Under the impact of the international financial crisis, China’s commercial vehicle and parts market has experienced a sharp decline since October last year. Until April of this year, production and sales volume rose slightly year-on-year. However, the largest heavy-duty vehicle transmission manufacturer in China, Shaanxi Fast Automotive Transmission Group Co., Ltd., achieved warming two months earlier than the entire industry.

“In January, our main product, heavy-duty vehicle transmission, was sold and sold only at 10,000 units, less than 20% of the average monthly production and sales volume in the first half of last year. It rose to 30,000 units in February and exceeded 60,000 units in March, setting a record. The historical high has been maintained at around 50,000 units in April and May.” Fast chairman and general manager Li Dakai told reporters that after the Spring Festival, the company’s production and operation situation rebounded from the market month by month, and production and sales kept running at a high level. The employees’ spirit Excitement, full of emotions, the overall situation is getting better and better.

The shock given by Fast is much more than that.

In the past 10 years, the company's total industrial output value and sales revenue have grown from less than 100 million yuan to more than 6 billion yuan, an increase of 47 times and 49 times respectively; transmission production and sales volume has increased from more than 5,000 units to more than 450,000 units, an increase of 68 times. Export foreign exchange earning increased from more than 2 million US dollars to more than 50 million US dollars, an increase of nearly 25 times; various operating indicators ranked No. 1 in the national gear industry for seven consecutive years, and heavy-duty transmission production and sales ranked No. 1 in the world for three consecutive years. More than 1.5 million units or more...

What makes Fast achieve rapid growth in the heavy-vehicle transmission market that was once monopolized by foreign companies? What makes Fast to take the lead in the market? In Li Dakai’s view, as the company’s English name “Fast” expresses The meaning is that Fast's "fast" word is to grasp market opportunities in a forward-looking manner and firmly promote independent innovation.

Joint ventures cannot learn core technologies. Only by accurately grasping the needs of local consumers and independently developing high-quality products can they eventually win the market.

Two years ago, a boss of a domestic large-scale auto group once told reporters with excitement that when he was on the market, he discovered that many consumers had an important consideration when buying heavy trucks – whether or not they installed Fast. Transmission. The sales staff of one of its commercial vehicle sales shops even complained to him that if the brand's heavy truck could abandon its own wholly-owned transmission company's products and replace it with Fast, the monthly sales in the store could double.

Affirmation and pursuit from the consumers, so that the domestic market share of Fast heavy-duty transmission more than 80%. However, 10 years ago, the domestic heavy-duty vehicle transmission market was almost the world of foreign brands.

Fast's predecessor was Shaanxi Gear Factory. In 1985, in order to support the Steyr heavy-duty truck project of Sinotruk Group, Shaanxi Gear was assigned to heavy-duty truck management, and subsequently Fulton's 9-block dual countershaft transmission project of the US Eaton Corporation was introduced. The annual design capacity is 8,000 units, which was completed and accepted in 1995. Since the domestic heavy-duty vehicle market was only just starting, the only demand-side heavy-duty truck was forced to restructure because of its huge losses. By 1998, when the company was most difficult, it only had annual production and sales of more than 3,000 units.

In order to get out of the predicament, Shaanxi Dental began to negotiate a joint venture with Eaton Corporation of the United States. Li Dakai clearly remembered that the requirements put forward by the foreign parties were very demanding and that there were only 400 employees in the more than 3,000 employees in Shaanxi Dental. The negotiations broke down. In 1998, Eaton turned to a wholly-owned factory in Pudong, Shanghai, and said that their products have high technological content and no wholly-owned factories.

The external provocation, Li Dakai’s answer was agitated. “There is indeed such a possibility. However, there is another possibility. That is, the people in Shaanxi have counterattacked, resisted the struggle, strengthened research and development, improved the quality, and who squeezed them. Walking!

The people in Shaanxi say it. By digesting and absorbing Eaton’s double countershaft transmission technology, they developed a 7-speed transmission and added a synchronizer according to the actual conditions of road and freight overload in China, which greatly improved the product's transmission efficiency and range of adaptation, relying on market accumulation. The word-of-mouth has gradually opened up markets for large companies such as FAW and Dongfeng. By 2002, the annual sales of fast heavy-duty trucks exceeded 50,000 units, while Eaton’s wholly-owned factory in Shanghai had only a few hundred units of annual output, and had suffered losses for five consecutive years. They had to take the initiative to find Fast to discuss the joint venture.

Li Dakai told the foreign party that the joint venture can, but there are two conditions, one is to close the sole proprietorship, and the second is that Fast only takes part of the assets to implement a partial joint venture. Although the foreign party promised the above conditions, but in the newly established joint venture, it still imposed a strict technical blockade on the Chinese side and tried to control the right to sell. It hoped that Fast would abandon the research and development of gearbox and turn it into a gear zero for its supply. Parts supporting plant.

"If we take an assembly line that is not advanced, we would have to give up such a big plant to develop, not to do the transmission, and only spare parts. This is absolutely not acceptable!" In the years after the joint venture, Fast not only did not stop. Research and development, but invested heavily in increased research and development efforts, has launched the 10-, 12-, and 16-speed transmission projects, and to catch up with the high-speed growth opportunities in the domestic heavy truck market after 2006, heavy-duty transmission production and sales ranked first in the world . The joint venture with Eaton, under the guidance of foreign companies, has been losing money year after year because of dissatisfaction with land and water. In 2007, it was recovered by Fast at a price of one US dollar.

"The joint venture cannot be replaced by core technologies." Li Dakai told reporters with emotion that if the Chinese side had a slight pause in independent research and development after the joint venture, there would be no bright future for Fast.

To shorten the technological gap with multinational corporations, it is necessary to invest in manufacturing technology and R&D, and to build a competitive production and R&D system, but also to grasp market opportunities.

In Xi'an in June, the sun was hot. However, in the 54,000-square-meter machine shop of the Fast Group Co., Ltd. in the High-tech Zone, it was only a small amount of coolness.

There is no deafening roar, no pungent fumes, and you cannot even find many workers. Into your eyes is a row of closed automation lines, huge workshop like a high-tech enterprise spotless.

“Our 70% of our machinery manufacturing equipment is introduced in the United States, Germany, Russia, Austria, Japan, Korea and other countries. Among them, only four modern heat treatment equipments are in operation all over the world.” Assistant General Manager of Fast Gear Co., Ltd. proudly rewards The reporter told reporters that the presidents of the global transmission leader Eaton Eaton and ZF came to visit and sighed again. They did not expect Fast's production line to be even more advanced than them.

In the view of Li Dakai, who is a R&D professional, it is necessary to reduce the technological gap with multinational companies and must be willing to invest in manufacturing technology and R&D. In 1998, when it was the most difficult production and operation in Shanzhi, and the wages of employees could not be paid in full and on time, Li Dakai actually squeezed out the funds from his teeth and implemented the ISO9001 standard. Through hard work, he built a strong quality system. To lay the foundation for the future take-off.

In 2001, Shaanxi Dental Plant established Shaanxi Shaanxi Fast Gear Co., Ltd. with its entire operating assets and attracted 311 million yuan investment in the Hunan Torch. Li Dakai did not use the funds as a compensation for employee status changes, but rather persuaded everyone to invest valuable funds in the research and development of new products.

In recent years, Fast has invested more than 2 billion yuan in technical reform research and development. Today, Fast has adopted an internationally advanced design throughout its manufacturing processes. It has internationally advanced manufacturing and high-precision measurement and testing equipment, gear research institutes, and technology research and development departments, design analysis software and laboratory equipment. World class.

In addition to willing to invest in hardware, Li Dakai also paid special attention to mobilizing the enthusiasm of R&D and production personnel through enterprise mechanism innovation and cultural development. At the end of the 1990s, when other difficult corporate technicians were lost, Li Dakai tried to build two dormitory buildings, which not only improved the living conditions of technicians, but also kept their hearts. In recent years, with the restructuring of enterprises, Fast has gradually built a competitive R&D system and formed a team of R&D teams with great efforts. At present, the company has more than 400 R&D personnel, among whom more than 80 have master's degree or above. They have introduced more than 20 series of hundreds of varieties of heavy-duty transmission products with independent intellectual property rights. Some key technologies and core technologies have reached the international advanced level. Has more than 20 patents.

"Independent innovation must be market-oriented." Li Dakai said with deep feeling that the key to the rapid development of the market in recent years is the rapid development of the Fast, and quickly out of the shadow of the international financial crisis, the key lies in the accurate grasp of the future trend of the market. , Actively adapt to the market and guide the market.

In 2005, the domestic auto market was at a low ebb. Li Dakai keenly seized the opportunity to switch to the State III emission standard for commercial vehicle country II several years later. It reversed the market's large-scale investment and not only started the construction of a new plant, but also started the research and development in the domestic counterparts more suitable for the country III standard. 12-speed, 16-speed transmission. In 2007, Li Dakai also aimed at the national requirements for energy conservation and environmental protection and improved fuel economy. New transmissions such as small 8-speed gears and small 8-speed gears were developed for buses, construction vehicles, and low-speed trucks. This year, after the above products were put on the market, monthly production and sales soon surpassed 10,000 units, becoming a new growth point for companies to go against the market.

Nowadays, at Fast's Xi'an Hi-tech Plant, a test center with an investment of 600 million yuan, a 33,000-square-meter machining center, a 19,000-square-meter R&D center, and more than 40 advanced test benches is under construction. Li Dakai is accumulating power for the next round of market growth.