Strongly supporting, stimulating vitality, and accelerating innovation, China FAW achieved contrarian growth and strong growth –
A "reform" brings leap development
On the assembly line of the FAW Hongqi factory, the heroic "Hongqi" H9 cars caught the eye.
"Since the launch of this car, there has been a steady stream of orders." The staff told reporters, "Not only H9, but the sales of the entire’Hongqi ‘brand car exceeded 200,000 in 2020, an increase of 42 times in three years."
In the context of the continuous decline in sales in the global automobile industry and the impact of the epidemic, how can "red flag" vehicles rise against the trend and grow strongly? The answer of the employees is: "It comes from reform."
Concentrate on advantages to strengthen the brand
As the first high-end car in New China, the "Hongqi" car has always carried people’s high hopes for national cars. However, the brand has experienced ups and downs since the 1980s.
Significant changes began in 2017. That year, Xu Liuping was transferred to FAW and launched a new round of reform. The three independent brands, Hongqi, Pentium, and Jiefang, were re-organized and resourced. In particular, "Hongqi" cars were directly operated by FAW Group headquarters, concentrating the best forces to strengthen the brand.
"Before the reform, Hongqi Automobile was produced and operated as a branch. In 2017, after the brand was directly operated by the group headquarters, a factory dedicated to production was established, and the group headquarters was responsible for coordinating various resources." Wang Caiyun, director of the general management department of Hongqi Factory, said.
The headquarters of the group has actively optimized the coordination and mobilization of personnel and financial resources of the Hongqi brand, so that the product quality and production scale can be rapidly improved. In this regard, the employees of the Hongqi factory are deeply touched: "In the past, there were only more than 20 professionals on our production line. Now, there are more than 200 people just doing production preparation. In the past, the annual investment was at most a few million yuan, but now it can reach billions of yuan. Three workshops such as stamping, welding, and painting have been created from scratch. The scale of the production base has been expanded by 4 times, and digitalization has been fully realized…"
"After shouldering the operational function, the functional areas of business at the group headquarters were all demolished and redesigned. Almost all of them had task indicators linked to the development of the red flag, from’management ‘to’dry’." Zeng Xiaojun, director of the system management department/organization management department of FAW Group, said for example. "Although the headquarters had a brand marketing department in the past, it did not sell cars. After the reform, the department was abolished and the marketing center was re-established, which was not only directly responsible for sales, but also added pre-product planning and so on."
Since 2017, the major institutional adjustment of FAW Group headquarters has been carried out 6 times. After connecting with the market, the problem of headquarters institutionalization has also been solved. The satisfaction of FAW’s grassroots units with headquarters services rose to 91.59%.
Reform stimulates enterprise vitality
On the bookshelf of Wang Caiyun’s office, a military order stands out. This was signed by her in FAW’s new round of "All Stand Up, All Staff Compete" last September. Exceeding the performance targets in the military order may result in promotion and salary increase. If you fail to complete it, you may lose your job or even lose your job.
"All stand up, all employees compete for employment", which originates from FAW’s "four-energy" reform that began in 2017 and is competitive every three years. Wu Jintian, director of the group’s Human Resources compensation management department, told reporters that the core of this reform is value creation-based, performance-based measurement, to achieve "cadres can go up and down, salaries can be high and low, employees can come in and out, and institutions can increase and decrease".
"Competing for employment based on ability depends on how much value you have created for the enterprise, and you must speak with your results." In the eyes of many FAW cadres, this reform is tantamount to a "deep earthquake".
Mr. Liu is one of a group of capable young geniuses who want to work. After two rounds of competition in 2017 and 2020, he has become FAW’s youngest senior manager after nine years of work. Previously, it took 16 years at the fastest for employees to enter the senior manager position. The reform has reduced the average age of FAW’s middle-level cadres by about 5 years.
After the 1980s, Wang Caiyun also achieved a three-level jump in three years due to the "four-ability reform": from a second-level manager, to a senior director, and then to a department director. "Being able to go up and down, in and out, is a manifestation of the vitality of an enterprise," she said.
With the younger ranks of cadres, many post-80s and post-90s have been entrusted with important responsibilities, provoking the backbone in the research, production and sales system, and "red flag" cars have gradually entered the hearts of "new car buying forces".
Accelerate the pace of innovation across the board
When the reporter arrived at the FAW Innovation Technology Research Institute, Cao Lijun, the head of the Comprehensive Technology Management Department, was leading colleagues to study the "14th Five-Year" intellectual property plan.
In order to comprehensively strengthen its innovation capabilities, in September 2017, FAW kicked off the reform of its scientific research system and restructured the FAW Technology Center, which is known as the "Cradle of China’s Automotive R & D Talents". It established the Research and Development Institute, the Modeling Design Institute, the New Energy Development Institute, and the Intelligent Network Development Institute. In the past three years, it has successively established the Innovation Technology Research Institute, the Materials Research Institute, and the Testing and Testing Institute.
The overall scientific research structure has changed from "one center" to "Big Dipper", the research direction is more detailed, and the R & D responsibilities are clearer. At the same time, the development of "Hongqi" products has been strengthened. For example, the Design Institute is mainly responsible for the appearance design of the Hongqi brand.
Wang Caiyun said: "After the establishment of the Design Institute, the’Red Flag ‘has its own family design language, and these are the iconic symbols of the’Red Flag’ car."
The segmentation of the research and development field has also greatly accelerated the pace of FAW’s follow-up with the latest technologies and exploration of forward-looking technologies. Take the Intelligent Netlink Development Institute as an example, due to a group of personnel specializing in vehicle to everything, the intelligence of Hongqi has been continuously upgraded. The Hongqi EHS9, which was launched in December last year, has been praised by users as "killing many products of the same level in seconds".
"In the past, ‘Hongqi’ had a single product and not many models. Due to the reform of the scientific research system, new technologies in the industry were quickly reflected in the car, and the speed of product update and iteration has surpassed that of joint venture vehicles." The staff of the final assembly workshop of the Hongqi factory told reporters that the significant improvement in the development and design level not only gave Hongqi more and more "charm points", but also the manufacturability and equipability of products, which will help "Hongqi" usher in a big explosion in production and sales.
Through comprehensive deepening of reform, China FAW’s independent innovation ability has been significantly enhanced, and 3,508 patents were applied for in 2020, an increase of 19.8% year-on-year; in the past three years, vehicle sales have increased from 3.106 million to 3.706 million, with an average annual growth of 4.5%, and the market share has increased from 11.1% to 14.6%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points. (reporter
Peng Bing, Liu Shanshan)
Authors: Peng Bing, Liu Shanshan
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