On April 4, a delegation of reporters from key national news media such as the "People's Daily," Xinhua News Agency, the "Guangming Daily," and the China Central Television as well as those from leading industrial presses under the theme of "Independent Innovation in China's Engineering Machinery Industry" came to SANY for an comprehensive and in-depth understanding on the Company's operation.
As a private enterprise, SANY has the courage to try anything new in the world. Innovation has been an integral part of literally anything that SANY is committed to, be it of technology, management, cultural ideas, or marketing services. With sharp questions and insightful observations, these reporters took a really close look at a "SANY innovation." Numerous innovative achievements scattering all over the company; from the Enterprise Control Center to the product exhibition zone; from assembly line in the No.1 Workshop to the R&D Tower, and the Product Fine Tune Field; made visiting reporters dumbfounded by, and convinced of the vision and strength of "Created in SANY".
ECC-Retrofit Traditional Industry with High Technology
Around 9:00 am, reporters guided by Mr. Yi Xiaogang, First Vice President and Chief Scientist of SANY Group, and directors of five research institutes under SANY Group in fields of pumping, road construction machine, crane, etc. stepped into SANY Enterprise Control Center (ECC). ECC staff Xu Chun randomly located a SANY-made machine operating somewhere near Shenzhen, and performed a remote diagnosis as well as a presentation of automatic early warning via the system. Many of the audiences could not help exclaiming upon the ring tone of an early warning message sent via mobile phone.
ECC established in 2007 at SANY Heavy Industry was the first one of its kind in China's engineering machinery industry. Riding on the back of a GPS, the center is able to locate any designated SANY product at the clients', remotely diagnose its operational conditions, and dispatch servicing staffs from the nearest SANY offices in case any problem. Mr. Yi Xiaogang said the ECC has two major functions: helping clients manage their equipment, and facilitating the manufacturer's monitoring on all products sold. The second function is apparently of greater significance in that SANY can thus track down operational condition of each pump truck, immediately warn its clients in case of any abnormality, and directly upgrades client-end system.
"Did SANY develop this system all by itself? How much did you spend on it? And how much of it is transferred to your clients?" Reporters could not wait to bombard Mr.Yi Xiaogang.
"SANY was the sole developer of this system, and we managed to accomplish it in slightly over a year without substantial input. This system is already applied to products including pump trucks, and its totally free of charge," said Mr. Yi Xiaogang, adding, "A genuine innovation will by no means add to our cost, and help improve production efficiency and value-added."
Reporters from "People's Daily" were particularly interested in ECC, requested detailed information right away.
SANY ECC also pioneered the service mode of "integration of telecom, facilities, and staffs; coordination among manufacturing, sales, and field service" that fully mobilize both internal and external resources for super-value client services. It is also deemed a reflection of SANY's client-oriented business philosophy "to retrofit traditional industry via high technology, and to promote industrialization through informationization." On the same day, reporters were also exposed to the powerful information systems like ERP and MES as well as R&D tools such as CAD, CAE, PDM, CAPP, and Pro/E.
SYMC-Created in SANY
Innovation is the soul of a nationality and the power source to corporate development. However, technological innovation has no value unless it is translated into productivity.
Exhibits of technological achievements for the SANY Technology Festival concluded a few days ago were still on display at the SANY Industry Park, which included harbor machines, mixers, pumps, and road construction machines parading side by side for the eyes of reporters.
Mr. Yi Xiaogang who served as the tour guide managed to explain the extremely complicated technologies for intellectual arm support in a highly understandable way. Apart from its invention of a pump truck with the longest arm support in the world, SANY is also the only Chinese manufacturer capable of mass production of pump trucks with time-tested X-shaped outriggers. A number of visiting reporters were able to lay their hands on an operational sample of an intellectual arm support at the SANY Exhibition Hall of Technological Achievements.
Mr. Yi Xiaogang went out of his way to shed some light on the first micro-bubble pitch concrete mixer in China that has been conferred 26 national patents and 4 invention patents, also highlighted was the world's most powerful fully hydraulic motor grader that played a vitally important role in relieving the rarely seen snowstorm disaster in end-2007 in Hunan. The fully hydraulic drive technology in PQ230 motor grader was a global first, and its newly designed transmission system capable of 30-percent energy cut is now pending a national invention patent.
What also worth praise were energy-saving and emission-reducing devices installed on all SANY-brand concrete pump trucks and road pavers. The average energy-saving ratios for concrete pump trucks and pavers reached 20 percent and 26 percent, respectively, which, if sufficiently utilized, will enable a combined annual saving of 2 billion yuan for their clients; another major contribution to the building of conservation-oriented society.
While at the SANY No. 1 Workshop, Mr. Yi Xiaogang called reporters' attention to a dark-colored device on a pump truck, saying, "This is the SYMC independently designed by SANY. SYMC refers to SANY Moving Control, a technology that SANY owns full independent intellectual property right, and that prohibits any other manufacturers from imitation. Full of curious questions, reporters who surrounded Mr. Yi were all deeply touched by his proud and confident words.
The virtual mark of "Created in SANY" can be found in any products of SANY; be it the 66-meter mechanic arm (the longest in the world), the new world record of 492 meters for concrete pumping, the most powerful crawler crane in Asia, or the first ever anchor-digging machine.
Foundational Experiments-Corner Stones of Innovation
"Innovation is the eventual success after millions of failing attempts," the words of Mr. Yi Xiaogang at SANY's Equipment Fine Tune Field sounded profoundly instructive.
SANY always attach much importance to experiments on its products, many of them being carried out at the Fine Tune Field. They include alignment experiment on pavers, climbing experience on motor rollers, and final trimmings on trailer pumps and pump trucks. Latent problems on these products may not be identified unless they are put to long-time experiments. All parts, components, and finished products of SANY have been subject to thousands of repetitive experiments until all parameters are met and optimized, which helps to ensure their performance and reliability.
Experiments to test stability and durability of arm supports attracted the attention of Wang Jinxing, a staff of the China Engineering Machinery Association. He said fundamental experiments, especially those on parts and components, are of great significance to development of engineering machineries, and that data and facts collected from such experiments serve as cornerstones of corporate innovation and upgrading. It is an extraordinary practice of SANY, in that few other enterprises in China are willing to invest that much in foundational researches.
Company statistics showed that a model of arm support it manufactured all by itself went through a total of 8 million durability tests, based on which researchers there concluded that such arm support is able to last for at least 12 years even if operating at its maximum capacity.
No innovation is possible without foundational data and other first-hand information. It was right at the Fine Tune Field that these visiting reporters captured the profound meaning of a SANY advertisement motto: "Technology Decides Quality!" (By Huang Yan)
