April 1 day, 2020-Today, Honda, as the technical representative of automobile manufacturers, will undergo the biggest change since the establishment of 1946, and formally begin to implement a new organizational structure: the original independent sales (S), production (E), development (D) and procurement (B) structures will be integrated by SEDB.
Technology was originally Honda's most popular label. Just like a sentence on the title page of Honda published by Liaohai Publishing House at the end of last century: "Invention is like falling in love. To outsiders, I often can't sleep at night and think it's a living hell. But in my opinion, nothing is more interesting than this. "
Starting from the founder of Honda, Shoichiro Honda, this "artisan" car company has taken "technology first" as its brand personality. On the one hand, because of the in-depth research and development, it is slightly backward in marketing and packaging, on the other hand, it has gained a unique and powerful appeal with its simple and vigorous characteristics. The label "Honda Powder" brings together countless fanatical technical houses.
However, this situation will usher in variables with the transformation of the new organizational structure.
When the weak relationship between Honda Research Institute and production and operation becomes stronger, the original unconstrained technical researchers have to consider the actual demand of the market. There is no doubt that the outside world will worry about whether the brand image of Honda's "technology enthusiast" will change. What fans are more afraid of is that the image of "technical Honda" will be diluted in this compromise with reality.
However, the change lies not only in Honda, but also in the concept of "technology" itself.
From evolution to change.
Honda was founded by Shoichiro Honda in 1946, and in September of 1948, the name of "Honda Technology Research Industry Co., Ltd." began to spread in all directions. In essence, it is a "mechanical bicycle" of two-wheeled motorcycles, and it has gone to Honda's super-running and even Honda? Jet jet business jet, research and development has always been Honda's core competitiveness.
What? This can be seen from the independent position of technology research institute in the company structure. 1960, Honda Deyi Technology Research Institute was separated from the entity of the company's R&D department at the proposal of Honda Heyichiro and Takeo Fujisawa. The purpose is to keep the distance between R&D and entity operation, so as to ensure the creativity and independence of technicians.
From 65438 to 0963, Honda began to enter the field of four-wheeled vehicles. Relatively independent research institutes supported Honda to enter the global market and created its own unique brand charm. Over the past 60 years, R&D and its operation have maintained a relatively independent structure, which not only enabled Honda to form a corporate culture of independent action and quick action, but also attracted a large number of "Honda powder" with its stubborn personality, making Honda the most distinctive brand in the automobile market.
Faced with such a department full of achievements in the past, Honda raised a "scalpel" to it, which makes people wonder, what is the driving force of Honda's reform?
"With the expansion of business scale, the trend of division of labor management within the company based on business areas and business departments is becoming more and more obvious, which often leads to the result of' department optimization', which easily leads to repeated labor and waste among organizations and unclear division of responsibilities. This organizational system is increasingly constraining the company to play its previous advantages. " In a recent interview with Auto Commune, Honda once said this.
Indeed, in the previous structure, Honda Research Institute was separated from the actual Honda technology research industry, and the parallel structure of Honda technology research industry's production, procurement, management and automobile business headquarters would produce unnecessary work waste to a certain extent, which would be eliminated to a great extent through Honda's reform.
"First of all, through the integrated operation system, we can concentrate knowledge in various fields, maximize comprehensive advantages, improve planning accuracy, and reduce rework and waste; Secondly, make clear the decision makers in the process of work promotion and further strengthen the "quick decision" system. " When referring to the expectation of this reform, Honda once said this.
However, in the reporter's opinion, improving work efficiency through the optimization of organizational structure is only the "superficial reason" of this reform. The deeper reason is that Honda is facing many realistic and future pressures and has reached the point where it has to be changed.
According to the sales data released by Honda recently, in the first two months of this year, Honda's global cumulative sales volume was 675,005 vehicles, down 22.2% year-on-year, of which European sales volume decreased 32.3% year-on-year; North America fell by 7. 1% year-on-year. Despite the adverse effects of the epidemic, it is an indisputable fact that Honda has started to decline in the global market except China.
According to the financial report released by Honda in the third fiscal quarter (201910/0/0/~ 20191February 3 1), in the third fiscal quarter, Honda's operating income Operating profit was 65.438+0666 billion yen, down 2.1%year-on-year; The net profit was1164 billion yen, down 30.8% year-on-year. In the first three fiscal quarters (20 19 April 1 -20 19 February 3 1), Honda's operating profit was 639.2 billion yen, down 6.5% year-on-year; Sales revenue was11472.9 billion yen, down 3.1%year-on-year; Pre-tax profit was 786,654.38 billion yen, down 9.4% year-on-year.
The automobile industry is becoming more and more mature and refined. All mainstream car companies are getting bigger, and almost all contemporary technology projects are burning more money than before. Therefore, financial keywords such as profit and cash flow force a technical house like Honda to pay more attention and energy to the accounting books, instead of focusing on maintaining the simple, stubborn and indifferent pride of traditional craftsmen.
It can be said that after Toyota is the representative of pursuing lean and efficiency, giant car companies such as Volkswagen and GM have embarked on the road of giving priority to profitability and efficiency, and even withdrawing from the global car enterprise sequence, focusing on high-profit business can become a trend.
If market pressure is the driving force for Honda's reform, then the future full of variables and uncertainties is the potential driving force for Honda's reform. What is even more shocking is that the concept of technology itself may not escape this variable.
Is it a variable or doom?
For Honda's technical label, the future faces huge variables. Not only is the environmental adaptability of technology changing, but it is impossible to maintain an excellent reputation forever by relying on fuel engine technology such as red hair power. At the same time, the connotation of automobile technology is also changing. The direction of the new four modernizations has forced Honda, which used to sneer at gasoline fans, to think about the problem of electric vehicles and intelligent network connection.
Obviously, Honda's old fuel vehicle technology research and development has been unable to "win the world", which is determined by the compliance requirements of the technology itself and the growing efficiency goals of the industry.
In addition to the pressure of market and profit, the parallel structure of Honda Technology Research Institute and Honda Technology Research Industry has also produced a certain degree of waste. As a department far away from the first-line market, Honda Technology Research has always maintained the independence of its own design, but it is facing a situation that it cannot be fully applied in actual mass production applications.
Faced with such a problem, Honda said in an interview: "The development plan of automobile products needs to be ahead of the current needs of consumers to some extent."
It is true that "advanced R&D" is the most basic operation in automobile research and development, but if R&D is too advanced, many R&D achievements cannot be successfully mass-produced, which is a waste. More interestingly, Honda's business scope is much larger than what consumers see in China. When you open Honda's global official website, you will find everything from airplanes, ships and cars to generators, lawn machines, irrigation machines and even walkers, and such "finished products" are only a part of the transformation results of "advanced research and development", which to a great extent shows that Honda Institute of Technology has a lot of technical reserves.
"After this reform, the mass production product development department originally located in Honda Technical Research Automobile R&D Center will be merged into the automobile business headquarters of Honda Technical Research Industry Co., Ltd. to improve the accuracy of career and product planning, reduce costs and improve the efficiency of business operation. But at the same time, Honda Institute of Technology will still exist. Up to now, Honda Institute of Technology has been developing many world-leading technologies. In the future, Honda Institute of Technology will return to its original intention and strengthen the research and development of future-oriented and more advanced new value technologies, including autonomous driving. " Honda said this.
Apart from the fact that the research institute is somewhat out of touch with Honda's technical research industry, Honda's layout in the electrification field is also slightly slow. On the one hand, Honda has appeared for three years? E delayed listing; On the other hand, in China, where the new energy market is in full swing, there are only two "localized models". Compared with Toyota's perfect layout of weak mixing, strong mixing, pure electricity and hydrogen power, Honda is indeed in a relatively backward position.
Pressure is not just in the field of electrification. Under the background of the increasingly close combination of intelligent technology and traditional cars, the layout of the future market for car companies has become broader, from intelligent interconnection and driverless, to smart transportation and smart cities, all need scientific research investment. Such a huge change is a huge pressure for Honda and even the entire automobile industry.
In other words, the "bullish" degree of future automobile manufacturers' technology depends not only on the compression ratio, power improvement and low failure rate of gasoline engines, but also on how many patents of Sanpower Technology and Intelligent Network Connection they have in their hands, and more importantly, whether they can bear the research and development costs and achieve profitability.
Under such a macro background, it is also reasonable for Honda to strengthen the connection between research institute and actual production and operation through structural reform, so as to optimize its own operation and profit and gradually transform into the direction of new technology research and development.
A sign worth pondering is that Honda is trying to fill its own gap under the technical framework of the new four modernizations. From 2065438 to 2009 10, the list released by China National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center showed that Honda ranked fourth among the top ten companies/institutions in the field of intelligent driving technology.
However, the reconstruction of the technical route will obviously impact or even deconstruct Honda's technical label in the era of fuel vehicles. Whether Honda can continue to lead technology research and development in new fields is still unknown. Even if Honda becomes a big player in electrification and autonomous driving research and development, it will take a long time for the audience to buy it, which is another question mark. Variables, or bad luck, will be a severe test for skilled craftsmen.
China influences geometry?
Corresponding to the structural reform is a huge personnel change. Among them, Taixiu Shuiye Caixiang, who used to be the head of Honda China, the general manager of Honda Technical Research Industry (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and the general manager of Honda Technical Research Technology (China) Co., Ltd., will become the head of Honda's automobile business, coordinating all the sales, production, development and procurement that were relatively scattered before.
As the dominant market of Honda, China has always been the top priority of Honda's layout. In this structural reform, in addition to Mizuno Taixiu, who is familiar with the China market, becoming a global leader in the automotive field, Honda's China factory in China has also been merged into Guangqi Honda.
On March 29th, Guangqi Honda officially announced that on April 1 day, 2020, Guangqi Honda will formally complete the absorption and merger of Honda Motor (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Honda China) and rename it Guangqi Honda Guangzhou Development Zone Factory. After the merger, Guangqi Honda will retain Honda China's original vehicle production and export and global KD parts supply.
The global export of KD parts supply business will supply mass-produced parts to Honda's vehicle factories in Thailand and other 13 countries and regions. In terms of vehicle business, Guangqi Honda will continue to produce urban models with its annual production capacity of 50,000 vehicles and export them to the Mexican market. At the same time, it will also start producing domestic models from April, with the first model being the Accord.
This seemingly simple integration, on the one hand, shows the initial intention of Honda's architecture optimization for collaborative cost reduction, on the other hand, it also shows that Honda, which originally pursued the ultimate technology, began to pursue the improvement of market performance.
You know, last year, Guangqi Honda had a basic production capacity of 600,000 vehicles, achieving an overall production and sales of 760,000 vehicles. This year, the basic capacity transformation project of Guangqi Honda No.3 Plant has been put into production, and the capacity has been expanded from 6.5438+0.2 million vehicles/year to 240,000 vehicles/year. Together with Honda China's newly integrated production capacity of 50,000 vehicles, Guangqi Honda has formed an annual total production capacity of 70,000 vehicles in 2020. If it is overloaded like last year, Guangqi Honda's annual output is 6.5438+0 million. The third factory of Dongfeng Honda was officially put into operation last year, and Dongfeng Honda, with an annual production capacity of 600,000 vehicles, is also moving towards the goal of 6,543,800+0,000 vehicles. The pattern of Honda's 2 million vehicles in China has emerged.
In fact, the shadow of Honda's pursuit of sales in China has already appeared. As early as 20 13, when Honda established the FUNTEC technology brand in China market, it only included the powertrain field Earth? Dream? With the passage of time, FUNTEC has gradually become synonymous with advanced technology and widely recognized by consumers. Honda also took the opportunity to electrify, Honda? Connect to the smart Internet, Honda? Perceptual security extrasensory, mobility? Sharing * * * and enjoying travel are all included in the FUNTEC technology brand.
From 20 13 to now, FUNTEC's scope in technology brands has gradually expanded and gradually been recognized by consumers. At the same time, Mizuno Taixiu also transferred from the positions of General Manager of Dongfeng Honda, General Manager of Guangqi Honda and General Manager of Honda China. It is no exaggeration to say that Mizuno Taixiu witnessed the whole process of FUNTEC technology brand dominating the China market.
At present, Mizuno Taixiu has become the head of Honda's global automobile department. Whether it will follow its footsteps and push Honda to make great strides in the global market, we can't judge, but what is certain is that its ability to pursue market share will gradually show up in the global market.
Honda has changed.
I used to be a paranoid who admired technology, and I couldn't do anything from a sales brand that pursued market share. However, the pace of the times is moving in that direction, and even Honda, which is outspoken in chasing the trend and getting ready, can't disobey it. When Honda is pushing its own transformation, should we cheer for this adaptability or lament for the passing of the old times? I'm afraid the switch between joy and sadness is only between thoughts.
Text/Xu
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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.