lu Hang could only study on his own with his own knowledge and hands-on ability. No one expected that he could understand the operation principle of this test method in only three days.

The young and vigorous Lu Hang was very proud of this. Unexpectedly, he offended the workshop director at that time, so his father asked Lu Hang to go to the branch factory in Shenzhen at that time to "avoid trouble". Lu Hang, who originally only planned to settle temporarily in Shenzhen, stayed in Shenzhen for a year. This year, from workshop management, quality management, dry to production management, Lu Hang has mastered the entire enterprise management process with its strong learning ability. , also paved the way for him to start a business a few years later.

Quality and Speed

"An important trait for entrepreneurs is to recognize their own abilities and do what they are good at." Faced with an important fork in the road, it is difficult to choose a monitor or a mouse in the entrepreneurial field. The cool-headed Lu Hang quickly made an objective analysis, considering the current situation of technology and capital, he chose to enter the entrepreneurial field of mouse and keyboard.

In 2000, Luhang began to build its own brand, and with efficient manufacturing technology, the brand has always been at the forefront of the industry. Lu Hang, who has always looked at the development of the enterprise from a global perspective, judged that the development dimension of the enterprise is definitely not limited to China, but should go to the whole world. As a result, brands such as "Red Dragon" quickly entered the overseas market, but this also put forward higher requirements for product quality. Amazon's overseas business experience shows that if any product has a defective rate of more than 5%, the product is basically facing the fate of being recalled or "thrown into the Pacific Ocean", and such a batch of products is completely scrapped. Even though the products of the Red Dragon brand have the highest price among similar products, they have always maintained the first place in sales among similar products in overseas Amazon, which is the result of the brand's reputation for quality.

The high-quality products are still not satisfied with Lu Hang, and he also pursues "fast and good". In the Internet era, especially in the IT-related industries, all links from research and development, production to sales are very fast. However, while ensuring speed, the principle of pursuing quality cannot be abandoned. The same product, put into the market one month earlier and one month later, will have two different results. "This is the same as occupying a high ground in a war. A favorable position is the guarantee of winning the battle."

Lu Hang mentioned that the reason why China's high-speed rail has won the attention of the world is because the high-speed rail made in China runs fast and well, otherwise the consequences of a little quality problem will be fatal . "Fast and good" is the "personality" of Made in China, and it is the belief that every practitioner should uphold. It is precisely because of this speed and quality that Chinese factories have a place in the world. In the current manufacturing industry, excellent products no longer rely on low cost to compete, but rely on the entire industry chain to compete, relying on the speed of research and development to compete, which is why Luhang has always pursued the goal of "zero defect". The reason for the business model of enterprise management is to ensure the quality, in order to seek speed.

Innovation or improvement, only for "zero defect"

On the basis of ensuring quality, continuous product innovation or improvement in pursuit of "zero defect" in customer experience, which is It is also a "magic weapon" for Fengrun to maintain its industry-leading level.

Lu Hang is still very excited about the innovation that has the most impact on the industry in the keyboard field. The mechanical "shaft" in mechanical keyboards was originally invented by the Germans and has been used in mechanical keyboards for nearly three decades. The largest market for mechanical keyboards in China is the countless Internet cafes. However, as we all know, the use environment of Internet cafes in various places is poor. Dust, water stains, food residues and even soot can erode the keyboard and shorten its service life. Although the mechanical shaft in the keyboard seems to have no gaps, smoke and dust can still enter, so based on this situation, it is urgent to improve the mechanical keyboard to adapt to the local Chinese environment.

Lu Hang found that the mechanical keyboard produced by the company had just been sold for a few months, and there was feedback from the market that foreign objects had entered the mechanical shaft, resulting in a "key stuck" situation when the keyboard was used. So Luhang found two suppliers to discuss the solution. One of the cooperative companies was very willing to improve the product, but lacked the direction to solve it. Therefore, Lu Hang discovered a very simple and straightforward solution. He believed that when the dust entered the inside of the mechanical shaft, it could not be solved by "blocking". Grooming. Although it cannot be confirmed 100% by technical means that dust will not enter the interior of the keyboard, it can divert the dust to a position where it is not easy for the mechanical shaft to fail. There are several grooves to let the dust fall into the grooves, to avoid the accumulation of dust on the flat surface and cause the keyboard failure, so as to prolong the service life of the product. This kind of improvement has brought the product design of the industry to a new level. "Any problem has a key, and finding the key can solve the problem quickly." Lu Hang said with a smile that any product problem can be solved through technical means, as long as you find the right direction .

In addition, Lu Hang is also the pioneer of waterproof mechanical keyboard. At first, he designed several openings under the keyboard, hoping to change the problem of the keyboard being soaked in water. However, shortly after the product entered the market, the feedback came that the keyboard used in the Internet cafe was severely corroded. So, Lu Hang immediately led the design colleagues to do the experiment, poured the water directly on the keyboard, but found that the water could not flow out at all. In this case, Lu Hang immediately enlarged the opening and carried out the test until the water could flow out smoothly. until.

But new problems follow. Water is a relatively pure liquid, and it is not uncommon for various beverages to stain keyboards in Internet cafes. Unlike water, drinks such as cola are viscous and corrosive, so Lu Hang thought of a way to isolate various liquids from corroding the keyboard by brushing waterproof paint on the keyboard. After that, Fengrun's products all over the world are designed and produced according to such standards, and such high standards are the reason why its products have achieved extremely low defect rates. To this day, Fengrun still seeks feedback from time to time by placing its products in the harshest environments, so as to continuously innovate or improve products.

"variable" zero-defect management

"'Zero-defect' management is a variable." Lu Hang's sentence made everyone's eyes shine, how to understand "variable" What does it mean? Lu Hang explained that according to different market requirements and feedback, the way of enterprise management is different, and the meaning of "zero defect" has changed. Generally speaking, the management method of enterprises starts from design, inspection, process and production. For example, when carrying out industrial design, for different target markets, the design principles will also be different - for high-end markets or like In such a special environment as Internet cafes, the design concepts of these two target markets are different. Therefore, when designing and evaluating a product, the subsequent use of the product should be taken into consideration. There is no fixed standard for zero defects. Its significance lies in the fact that today's market situation and environment have changed, so yesterday's standard should be eliminated. "Fengrun always regards the most complex and difficult situations as the standard, and always requires its own products with the most stringent standards."

According to the changes in the market, "feedback" the design, and then solve the problem from the process and material. The manufacturing of Chinese automobiles has also experienced such problems. China's heavy-duty automobiles cannot be measured by the load capacity. In many practical situations, the amount of heavy-duty materials such as ore and wood is loaded as much as possible, and the overload is not doubled at all. , doubled to calculate, and the German heavy-duty trucks came to China to transport timber, and they were on the verge of scrapping a few days later. This situation was brought about by the real market environment. China's heavy-duty trucks have such a high quality assurance, precisely because it is a product born in this environment.

Low quality will make the product lose its original value, resulting in low profit of the product, and enterprises with insufficient profit cannot invest more financial resources in a new round of product development, innovation and quality management, Thus creating a vicious circle. Luhang has mentioned many times that quality is the foundation of an enterprise's development. Only high-quality products can bring value and room for improvement to the enterprise, as well as market and benefits, which will bring more R&D and innovation funds, and promote the development of the enterprise to rejuvenate. On the contrary, it is a dead end. At present, China's manufacturing industry has entered a new stage of development, and many small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises are facing transformation and upgrading, but no matter what kind of "new proposition" they face, the pursuit of the quality management concept with the goal of "zero defect" remains unchanged. main melody".

Picture/ Army Aviation