On November 10th, in Baiyun District of Guangzhou city, the outdoor apparel company Camel was conducting a “Double 11” promotional live broadcast. The hosts showcased the clothing effects while fans’ comments continuously popped up on the screen. Hot sales information from the front end was quickly synchronized to the Zhongshan factory.
On the same day, in Shunde District of Foshan city, the Midea kitchen heat dishwasher Shunde factory workshop was “quiet.” On the production line of the “Lighthouse Factory,” robotic arms operated automatically, and the production data of each dishwasher was updated in real-time and displayed on a large screen.
Under the push of “Made in Guangdong,” the “Double 11” has continuously presented new features amidst the concerto of noise and silence, the competition of breaking and establishing, and the considerations of proximity and distance.
The Concerto of Noise and Silence
The live broadcast room was bustling
Lighthouse factory was quiet
At 10:30 am on November 10th, in Shunde District of Foshan city, the host of Guangdong Haier Refrigeration Technology Co., Ltd. (“Haier Refrigeration”) had been broadcasting for half an hour. “You can snap up this popular refrigerator…” She, wearing Haier accessories, was introducing the product to consumers on the other side of the screen non-stop.
“This ‘Double 11,’ the company specially arranged different live broadcast rooms for different e-commerce platforms,” said Zheng Jun, the e-commerce operations director of Haier Refrigeration, noting that the daily live broadcast duration was extended by six hours.
Similarly, in Foshan city, Lin’s Wood, located in Nanhai District, was also sprinting for the “Double 11” online live broadcast. On the fifth floor of Lin’s Wood headquarters, the home display hall designed for live broadcasting restored family scenes: living room, study, dining room, baby and children’s bedroom… Lin Yang, the brand PR director of Lin’s Wood, mentioned that during the first wave of final payments on Tmall, the transaction amount exceeded last year’s total day’s turnover (746 million yuan) in just 2 hours and 19 minutes. “The presale data was more ideal than expected.”
In Baiyun District of Guangzhou city, the live broadcast room of the outdoor apparel company Camel was filled with continuous comments from fans. Lin Deming, the live broadcast manager, introduced that the stock prepared for this “Double 11” was three times the usual amount. “This popular three-in-one storm jacket sold tens of thousands of pieces in a single Douyin live broadcast room of the official flagship store.”
Unlike the lively atmosphere in the live broadcast rooms, the workshop of Midea kitchen heat dishwasher Shunde factory was “quiet.”
Entering the workshop, the giant screen at the door displayed a digital twin factory panorama, and the production data of each dishwasher was updated in real-time. On the production line, robotic arms operated automatically, and intelligent logistics vehicles shuttled back and forth, rarely seeing any workers. “Based on the presale data, this year’s dishwashers and other high-end products are favored by consumers,” said a sales representative from Midea.
The Midea kitchen heat dishwasher Shunde factory was newly selected in October as one of the World Economic Forum’s new batch of “Lighthouse Factories.” Currently, the factory is the world’s largest dishwasher production base, with an annual output of 6 million units, exporting products to 145 countries and regions globally.
On the assembly workshop production line, visual automatic identification cameras recorded the rhythm of more than 20 processes. If the duration deviated from the set data, the machine would automatically stop, and big data would provide feedback to the responsible person in real-time.
“The digital transformation of the factory began five years ago, applying cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other technologies from the R&D end to the production end,” said Liu Yulong, the factory manager. After digital transformation, the unit production cost was reduced by 24%, delivery time was shortened by 41%, and the defect rate was reduced by 51%. “Quality improvement, efficiency enhancement, and cost reduction are fully demonstrated, with production capacity doubled and staff numbers reduced by nearly half.”
Opposite the factory is Beijiao Port, where cargo ships come and go incessantly, and freighters loaded with Midea dishwashers are sailing to all parts of the world.
The Competition of Breaking and Establishing
Enhancing the autonomy of the production chain
Seizing new tracks and blue oceans
Air fryers, microwave ovens, steam-bake-fry all-in-one machines… Shortly after the “Double 11” presale started, Galanz’s healthy home appliances topped various presale lists. The core components used in these products, such as magnetrons, were independently developed by Galanz. Among them, two space microwave ovens were successively stationed in the “Tiangong” space station.
Without breaking, there is no establishing. Opening up new technologies, new fields, and new tracks is an important consideration derived from years of “Double 11” participation by Guangdong manufacturing enterprises.
“From scratch, overcoming challenges in energy consumption, gravity, space, etc., the hardest step was the ‘heart’ component of the space microwave oven—the magnetron,” introduced Zou Nengji, vice president of the Galanz Group. Now, Galanz independently develops more than 40 million magnetrons each year, and global magnetron technology takes Galanz’s standard as a reference. “From magnetrons to electrical accessories, Galanz’s microwave ovens achieve 100% autonomy in the supply chain.”
The small home appliance market is highly competitive, and Haier Refrigeration chose the new track of retro refrigerators and ice bars, continuously expanding into functional niche areas. “It’s difficult to catch up with brands that already occupy the market if we make generic refrigerators. Our products are designed for more specific needs and application scenarios,” said Zheng Jun, citing the example that right after the League of Legends World Championship ended, Haier Refrigeration launched a hot-selling esports negative temperature ice bar.
Zheng Jun demonstrated on-site that the ice bar’s two layers could be used to store beer and glasses separately. Pouring beer chilled for a while into a glass, the beer that was not frozen initially immediately frosted upon touching the glass wall.
Not only ice bars, but Haier also launched products for beauty, pharmaceuticals, office, and outdoor dining scenarios.
“The niche areas of refrigerators are still a new blue ocean in China. 80% of consumers are young people from first- and second-tier cities,” said Zheng Jun. As of September this year, Haier Refrigeration’s sales have already exceeded last year’s total, and it is estimated that 60% of the sales target for the fourth quarter can be achieved during the “Double 11” period.
In the stock preparation workshop of Guangzhou trendy toy company TOP TOY, the team made accurate predictions based on big data and prepared sufficient stock in advance before “Double 11.”
As a new entrant in the consumer market, Sun Yuanwen, founder and CEO of TOP TOY, has his understanding of trendy toy manufacturing. “Consumers have increasingly diverse demands for trendy toy products, not only in terms of product quality but also in product design.”
Sun Yuanwen cited the example of TOP TOY’s collaboration with Sanrio on the “Kuromi Mechanofigurine,” half of which is painted design and the other half shows a “dissected” mechanical state. Each “Kuromi Mechanofigurine” also has an exclusive collector’s number plate. “For such collectibles, consumers will use a magnifying glass to inspect them, which requires us to have exquisite craftsmanship and further raises higher demands on the production end.”
In the cooperative building block factory located in Chenghai, Shantou, the level of factory automation continues to improve. In the past, to produce a building block product, manual selection from more than 20,000 types of building block particles for the accurate 500+ types was required. Now, only by entering operation instructions through the intelligent cabin system, the “robot” mechanical arm can accurately pick out the required building blocks.
This high-precision limited production realizes intelligent production, supported by the strong supply chain of Guangdong manufacturing.
“Guangdong’s flexible supply chain is very strong. Even if we need to make a new product, requiring new molds and production lines, the cost won’t be too high through flexible combination. Guangdong has a mature supply chain system, which can solve our needs within a range of two to three hundred kilometers,” Sun Yuanwen felt deeply.
Considerations of Proximity and Distance
Digital transformation is timely
Consumer end drives production end
“Better than expected!” On the morning of November 10th, Wu Miao, the director of the e-commerce marketing center of Bear Electric, saw the latest sales data in the backend. It is preliminarily estimated that during this “Double 11” promotional period, Bear Electric’s sales will maintain good growth.
Bear Electric was established 16 years ago, almost growing in tandem with “Double 11.” As a brand that started with e-commerce, Bear Electric has had broad development opportunities and has also accumulated more thoughts on sustainable development for the enterprise.
“Enterprises must have their own production and manufacturing to survive in the market for a long time,” said Li Yifeng, chairman of Bear Electric. In 2013, at the rise of the mobile internet with huge traffic dividends, Bear Electric still decided to establish its own production factory and focus on real industry and manufacturing. Currently, the company has more than 200 R&D personnel, over 1,500 applied patents, and 5 major intelligent production bases.
Due to the variety and models of small household appliances, digital reconstruction from the consumer end to the production end is very necessary.
“We use ERP, intelligent manufacturing platforms, marketing business middle platforms, and other digital platforms to effectively manage workflows, information flows, logistics, and capital flows,” said Wu Guangjin, director of Bear Electric’s Western-style appliance factory. Compared to last year’s “Double 11,” the factory’s production capacity has significantly increased. In the next three years, the company also plans to invest more than 100 million yuan in digital construction.
Some enterprises start with digital transformation of the supply chain and embark on a full-domain expansion path.
“Currently, Lin’s Wood has more than 220 raw material suppliers and over 180 cooperative production suppliers nationwide, creating an agile supply chain organization based on digitization,” said Zhang Fa, director of Lin’s Wood supplier management department, while visiting the factory and checking information on his mobile phone, which displayed detailed information about strategic suppliers’ orders, production, and defect rates. “We will adjust supply and production in a timely manner according to consumer and market demands.”
Lin’s Wood’s supply chain innovation is based on the trillion-level industrial cluster in Foshan city, thus driving the upstream and downstream of the industry chain to accelerate transformation. “Currently, 70% of supplier factories are concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, especially around Foshan. We also digitalize these factories to achieve collaborative development,” Zhang Fa said.
In the factory of Haier Refrigeration, the newly introduced Meiyun Zhi Shu production line just went into operation this year. The large screen glowing with faint blue light displayed dynamic data of all refrigerators’ production and sales.
“In the past, we didn’t know where to find problems with defective products,” said Chen Jinzhi, workshop director of the Manufacturing Center Production Department D Workshop, pointing at the screen. “Now you see, every step and component are displayed clearly.”
Haier Refrigeration’s IT deputy general manager Dai Wei introduced that Haier Refrigeration’s digital construction foundation is designed to support future updates and iterations for over five years, showing great confidence in investment.
“Business revitalization, cost reduction, sales increase… Digitalization has already shown initial results, and we hope digitalization will create a new future!” Dai Wei said.