Exploring the Source of Power for Weichai's Independent Innovation

Heiner Baichuan attracts talents to create innovation

August 24 is located in Weifang City in the central part of the Shandong Peninsula.

After a train at noon, we immediately rushed to the new plant of Weichai Power Co., Ltd., located in the eastern suburbs of the city. Weichai New Area covers an area of ​​500 acres, plant buildings, spacious style. The office area consists of two semicircular buildings. The company's reception staff said that the two office buildings, the integrated administrative center and the technical center each had one. "Technology" is evident in the weight of Weichai.

The annual sales revenue has increased nearly 200-fold from more than 500 million yuan 12 years ago to nearly 100 billion yuan in the current group; sales revenue accounts for 60% of the industry, and profits accounted for 80% of the entire industry.... How did Weichai succeed? Where is the driving force for this rapid development in the future? On the way to Weichai, we continue to think about a series of problems. The intention was to go directly to the next workshop and we decided to change the plan and submit an application to the company: first go to the technical center and go to the first-line R&D team. Perhaps we can find the answer faster here.

Weichai Group's sub-centers and research institutes are located on different floors of the technical center building. At the new energy technology center, we met Dr. Han Erliang. As the head of the research team that Weichai introduced from General Motors in July last year, Dr. Han was recently selected as the national-level expert in the “thousand-person plan” for overseas talents introduced by the sixth batch of countries.

“You worked in the United States for 27 years and worked at the international auto giant GM for 20 years. What attracted you to give up the superior living and working conditions in foreign countries and came to Weichai to start your own business again?” For our curiosity, Han Erliang The answer is simple: “The innovative ideas and broad innovation platform that the Weichai Group has never met allow me to have the opportunity to realize the value of life again.”

Exploring the Source of Power for Weichai's Independent Innovation

Han Leliang wrote an internal patent application form while explaining to reporters that after he joined Weichai, the company led the new energy technology center R&D team based on its business expertise and long-term needs for corporate restructuring. The research and development task of the "Strategic Alliance for Industrial Technology Innovation in New Energy Power Systems for Commercial Vehicles and Construction Machinery" of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He told reporters that he had just received a phone call from a tester who was testing the hybrid engine installation in a passenger car factory. The test had encountered some difficulties and had already burned seven motors in a row. He was considering whether to increase the test funding.

“The hybrid engine is an important support for the development of new energy vehicles in the future. The Group will be responsible for this strategic alliance of industrial technology innovation led by the only company in the country, and it will give me endless motive force for career development. The advanced innovation systems and concepts learned by foreign companies brought us to Weichai,” said Haner Liang with emotion.

Now in Weichai, not only high-end researchers pay more than the income of business operators, but also the scientific and technological innovation concepts such as “production strictly controlling costs, scientific research at all costs”, “encouraging innovation, and tolerance for failure” have become the consensus of the company. Be tolerant to diversity, tolerance is a virtue. It is in the inspiration of this idea that Weichai has already introduced 47 “returnees” experts in recent years. The leaders of the Group’s new energy, powertrains, and other frontier technology research centers have all been introduced at home and abroad in recent years. High-end talent served.

During the interview with the New Energy Technology Center, heated discussions were heard from time to time in the next room. Meng Qiang, deputy director of the Technical Center, said that it is because they are evaluating several R&D personnel's innovation projects. Weichai has implemented the project system and annual salary reform since 2005, and some of the scientific and technical personnel's income is linked to innovation results to encourage mobilization of their innovation enthusiasm. From the sea of ​​hundreds of people to gather talents, to create a research and development staff "big horses" to create an innovative atmosphere, to maximize human innovation potential, Weichai independent innovation of the fruits, it is precisely in the process of continuous growth of innovative talents.

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In Weichai's interview, we have two outstanding feelings: “The construction of a talent team is the first project to build a company’s core competitiveness” is by no means a simple slogan. In Weichai's technology center, many projects under development may not produce any economic benefits within 10 years, but also have to bear a huge amount of R & D investment, if a company does not have a long-term strategic vision, sense of responsibility and correct scientific innovation It is very difficult to stick to the end. This is one of them.

Second, in the past, many companies believed that as long as there was high pay and high treatment, high-end talent naturally came, but the actual situation was not the case. Just as Li Daming, director of the Weichai Electronic Control Technology Research Institute, also repatriated from overseas, said that the business platform provided by Weichai is very broad. Compared with remuneration, it is more important to attract most talents to join Weichai. . Pursuing a sense of accomplishment and realizing a sense of value, Weichai has been actively recruiting high-end talents at home and abroad while working hard to build cutting-edge high-end technology development platforms. It has also established teams and allocated resources to make talents truly the first driving force for independent innovation.

Innovation capability is more important than product R&D itself

August 25 Blue Sky and White Clouds, Another Good Weather

At 8:30 in the morning, researchers in the technology center have begun a day of intense work. In the bright and spacious design hall, a few young faces are actually beyond our expectations.

Haner Leung told us that the average age of the team of the New Energy Technology Center is 30 years old. The leaders of each project are mostly doctors from the country who are introduced from various parts of the country and cultivated by the company themselves, as well as post-doctoral students from universities.

“Although our team is not very young, it has ensured that the R&D personnel in the team has rapidly grown into the backbone of the project through the establishment of scientifically regulated innovation frameworks and processes.” said Wang Hongyu, deputy director of the New Energy Technology Center, also a “returnee” expert. .

In front of the computer, engineer Pan Fengwen is nervously conducting simulation calculations of R&D projects. Pan Fengwen told us that their team is conducting a research and development of the hybrid engine automatic start and stop technology, and after the completion of the simulation calculations, it is still necessary to go to the experimental site to conduct real vehicle testing.

The reporter followed the test team to the experimental site and took a seemingly ordinary bus. Ignition, gear, lift clutch, loose hand brake, test vehicle slowly start up. Pan Fengwen, while reviewing the data, introduced to us that the automatic start and stop technology means that when the car encounters a red light or congestion, the hybrid engine will automatically turn off the engine in time, and then the accelerator will be automatically started to achieve an average fuel saving of 3% to 5%. Effect. Especially in some traffic-congested cities, the energy-saving effect will be more pronounced.

Repeated parking, starting, near the noon, direct sunlight so that the temperature inside the car quickly increased. In a moment, the testers and us were already sweating. After careful comparison of the data, Pan Fengwen stopped and walked to the rear of the car to check. After about 10 minutes, he returned to the car with a small fuse in his hand and reported to the other members of the group: “Today's test is not Too successful, there was a fuse blown. It may be a quality problem. We need to analyze the reason and re-set the data before testing.” During their discussion, we learned that there were no more than 20 previous tests. The fuse blows the problem. This time, the fuse issue did not make the team members feel depressed. Instead, they were very happy: “In the experimental stage, it was better to find the problem earlier than to discover the problem at a later stage.” At this moment, they looked at the sweat on their faces, which was usually abstract. The strange "technology research and development" became vivid and lively in the eyes of reporters.

A small fuse triggers infinite thinking. These two days we have a strong feeling in the conversation with the front-line researchers: It is not difficult to make a prototype of an innovative product. It is difficult to ensure the stability and high quality of the product. Only such innovative results can be industrialized. possibility. A product consisting of tens of thousands of parts and components tests not only a company’s ability to innovate, but also reflects the overall innovation capability and industrial development level of a country. This is precisely the difference between our current and developed countries. . Therefore, compared with the success of the research and development of a new product, Weichai has placed more emphasis on the construction of innovation processes and regulations. On the one hand, through the normative setting of the process, R&D personnel can avoid R&D risks to the greatest extent, and at the same time, support their continuous improvement of their independent innovation capabilities in R&D practices.

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In the end what is the independent innovation? Several "Returnees" Dr.'s answer is surprisingly consistent: the key is to control technology, only in the control of the technology on the basis of a comprehensive grasp of innovation, only to talk about autonomy. Having mastered the control technology, the global resources can be used by me and the problem of suppliers can be discovered early; if we do not master the control technology, even if we make products, we must be subject to human control. This is also the key problem that many domestic companies have encountered in the process of independent innovation. .

In recent years, through a series of capital operations and mergers and acquisitions, Weichai has built a new pattern of coordinated development of powertrains, commercial vehicles, and auto parts. After the industry chain was lengthened, Weichai proposed the concept of “chain innovation” and systematically matched and integrated innovations for engines, transmissions, and axles in order to master the control technology of “powertrain” and thus fully control the entire vehicle. Products and markets. Weichai's experience proves that the so-called "turning overtaking, one step in place" is not a scientific research and development attitude. Only step by step, a solid approach, can we finally reach the other side of independent innovation.

Create "soft power" for independent innovation

It was cloudy on August 26 and a light rain in the afternoon made the air exceptionally cool

In the morning, we visited the Weichai Power Test Center. Wang Jiyao, who received our center staff, explained that no matter whether it is the development of new products in the technology center or the optimization of old products, strict performance tests must be conducted here before they can finally reach the market and users. On both sides of the long walkway of the test center, a closed laboratory is symmetrically distributed. Through the large glass window, you can see that the engine products in the room are being tested, and the technicians are watching the test data that changes with time.

In an experimental room, technician Ren Fenglin told us that he is conducting hardness verification tests of engine parts and it needs to be tested continuously for 30 hours. And in another experimental room, we saw on the record of the engine operation that the test has been carried out to the 13th cycle, each cycle up to 10 hours. "This is a durability test that requires continuous testing for 1,000 hours." Wang Jiyao said that the technicians of the endurance test are the hardest, and the shifts are not enough to work continuously for more than 30 hours.

According to reports, the optical equipment investment in this test center is as high as 1.5 billion yuan, and the hardware level can be said to be world-class. “But compared with the hard conditions, Weichai places more emphasis on the construction of a soft environment.” Sun Shaojun, executive director of Weichai’s scientific research department, made a deep impression on us. In fact, in the past three days, we have been looking for and feeling the innovative culture of Weichai. We have also often been infected by Weichai people's pioneering pride and inexhaustible industrial development ideals, as well as the spirit of innovation and hard work.

Outside the experimental room, we saw a row of heavy trucks printed with “Weichai Power Mobile Test Bench” on which a group of young people are loading and unloading equipment. Going forward to find out that this is the "three-high" test team vehicle that will soon go to the plateau region next week. Every newly-developed engine of Weichai has to pass the extreme environmental test of high temperature, cold, and plateau before it is put on the market. The “Three High” test team is responsible for this work. When we met Captain Chang Guoli, her delicate face made it hard for us to imagine that such a young woman led a highly educated test team with an average age of 27 years in the past six or seven years. Half of the time, the first-hand device operation data were collected on Turpan in Xinjiang at a temperature of 50°C, Mohe in Heilongjiang at a temperature of minus 50°C, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an altitude of 4,700 metres.

This spirit also runs through to the production assembly line. At the entrance of the Weichai No. 1 plant, the first half of the on-site improvement of the innovation display column on the wall has aroused our interest. Shi Yingliang of the factory's cost management office introduced that the Weichai Group's factory has been selecting the technical transformation of the first-line workers' production each quarter to form an on-site improvement and innovation and give various forms of rewards. "Not how much reward, now workers are riveting in the technological innovation, I can not lag behind." Liu Jindong, who won the third prize, said that his catheter out of tooling to improve the gizmo, so that processing efficiency Doubled, it made him feel great.

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In Weichai, innovation is seen as a systematic project, not just technological innovation, but also concept innovation, institutional innovation, and an integrated spirit of innovation. It is rooted in every employee’s body and paid for it. In action.

The realization of independent innovation requires the improvement of every small part of the process, and it requires everyone's commitment to professionalism. From corporate executives to ordinary employees, ideal synergy, synergy of ideas, and passion for everyone, all of them form a state, and together form the soft power that Weichai innovation contends for, and this is the most valuable to promote the sustainable development of enterprises. The source of power.

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