Haier: "Everyone Makes Their Own" Is Not a Dream

Haier, which has officially transformed into the Internet since 2012, has now pushed customization to a new milestone. In March of this year, Haier users who lived in Zhengzhou received "personal exclusive" air conditioners customized through the Internet. This air conditioner has a WiFi module, formaldehyde removal function, and cartoon patterns are printed on the panel. It only took five days from placing an order to picking up the goods, and users can receive SMS reminders at every link from production scheduling, material preparation to panel installation.

From mass customization to exclusive customization

CEConline: At present, what step has Haier achieved in customization?

Haier: Users can freely choose the color, style, performance and structure of the air conditioner according to their personal preferences to customize the exclusive air conditioner. After the order is submitted, the order information is transmitted to the factory in real time, and the intelligent manufacturing system automatically schedules production, and automatically transmits the information to each process production line and all module suppliers and logistics providers. Haier's production line can be compatible with different modules for simultaneous production. Users can obtain the production status of the entire order in real time through the mobile terminal.

At present, Zhengzhou Interconnected Factory has realized user interaction visualization, order visualization and 10 key capability nodes of the interconnected factory. The process of customizing products is all in the user's palm. Users can come up with their own ideas and participate in designing and defining products.

At present, Haier has built Industry 4.0 demonstration factories in four major industries, including refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and water heaters. In addition to these demonstration factories, Haier will also replicate in the global supply chain system. The purpose is to achieve A user can customize his products at any time, anywhere in the world through his mobile terminal, and the connected factory can sense and meet his needs at any time.

Taking Shenyang Refrigerator Interconnected Factory as an example, it can currently support flexible mass customization of 500 models on 9 platforms, reduce staffing by 57%, increase single-line production capacity by 80%, and increase output per unit area by 100% , the order delivery cycle is reduced from 15 days to 7 days, which quickly meets the personalized experience of users.

CEConline: Haier Custom Factory has three modes: module customization, crowd-creation customization, and exclusive customization. What is the difference between them? What are the different requirements for the supply chain and the back-office between these three models?

Haier: Module customization, which is transformed into competitive modules based on the needs of users. The user can freely combine the personalized products he needs to truly realize the user's on-demand customization. Module customization and product selection are different. Users can mix and match desired functions at will, and users make their own decisions.

Crowd-creation customization requires the participation of users. A user proposes an idea, and other users can interact with him. Everyone will continue to iterate on this idea. After a certain amount is finally formed, the interconnected factory can produce in real time, realizing the user's design and manufacturing.

Exclusive customization is completely personalized and unique to the user. For example, if the user wants to print the photo on the cover of the washing machine, it can also be achieved through 3D printing technology, which ultimately meets the user's best experience.

In order to support the implementation of the customized mode, our process has also been subverted, from serial to real-time parallel. Concatenation is the ERP process of traditional enterprises, that is, the traditional supply chain. From development to service, each process node is connected in series, which is closed, and information transmission is very slow, making it difficult to quickly respond to user needs. Now all our nodes are transferred to the needs of users, and the information of users can reach all aspects of the whole process at the same time, including all resources on the platform, design resources, logistics resources, etc., through the transformation of this process to truly achieve rapid response to user needs .

CEConline: How does Haier transform traditional standardized assembly lines into modular ones? What chain reactions will the modularization bring?

Haier: For niche products with small batches and many personalized needs, use flexible custom lines—high flexibility; for one-to-one customized products for users, use unit custom lines—high flexibility personalise. Focusing on user demand trends, constant modules are highly generalized, and variable modules are highly personalized.

Modularity is a prerequisite for our realization and user customization and interconnected factories. Haier's modular advancement is divided into four steps: first is the modularization in form, from parts to modules, then from modules to general, and then to the iteration of modules to realize the platformization of products. For example, Tianzun air conditioner has changed from 265 parts to 12 modules, and the time-to-market for new products is reduced by half; the uniform cooling refrigerator, which originally required 354 parts to develop new products, is now integrated into 23 modules, saving 30% of the time-to-market. Costs are reduced by 18% and processing man-hours are reduced by 40%.

Build an ecosystem around users

CEConline: How does Haier connect the supply chain, manufacturing, logistics and distribution systems with the client?

Haier: Interconnection is to achieve zero distance with users, which is reflected in three major interconnections: internal and external interconnection, virtual-real interconnection, and information interconnection. Haier has built the integration of five major information systems (PLM, ERP, iMES, iWMS, SCADA) with iMES as the core. Through the interconnection of the five systems, it can realize from user needs, creative interaction to users' customized orders, distribution, delivery and installation, and user experience. The whole process is interconnected and interconnected to realize the management and visualization of the whole process of users and products.

Interconnection between front-end and users: Build a "Zhongchuanghui" platform to realize user interaction, barrier-free access to resources, and interconnection of back-end interconnected factories.

Interconnection with module suppliers: Build a "Hidayuan" platform to provide suppliers with a zero-distance platform for online registration and direct access to user needs, and can directly interact with users to create modular solutions. Module providers can realize self-registration, self-order grabbing, self-interaction, self-transaction, self-delivery and self-optimization on the platform. The entire process of module vendor registration, response to demand, program selection results, and evaluation results will be publicly announced on the platform. The main body of the assessment module business is no longer the enterprise, but the user.

Interconnection with design resources: build a HOPE platform, interact with global partners for innovative needs, and seek excellent solutions. Through open innovation, the self-interaction of demand and resources on the platform is realized, and the rapid transformation and incubation of innovative projects is realized; through the benefit sharing mechanism, the interests of all resources and users on the platform are maximized.

CEConline: In the future, with the support of the Internet, big data and other technologies, the manufacturing industry will gradually move towards the service era. What is Haier's vision for this?

Haier: The Internet has moved from consumer Internet applications to industrial Internet. Haier believes that in the future, the Internet will promote the deep integration of users and enterprises, enterprises and enterprises, intelligent society and intelligent life in the form of intelligent services. Thereby promoting the Internet into the "experience the Internet" stage. Relying on the leading practice of connected factories, Haier is building an experiential Internet platform based on cloud architecture - Explatform. The platform builds a service and transaction channel between users and resource parties. In addition to Haier's own use, it can also be opened to other user experience-oriented enterprises, providing them with solutions that "enable users to obtain the best experience". In terms of function, it can realize cooperation and transaction management, product life cycle management, machine equipment management, big data modeling optimization, software self-improvement and upgrade management, etc.