Chapter 391 Successful development of large-displacement engine
Reported by China Channel News Broadcast and various heavyweight newspapers and periodicals.
The BMW Group's Mercedes-Benz sedan project has completely formed a trend of public opinion in the country this time.
The awarding of the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award lets every newspaper and periodical know that they can confidently and boldly report news about a foreign-funded enterprise like BMW.
Invisibly, the brand influence of BMW has risen to a higher level.
This makes some people very envious and jealous.
"Director, I think the introduction of Shanghai Volkswagen's Santana sedan is no less meaningful than the BMW Group's Mercedes-Benz sedan."
"Next year, can we also consider making the localization project of the Santana sedan a special project and ask the Ministry of Machinery to submit it as an application project for the National Science and Technology Progress Award?"
As the deputy director of Shanghai Volkswagen, Wang Huiliang immediately went to Yu Jin to report the situation after seeing that the Mercedes-Benz sedan project won the award.
Since BMW established the BMW Group, many factories were included in the group.
The Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Factory also followed the trend and established the Shanghai Automobile Group.
Whether it is Shanghai Volkswagen Co., Ltd. or Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant, they are both subsidiaries of Shanghai Automobile Group.
Yu Jin, the director of the Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant, naturally became the general manager of the Shanghai Automobile Group, while Wang Huiliang also served as the deputy general manager.
"The Santana sedan should be a little different from the Mercedes-Benz sedan. We imported it directly from abroad. The Mercedes-Benz sedan was developed in China by BMW people."
Yu Jin still wanted to be embarrassed. After thinking about it for a while, he felt that Wang Huiliang's proposal didn't seem so reliable.
"Our Santana is a product of a Sino-foreign joint venture, and the Mercedes-Benz sedan is a product of a foreign-funded enterprise."
“If you really want to calculate it, Santana’s ‘glow content’ is higher, why not?”
Publicly and privately, Wang Huiliang, as the deputy general manager of Shanghai Volkswagen, definitely hopes that the Santana project can win some important awards in China.
In his opinion, although the Santana car was imported directly from Germany.
But in the process of localization, they also made great efforts.
Today's localization rate has been greatly improved, with more than 20% of parts purchased domestically.
In the next few years, this proportion will further increase to more than half.
This is also of great significance to the development of China's automobile industry.
At least that's what he thinks.
"We can give it a try, but it depends on what the ministry wants."
Although Yu Jin doesn't think the hope of this matter is very high, what Wang Huiliang said is not unreasonable at all.
You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
If it really succeeds, even if it only comes back with a third prize, it will have a very different meaning to Shanghai Automobile Group.
……
While other car manufacturers were discussing the BMW Group's award, and even many people within the company were still immersed in the joy, a new piece of good news came from the BMW engine side.
"Director, all the test heads of our 3.5L large-displacement engine have been successfully completed and passed the test."
“The conditions for large-scale mass production are now in place.”
Hu Shuiwen came to Jiang Hui's office in a very excited mood.
In order to improve this engine, he has almost lived in the company for the past year.
Although it is just a carburetor engine whose technical level is still behind the international mainstream level, it is of extraordinary significance to the Chinese automobile industry.
This is the first 3.5L gasoline engine independently developed by China, and except that it does not use electronic injection technology, its level in other aspects is no worse than the products of international automobile giants.
This is not easy.
"Great. The most important issue for the mass production of Land Rover off-road vehicles and Land Rover pickup trucks is the development of 3.5L engines."
"Now that you have removed this part, both Land Rover models can consider launching products with 2.5L and 3.5L displacement at the same time."
“Having them on the market will bring the greatest market impact.”
Land Rover off-road vehicles and Land Rover pickup trucks are the two most important new products of the BMW Group this year.
Jiang Hui had high hopes for them.
"This is also thanks to the introduction of a batch of new die-casting machines and machine tools last year, which has further improved the processing accuracy of our parts."
"Otherwise, the performance of our 3.5LV6 engine will be quite different from the design."
Hu Shuiwen has been working on engines all his life and is very aware of the impact of parts accuracy on engine performance.
For example, in the casting and machining of the cylinder block, if the accuracy of any part is not up to standard, or even if the tolerance deviates greatly in a certain direction, the performance of the engine will be affected.
If there are problems with the accuracy of some parts, it will also cause the engine to make abnormal noise or become louder.
Various independent brands in later generations generally purchased Mitsubishi engines at the beginning, and their own technology did not mature until after 2010.
At that time, China's equipment industry had also made great progress. Most of the equipment used in the automotive industry could be purchased domestically.
It is completely different from the current situation.
"Equipment is indeed very critical. Nanshan Equipment will increase its research and development efforts in the future to achieve self-sufficiency in the group's internal equipment needs as soon as possible."
“Only equipment that is not very difficult and can be purchased domestically is purchased from outside.”
The equipment industry is in deep water.
In particular, China has no way to produce the equipment itself and needs to purchase equipment from internationally. It basically has no bargaining power.
Sometimes, even if you are willing to pay a high price to purchase something, they won’t sell it to you.
This situation will become more obvious after entering the 1990s.
Now because China and the United States are in the honeymoon period, basically most of the equipment can be purchased internationally as long as you can afford the price.
"Director, our 1.5L engine has begun to be sold to foreign countries. Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant, FAW and Shanghai Automobile Manufacturing Plant are all cooperating with us."
"The other party has also communicated with us about the 2.5L engine. In the future, it is estimated that many customers will ask whether the 3.5L engine will be sold."
"Should we determine as soon as possible which products can be sold externally?"
As the general manager of Nanshan Engine, Hu Shuiwen definitely hopes that all products can be sold externally.
But he also knows that such an approach is likely to affect BMW's own product sales.
So how to weigh the pros and cons is very critical.
“Selling some products selectively can easily make people unhappy.”
"In the future, we can sell Nanshan engines, Nanshan gearboxes and various auto parts produced by Nanshan Technology as long as there is demand from domestic and foreign auto manufacturers."
Jiang Hui was also thinking about this question asked by Hu Shuiwen.
In fact, there can be a better way to deal with this situation, needless to say which product is not sold.
"Huh?"
Hu Shuiwen was stunned for a moment, "Can the 3.5L engine be sold to the outside world now?"
Obviously, Jiang Hui's answer was a bit beyond his expectation.
"Yes, all products can be sold externally."
“But we can adopt different strategies in price setting.”
"For example, if we sell the 1.5L engine at a profit margin of 20%, then for the 2.5L engine we will set the price at a profit margin of 50% or even higher." "As for the 3.5L engine, we will not sell it in a short time. For engines that do not want to be sold in large quantities, the sales price can be directly set based on a profit margin of 100% or even 200%.”
"In this case, if domestic automobile manufacturers are still willing to purchase, then it doesn't matter if we sell more."
“It is difficult for the other party to sell similar products at a lower price than ours.”
When Jiang Hui said this, Hu Shuiwen immediately understood the strategy.
Although similar topics have been discussed before, the product positioning is not so clear after all.
Now Jiang Hui has set a standard for everyone. If you know where to go when doing things in the future, things will be much easier to handle.
"I understand. From now on, our Nanshan Engine will report the price strategy for external sales to the group every year."
“The external sales price of engines will be adjusted based on the group’s production capacity needs and model strategic positioning.”
At this moment, Hu Shuiwen was determined.
The future work will be easier.
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"Although the factory does not plan to hold any large-scale celebrations for the 3.5LV6 engine coming off the production line, we must actively publicize it."
“We want everyone to know that Nanshan Engine is the most technologically advanced engine manufacturer in China.”
“We also want to let the superior departments know our efforts and achievements.”
This year's publicity resources will focus on Land Rover off-road vehicles and Land Rover pickup trucks. Jiang Hui is prepared to put aside the issues of engines and gearboxes appropriately.
Both subsidiaries still have several new products under development. When the product lines become more abundant in the future, they can hold a dedicated exhibition.
However, even so, the rollout of Nanshan Engine's 3.5L engine still caused quite a stir in the industry.
In the past, it won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and in the later, a large-displacement engine rolled off the assembly line.
The two things themselves are not directly related, but when they happened in such a short period of time, they brought great stimulation to people.
……
"Director, Nanshan Engine officially started mass production of 3.5LV6 engines yesterday."
"Today, I will ask someone to sort out the engine-related personnel who have retired or left FAW directly due to various reasons in the past two years."
"Among them, we have one eighth-level worker, two seventh-level workers and six sixth-level workers who went to Nanshan Engine."
"For example, the worker we used to be responsible for engine crankshaft machining was an eighth-level worker."
"I gave up my son to take over at the beginning of this year, but his son can only be an apprentice, which has caused the yield rate of our own crankshafts to drop a lot."
"Should we consider introducing regulations later to not allow FAW personnel to work for Nanshan Engine and any company under the BMW Group?"
Zhao Guangming came to Geng Weidong's office worriedly.
The better the BMW Group develops, the greater the pressure on FAW.
You have spent so many resources and received so many supportive policies, but you cannot succeed in a foreign company that has only been established for a few years.
If this foreign company was a world-renowned automobile company before, then forget it.
However, the BMW Group did not have any reputation in the automotive industry before, and it was not even engaged in the automotive industry abroad.
Such a comparison naturally shows that FAW's performance is very disappointing.
“We really need to consider how to restrain the BMW Group from poaching people.”
"I think this situation is definitely not encountered by FAW. Other automobile manufacturers must have similar situations."
"Otherwise, the BMW Group would not have been able to develop so fast in just a few years."
The domestic automobile industry was previously controlled by various state-owned enterprises.
There is no automotive talent out there.
So Geng Weidong is very sure that the BMW Group has poached many people from various car factories through various methods over the years.
"For those who withdraw internally, we can directly request them and not allow them to join the BMW Group."
"Otherwise their successors will be kicked out of the factory."
"With this pressure, I guess many people will have some scruples."
“But for some people who would rather give up our jobs and choose to join the BMW Group, I haven’t thought of a good solution for the time being.”
Zhao Guangming reported the issues he actually thought of to Geng Weidong.
Reform has been going on for several years now, although the spring breeze of reform is not yet so strong in inland cities.
But many things have begun to change.
The era when factories wanted to control everything about their employees is slowly passing away.
"Most of the people who are leaving now are leaving their children to take over."
"As long as these people are contained, the rest will not be a concern."
Geng Weidong thought about it and felt that the cases he had encountered in the past year were all caused by solving children's work problems.
If people want something, it will naturally be easier to manage.
"Okay, then I will communicate with the Human Resources Department and ask them to issue relevant regulations as soon as possible."
Zhao Guangming couldn't think of a better way for the time being, so he could only implement this plan as soon as possible.
He even called and communicated with people from several other automobile factories, including Second Automobile Works Group, to persuade other factories to consider introducing similar plans.
As a result, the BMW Group naturally also received news.
"Director, FAW took the lead in issuing this kind of regulations, which is obviously targeting us."
"The best time for us to recruit people is after the New Year. Many people have to wait until the New Year to discuss it with their families before they respond."
"If they do this now, it may have a very bad impact on us."
As the head of the human resources department of BMW, Li Xuewen has been thinking of various ways to poach people in the past year.
The BMW Group is developing too fast and requires too many talents of all kinds.
The pressure on the head of the human resources department is also very high.
"When soldiers come, they will block it; when water comes, the soil will cover it up."
"This disgusting method won't have much effect."
"As long as the other party is a talented person, we can completely arrange the work of the other party's family members."
"It's just a matter of arranging a few more apprentices. It happens that our factories also need to recruit a large number of workers."
Regarding the situation reported by Li Xuewen, Jiang Hui was not anxious at all.
Generally speaking, if a company wants to poach people, it will be very passive if they are approached in this way.
But for the BMW Group, which is in a period of rapid growth, this is not a problem at all.
This is even providing more human resources to the BMW Group.
Among the talents that can be favored by the BMW Group, eight or nine out of ten children from their families are better than ordinary workers recruited from society.
(End of chapter)