Timken's Wisdom Concerto

"China's entire manufacturing industry should be viewed in the global market, not if it can survive in China." Yu Lan said to "CEConline".

At present, the manufacturing industry is facing many new pressures. The sluggish market demand and severe overcapacity will be huge challenges for the global manufacturing industry. In order to promote the transformation and upgrading of the domestic manufacturing industry, China put forward the strategic plan of "Made in China 2025" last year, and various detailed measures have been announced this year. The curtain of a manufacturing transformation has been slowly opened in China.

Against this background, in March of this year, Timken USA welcomed its first local president of China. There is no doubt that this is the fact that Timken has paid more attention to localization. an embodiment of. "This is not only a recognition of me personally, but also recognition of the entire Chinese team. The Chinese market must have local personnel to contact in order to establish a deeper cooperative relationship." Yu Lan, the new president of China, told "CEConline" "Analyzed.

The R&D, manufacturing and sales of global high-end bearings are basically monopolized by the four major bearing giants, SKF of Sweden, Schaeffler of Germany, Ensk of Japan and Timken of the United States mentioned above. Bearing is known as the "heart" component of equipment manufacturing. It is an important and key basic component in equipment manufacturing, which directly determines the performance, quality and reliability of major equipment and host products.

In Yu Lan's view, today's manufacturing industry in China is constantly putting forward higher requirements for product performance and is constantly moving towards internationalization, which is exactly where Timken comes in. Of course, they also face challenges. On the one hand, nothing can be accomplished overnight, and China's goal of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse will also be a gradual process. On the other hand, after the financial crisis, reducing costs while improving quality has become the top priority for all companies, and this task is still critical to corporate development.

Produce the products that customers need

“Whether it is a foreign company or a lot of successful companies in China, if you analyze it carefully, you will find that they will spare no effort in innovation.” Yu Lan told "CEConline".

The establishment of Timken in 1899 was based on the patent of the tapered roller bearing obtained by founder Henry Timken. This bearing can withstand both axial and radial forces and is a major innovation in anti-wear bearings. After more than a century of development, Timken, which has always pursued innovation, has gradually completed the transformation from a product manufacturer to a solution provider and a technology-based company.

In "Made in China 2025", the first problem to be solved is that institutional innovation is not strong. The first of the five major projects is to build a national manufacturing innovation center project, and innovation-driven is also mentioned in the basic policy. .

In Yu Lan's view, if domestic enterprises want to make a difference in innovation, they should form strategic partnerships with giant companies in the industry. This is a process of mutual cooperation and support, and it is a domestic One of the ways of rapid development of enterprises. On the other hand, you can rely on the customers you serve, such as General Electric, Alstom and other large enterprises. These industry giants have put forward high requirements for product innovation or the speed of new product development, which can help enterprises in The road of innovation goes further and further, leaving other domestic enterprises behind.

"From the product itself, you must have a leading position. In addition to 'high-tech', there are also issues such as enterprise cost control and customer acceptance of the product," Yu Lan said. "The Timken Company launched a multi-year DeltaX program in 2014 to accelerate the growth of the bearing business, which mainly includes three aspects: one is to expand the product range and accelerate the development of new applications; the other is to enhance and expand best-in-class collaboration The third is to increase global market penetration. It is somewhat similar to the concept of China's supply-side reform, which is to produce products that customers need based on customer needs."

Timken The pursuit of innovation and high-quality positioning of products make its related products and services almost ubiquitous, and its service targets include energy, aviation, railways, metallurgy, mining, cement, machine tools and railways and many other industrial industries. His shadow can be found on land, sea and space. In the aerospace industry, for example, Timken has provided critical bearing solutions for NASA's Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers. 95% of the world's civil aircraft landing gear wheels are equipped with Timken's tapered roller bearings. In addition, more than 700 systems of domestic jet airliners use Timken® bearings.

Yu Lan pointed out that Chinese enterprises must focus on research and development, "Why your company can survive in the market, first of all, you must know what value your customers can get from buying products from you, and put this into practice. Only when you are clear can you have a real and effective communication with your customers. At the same time, you must have the ability to form a strategic partnership with foreign-funded enterprises, so as to improve your innovation ability and understanding of international marketing models.”

However, the overall economic downturn in China has also brought many challenges to Timken, and they are also faced with innovations such as business models and personnel training. In the future market competition, it may not only be about product research and development. A new product may not necessarily subvert the entire market. There will be competition in many aspects, such as business model innovation, which has been compared by many companies in China. Well, Timken is also actively innovating to meet the development trend of the Chinese market. "Whether it is a profit model or a sales model, something new is needed to win this market." Yu Lan said.

At present, countries such as the United States and Israel pay more attention to the innovation dividend brought by advanced manufacturing, while the traditional manufacturing industry in Germany, France and Japan has a larger proportion, and the national innovation mechanism and actual situation do not allow leapfrog Therefore, the latter group of countries is more concerned with the competitive advantage brought by continuous improvement. Yu Lan told "CEConline", "As a company, you have to cater to and embrace changes in the environment, otherwise you will eventually lead yourself to a path that goes against you."

Intelligent manufacturing is to give Provide customers with high value-added services

The Timken Company has entered the Chinese market for more than 20 years since 1992. It has not only established a strong business team in China, but also invested in the construction of world-class production facilities. Or a manufacturing base with service capabilities, relying on strong global strength to serve China's metallurgy, energy, cement and mining and other important industries that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Timken has established 5 large-scale manufacturing bases, 1 training center and multiple logistics, engineering technology and value-added industrial service centers in China to fully meet the needs of global customers, especially Chinese customers.

"Timken regards China as a local market, and brings high-quality resources such as production capacity and technical capabilities to China. In addition to providing basic technical support, we also hope to cultivate advanced technology in China. Ability to develop." Yu Lan said. For a foreign-funded enterprise to become a local company, firstly, it must have its own technical capabilities; secondly, it must have its own management talents; thirdly, it must have its own manufacturing capabilities.

Talking about the development of China's manufacturing industry, Yu Lan believes that the introduction and implementation of "Made in China 2025" will undoubtedly provide a good opportunity for China's manufacturing industry to realize the transformation and upgrading of "manufacturing - intelligent manufacturing - quality manufacturing". strategic path. "Timken has also been actively involved in this wave of transformation. Many of our factories in China have adopted automation technology, such as robots on the production line of the Wuxi factory." In his view, automated production is indeed Efficiency improvement and personnel saving can be achieved to a large extent, but more importantly, automated production can standardize the manufacturing process and improve the stability of product quality.

He pointed out that automation is mainly to solve a company's demand for capacity expansion, not necessarily to replace existing manpower. This is an overall development idea for Timken. Automation allows production capacity to be increased on the original basis. Secondly, from the perspective of the consistency of the product itself, it can do better than the original, and cause smaller errors than the original. Effectively improving the consistency is one of the main directions of Timken.

Intelligent manufacturing has been given the important task of reshaping new competitive advantages for China's manufacturing industry. During the World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference in December 2016, the Chinese government announced the "Intelligent Manufacturing Development Plan (2016-2020)" ", intelligent manufacturing was also regarded as the main direction of China's entry into a manufacturing power in the "Made in China 2025" plan released last year.

"However, intelligent manufacturing is not just about industrialization and automation. Intelligent manufacturing is to provide customers with high value-added services." In Yu Lan's view, enterprises still need to follow the changing needs of customers To produce its own products, otherwise the production of products is a waste, which is crucial for every enterprise, whether it is innovation or transformation, otherwise it will be eliminated by the market.

The introduction of a series of national strategic action programs such as "Made in China 2025" has strongly promoted the rising development of China's manufacturing industry, and gradually narrowed the gap with developed countries such as Europe and the United States. "For China, we believe that it is necessary to make efforts in both innovative advanced manufacturing and continuous improvement of traditional manufacturing, give full play to its comparative advantages, carry out international cooperation, and form a benign interactive industrial ecological environment." Yu Lan said.

My Dream of Made in China

"CEConline": What do you think of the future of China's manufacturing industry?

Yu Lan: I am still very confident in China's manufacturing industry. China's manufacturing industry will definitely take the lead in the world in the future. At present, I have also seen many Chinese enterprises going abroad. The proportion of the share is also increasing; in addition, China has invested a lot in the entire manufacturing industry. The introduction of a series of national strategic action programs such as "Made in China 2025" has effectively promoted the rise and development of China's manufacturing industry, and gradually It has narrowed the gap with developed countries such as Europe and the United States. The country is also continuing to carry out macroeconomic control. With the completion of the overcapacity reduction tasks, China's economy will gradually stabilize and maintain a sustainable and stable growth. There is no doubt that China's manufacturing industry has great potential for development.

CEConline: What will your company look like 10 years from now?

Yu Lan: Timken hopes that 10 years from now, China's business will account for 20% of the global market. This is a quantitative concept. From the perspective of positioning, we hope that Timken will contribute to the transformation of China's manufacturing industry, and at the same time, further expand Timken's talent training in China, and turn the entire structure into a large enterprise.

"CEConline": What will your personal life and work situation be like 10 years from now?

Yu Lan: I may still be at Timken in 10 years! I hope my contribution is to help build a bridge between China and the United States, whether it is a cultural bridge, a bridge in talent training or a bridge in technological innovation, I hope to be able to make a difference in this regard.

Figure/Timken