Mr. Jiang Zhichun, Vice President of Sany Group

    On January 5, 2014, the award ceremony for the 2013 "China Outstanding Quality Person" selection was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. At the ceremony, our reporter had the honor of interviewing Mr. Jiang Zhichun, Vice President of Sany Group. Facing Sany, a Chinese enterprise with great development potential, we were full of curiosity. During our discussion with Mr. Jiang, we noticed that he mentioned the word "quality" many times. Regarding how to view product quality issues, Mr. Jiang stated: "Sany has always regarded quality as the foundation of enterprise development."

    "In order to fully guarantee product quality, Sany began to steadily promote a localized production management system—the SPS management system. This system originates from the Japanese GPS management system, which is currently used by Toyota. Sany's SPS system is proposed based on the Japanese GPS management system and combined with domestic specific conditions. Unlike the Toyota model, Sany's production model not only adopts the automation and just-in-time management models of the Toyota model but also particularly adds a full-time quality management system," said Mr. Jiang.

    Although China's equipment manufacturing industry is experiencing rapid rise, Sany is clearly aware of the shortcomings of local manufacturing and the huge gap with developed countries such as Europe, America, and Japan. Mr. Jiang, who once worked at Komatsu for ten years and has an in-depth understanding of Japanese enterprises, told the reporter of HC360 Construction Machinery Network: "I have visited hundreds of factories in Japan, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and other Japanese equipment manufacturing enterprises. They are all adopting this model now. The purpose of the GPS management system is to eliminate seven wastes. For us, we not only need to eliminate waste, reduce costs, and improve efficiency, but more importantly, we need to improve product quality. Therefore, we need to create a mature production management system. In the process of promoting and applying the SPS management system, since there is currently no mature and complete management system standard in China, the advancement of Sany's SPS management system requires a relatively long process. We cannot seek quick success and instant benefits; rather, all Sany people need to start from small things and lay a solid foundation."

    The Secret Behind Sany's No.1 Sales

    Many people are curious about how Sany's excavator segment managed to win "No.1 in national sales" for two consecutive years despite the once sluggish domestic construction machinery market. What is the reason? Mr. Jiang told the reporter of HC360 Construction Machinery Network: "It is not surprising that Chinese equipment manufacturing enterprises suddenly encountered a Waterloo after ten years of rapid development. Let's take foreign developed countries as an example. This situation had already appeared in Japan as early as twenty or thirty years ago. Therefore, yesterday in the industrial development process of developed countries is our today. Today's Japan is experiencing a recession that has lasted for twenty years. Japan, like us before, experienced a period of rapid development, and almost 50% of the world's construction machinery products came from Japan. After the industry experienced rapid expansion, it suddenly declined in the late 1980s. Therefore, we clearly see that it is inevitable for China's construction machinery manufacturing industry to experience such a development process. We expect that the downturn in China's construction machinery market is likely to continue, and we were alert to this problem several years ago, so we began to formulate preventive measures at that time."

    Mr. Jiang said: "We have always been using the ECC system. Through this system, we can obtain the effective working hours of users using Sany excavators. The longer the effective working hours, the more promising the market sales of a certain model. At the same time, we have complete data and mature analysis methods. Through the system, we can obtain detailed information such as the distribution and quantity of excavators in the market, understand the market performance of various models, and gain insight into which model products better meet market demand."

    Sany's "Genchi Genbutsu" Management Approach

    When talking about the cultural integration issue of the Putzmeister acquisition, Mr. Jiang revealed to the reporter of HC360 Construction Machinery Network: There is actually no problem with corporate cultural integration. We adopt a relatively mature international multinational enterprise management approach, using the "localization" management method (as the Japanese call it) for overseas subsidiaries. Because the most effective way to quickly enter and understand a country's local culture is to employ local staff, thereby effectively avoiding misjudgments caused by cultural differences. For example, in Japan, which has a narrow territory, small cars are popular, and even Europe and America favor small cars, but in China, extended cars are more favored. This is following local culture. The German company Putzmeister we acquired also follows localization. This year, Putzmeister's economic performance has been good, fully demonstrating that our approach is correct."

    After experiencing tremendous changes and challenges time and again, we see Sany rapidly transforming itself. The people of Sany under the halo have not forgotten the foundation of survival. They work hard, they keep forging ahead, and they never admit defeat, all to uphold the promise of quality first. Sany has set an industry example for peers and is also forging its own Sany Dream and Chinese Dream.