Since the outbreak of Xinguan pneumonia, Wuhan Jim Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jim Intelligent), like other domestic auto parts enterprises, has experienced a "painful period" of epidemic raging. According to Cheng Jianwei, CEO of Jim Smart, although the epidemic has been initially contained in China, the situation of epidemic prevention and control in Europe and America is still not optimistic, and overseas orders continue to decrease. How to continue to explore the market in the post-epidemic era is an urgent problem for auto parts enterprises.
Global Magazine: According to statistics, by the end of March, more than 120 automobile and parts factories in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea were in a state of suspension. More than 60% of the electronic components of Jim Smart need to be imported from overseas. Once the overseas supply chain is "cut off", it will inevitably affect the resumption of work and production. Faced with this situation, how to deal with extreme intelligence?
Cheng Jianwei: At present, some key electronic components in the domestic auto parts industry need to be imported from overseas. For example, 70% of the core chips are imported from the United States, and most of the capacitors come from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province Province of China. If overseas suppliers stop exporting, we should consider replacing the original chip brand, but the chip replacement involves our own product design replacement and the import verification of the car factory. The replacement cycle is very long, and it will take 1 year at the earliest.
In view of the importance of this issue, before the Spring Festival, I organized my colleagues in charge of the supply chain to make a sales forecast, and timely and adequately stocked key electronic components from overseas. In addition, after the domestic epidemic situation was initially controlled, I asked my sales colleagues to focus on tracking and replacing the upstream equipment affected by the epidemic situation according to the changes in customer demand, so as to ensure that the delivery demand of customers in the second quarter could be met. Whether the epidemic continues to spread around the world is still unknown, and it is necessary to continue to observe the changes in the supply chain.
A prominent problem exposed by this epidemic is that our chips are not independent enough and rely too much on international semiconductor chips. In the future, we should invest more energy in the localization and autonomy of chips, and don't be subject to others.
Global magazine: With the initial control of the domestic epidemic, enterprises are gradually returning to work, but for enterprises with foreign trade needs, orders from overseas may decrease. Does extreme intelligence have this problem, and what are the countermeasures?
Cheng Jianwei: This problem does exist. During the period from the Spring Festival to March, the progress of orders we signed with overseas customers was slow, mainly due to the domestic epidemic, and the company could not resume work in time. However, these orders were not cancelled, but delivery was delayed. After March, the epidemic spread rapidly outside China, and some countries also took measures such as "closing cities" and stopping production. In addition, due to the influence of internal processes and logistics factors, some overseas customers canceled or terminated some orders.
With the "unsealing" of Wuhan, the company also entered the normal production state. Therefore, during this period, we also communicate with overseas customers in time, especially in product optimization and new function development, and negotiate with customers to improve the competitiveness of products overseas. I believe that as long as the quality of our products is too high, more and more orders will come from overseas.
At present, in view of the temporary blockage of overseas markets, we will focus on the domestic market, especially the pre-assembly market of some big domestic automobile manufacturers, which is the key direction of our next layout.
Global magazine: There is a view that this epidemic is both a challenge and an opportunity for auto parts companies. what do you think?
Cheng Jianwei: I think this epidemic has given auto parts companies a chance to reinvent themselves. In the past, most of our testing work was carried out on the spot, but during the "closed city" in Wuhan, there was no way to go out. If there is demand, what should customers do? Therefore, we have developed many remote service tools, with which we can continue to serve our customers. For example, we helped two domestic truck factories (Xugong Heavy Truck and Sany Heavy Truck) to test the intelligent transportation systems of GB/T33577-20 17 and JT/T883-20 14, and completed them in Wuhan.
In addition, this epidemic is also a good exercise for enterprises to deal with emergencies. At that time, an important customer customized a hardware product of Jim Smart. According to the development schedule made before the Spring Festival, the products assembled by suppliers will be obtained on February 5, and the prototype will be debugged and delivered to customers in Wuhan on February 20. Time is tight. The supply chain of this product is far away in the Yangtze River Delta, and the time point coincides with the period when the epidemic situation in Wuhan is very serious. So, we quickly started the suppliers in the Pearl River Delta and contacted our partners in Shenzhen to assist our engineers in Hubei Province in remote debugging. Finally, the debugging of the prototype was completed on February 23, only three days later than the agreed time, and the customers were very satisfied.
Automobile is an industry that attaches great importance to supply chain. The epidemic will make most automobile manufacturers and parts companies increase the decentralized layout of upstream supply chains to reduce risks. From this perspective, it is a new opportunity for wisdom.
Global magazine: Some media reported that it is difficult for enterprises to cope with the difficulties brought by the epidemic to the auto parts industry at present, and the post-epidemic era needs the joint efforts of the government and the industry to resist risks. Do you agree with this statement from the perspective of enterprises?
Cheng Jianwei: Automobile is a large industrial chain with a scale of 10 trillion, but the high-end automotive electronics industry has always been controlled by core companies in developed countries and regions such as Europe, America and Japan. Under the impact of the epidemic, China's auto parts industry has suffered huge losses, and it is difficult to restore industrial development in a short time only by enterprises themselves.
From the enterprise's point of view, it is hoped that the relevant government departments will speed up the process of promoting domestic parts to enter domestic car factories, build an ecological circle and industrial alliance of domestic cars and parts, implement subsidies similar to the new energy vehicle integral policy for domestic high-end automotive electronic parts, especially the core technology products in the field of intelligent driving, and increase support for upstream automotive electronic chips. At the same time, as entrepreneurs, we need to think about how to cultivate the core competitiveness of enterprises and improve our ability to resist the "black swan" incident.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.