How product innovation "Internet +"

"I am a handicraft maker. This industry has developed with the help of China's cheap labor, but now China's labor advantage is gradually lost. I feel that this industry has become a sunset industry. What should we do?" An entrepreneur from Xiamen expressed concern at the series of forums on "Wisdom · Wins Future Exports" held by "CEConline".

Indeed, after contacting many export-oriented manufacturing enterprises, we found that many of them are engaged in traditional Enterprises in the industry are facing the dilemma of the "sunset" of the industry. Many people are struggling to support, but they can't find a new direction. How to make new ideas for traditional products? How to catch up with the most popular "Industry 4.0", The express train of concepts such as "Internet +"? These issues have become the topics that entrepreneurs are most concerned about.

"Internet +", traditional products can also play flowers.

From Xiamen Zhu Guoxiang, general manager of Sunshine Rain Gear Co., Ltd., successfully made the umbrella, a traditional product, in his mind. "This fully automatic retractable umbrella is our original creation. "Zhu Guoxiang proudly took out his latest invention - a new umbrella equipped with a lithium battery, which can be automatically retracted and can be used as a power bank. "We brought this umbrella to the Global Sources Hong Kong Exhibition, and we passed our booth at the exhibition. They were all attracted, and they sold all the umbrellas they brought on the spot! "Zhu Guoxiang said.

According to his introduction, the research and development of this umbrella took a lot of effort, but after it came out, the price was very high, and he was very optimistic about the market prospects.

This is undoubtedly a good example of the traditional enterprise "Internet +". There is another case, a company that makes women's luggage, she added the GPS positioning function to the traditional leather bag, and connected it with the mobile phone APP to realize the security protection Lost. This product innovation has seized the pain point and has also received a good response from the market.

It can be said that "Internet +" is the Internetization of products at the product level. Smart home, smart health, smart security, cloud, bluetooth 4.0, etc. are all growth points full of imagination. Some people may say that this is incompatible with my products, but in fact this is the time to test the ability of product innovation. Some people It is possible to combine these new technologies with traditional products, and make people's eyes shine. Those who do business must not rest on their laurels and avoid new technologies and new trends.

In fact, many customers of Global Sources Among them, many people have successfully embraced and transformed Internet companies, and in turn integrated traditional products and enterprises. For example, a company that used to provide hardware such as telephones for telecom operators decided to transform after smelling the tide of the Internet and smart hardware. The independent research and development of smart watches and smart blood glucose meters with functions such as positioning and health has achieved great success. Its brand has become the first in the market segment, and at the same time, it has received high financing and is ready to go public.

To sum up his success, that is to reengineer the functions of traditional products such as watches and blood glucose meters, seize the pain points of users, and add functions such as positioning, security, and Internet to realize the Internetization of products.

Personalization Under the trend, "Internet +" should also be supported by "Industry 4.0"

"The increasingly obvious trend is personalization, and now consumers are pursuing products with strong uniqueness. Coupled with online purchasing trends such as e-commerce, the speed of operation is accelerated and the life cycle of each product is shortened. ” said Pei Kewei, President of Global Sources Corporate Affairs and Publisher of CEConline.

This trend of personalization not only requires companies to be more attentive in product development, but also requires companies to be more attentive in manufacturing, Informatization and other aspects are coordinated, otherwise the final product cannot be made and everything is equal to zero. To adapt to this trend, it is necessary to intelligentize and informatize the manufacturing industry, or “Industry 4.0” in a broad sense.

“ Since we are the industry leader, we used to push a product to customers after production. But now the needs of customers are becoming more and more diverse and more personalized, and the MOQ (minimum order quantity) has been declining. Now there may be hundreds, one or two thousand orders a day. "The world's largest ribbon manufacturer, Yao Ming, chairman of Xiamen Yaoming Ribbon Co., Ltd., said, "So if there is no information management, it is difficult to manage. Now the entire production system is gradually adapting through the implementation of ERP, MES and other systems. ”

Lu Shiying, a well-known manufacturing consulting expert, also pointed out that in the current environment with prominent personalized needs, it is necessary to cooperate with new technologies in order to successfully reduce the MOQ of products and help products improve. Internetization.

"For example, in the production of a toilet seat, the most important step in the production process is the injection molding machine, which usually takes half an hour to change the mold, which determines that the MOQ cannot be too low, because different The cost of changing molds for model products is too high. "Lu Shiying explained," But an Italian company in Shanghai, improved the process, through the pre-heating of the mold, so that the mold change time was reduced to 5 minutes. This allows the MOQ to be greatly reduced. ”

It is foreseeable that the future will be redefined by new technologies and new concepts such as the Internet, Internet of Things, intelligence, wearables, and cloud. Therefore, the "Internet +" of product innovation will also be the general trend. Entrepreneurs who are traditional enterprises do not have to be hesitant, follow this line of thinking, and they will find new inspiration. On the other hand, embracing the new trend of manufacturing and transforming traditional manufacturing through informatization and intelligence also help products. An important foundation for innovation.