Chinese tool companies should take the path of Chinese specialization

Since the beginning of the new century, the domestic manufacturing industry has accelerated the pace of technological transformation, and domestic CNC machine tools have begun to enter the manufacturing sector in large numbers. As a result, a sharp contradiction quickly surfaced. The advanced CNC machine tools were not equipped with advanced domestic tools and had to be equipped with imported tools. The product structure of China's tool industry for several decades has finally exposed serious flaws when the international financial crisis struck, dragging down the manufacturing modernization. Since the beginning of the new century, the Chinese tool industry has begun to accelerate the process of structural adjustment and industrial upgrading, but the pace of progress has been slow. In the face of the financial turmoil, many companies have a strong sense of crisis.

So how do we realize the adjustment of the industrial structure as soon as possible and give full play to the huge advantages of China's tool industry? First of all, we must give full play to China's unique material resources and human resources advantages, seriously change the operating concepts of tool companies, strengthen services, and give top priority to meeting the needs of the manufacturing industry. Secondly, we must also give full play to the characteristics of our country's tool companies, take advantage of weaknesses, and take the path of being small, specialized, and small and refined.

Utilize advantage

Compared with advanced multinational tool companies, China's tool companies have large gaps in terms of capital, technology, equipment, and management level, and they seem to find no advantage. However, there are at least two major advantages that are valuable resources for the development of China's tool industry. That is: natural resources and human resources.

Then, how can we give full play to China's resources and manpower advantages and push the development of the tool industry to a new level? First of all, we must start with changing concepts and strengthening services. Tool companies must completely lose the stereotyped habits that have been cultivated for decades, have old habits of selling, and put the needs of satisfying the manufacturing industry in the first place. Having established such a guiding ideology and development policy, even without a large amount of modern equipment, it can produce good products that users welcome. With this kind of guiding ideology, waste of resources and the squandering of wasteful talents, they will be greatly reduced. In recent years, China's tool industry has begun to emerge a number of scientific and technological private enterprises. This is how it was developed. Its growth rate exceeds the strength of state-owned enterprises and deserves attention.

The tool industry needs to solve the issues of modernization, strengthen service awareness, and improve service levels. The urgency is far more than the improvement of equipment. We have had a lot of hard lessons. Some companies have introduced foreign advanced equipment at a great price, but the old concept has not changed, and standard cutters are still produced. The result is not welcomed by the market, and it ends up losing the fate of the wife.

Avoid weaknesses

The modern tool manufacturing industry in today's developed countries has undergone mergers, reorganizations, and enhancements since the 1980s, showing the characteristics of “high starting point, large investment, large-scale, and internationalization” and a trend of centralization. The ten largest multinational tool groups account for two-thirds of the international tool market. Compared with our country's tool companies, there is a big gap between product development capabilities, process development capabilities, equipment development capabilities and marketing service levels. It must be admitted that this gap cannot be caught overnight. After all, the tool industry is a traditional industry, and it is different from the law of high-tech development. Many technologies and experiences rely on a long-term accumulation process. It took 20 years to create 1 or 2 companies in China that can compete with multinational tool groups. This is already the best expectation. The majority of tool companies must seek truth from facts and do not use transnational corporations as a model for development. The modernization path of most Chinese tool companies must set realistic goals for development. The "big and complete" and "small and complete" model of development will certainly not work. We must make up our minds to lose some areas, give full play to their characteristics, and make every effort to avoid weaknesses, and take the small, specialized, small and refined path.

From the perspective of international experience, there is much to do with small and specialized programs. In the international community, besides the top ten multinational tool companies, there are more than tens of thousands of companies engaged in the tool industry. They have found their own living space for development. It should be noted that the field of service of the tool technology is very broad, it can penetrate into all areas of the manufacturing industry, there is no obvious industry boundary. This creates a good environment for the development of small businesses with service features. In recent years, China’s tool industry has also begun to notice the problem of accurately positioning and choosing a reasonable development model based on its own conditions. Many large and medium-sized enterprises have given up their “bigger and full” and “small and complete” development models and have begun to present their own characteristics. This is a very welcome phenomenon. However, the proportion of featured products and services is still not large enough, and the transition speed is not fast enough. It shows that the sense of urgency is not strong enough to completely shake off the influence of the traditional system, so the pace of reform must be accelerated.

Create an orderly market environment

Under the conditions of a market economy, the enterprise is the main body of competition, and it must be responsible for its own survival and development. Therefore, at present, the development of China's tool industry cannot meet the needs of the manufacturing industry. First of all, it is necessary to find a cause from the enterprise itself and come up with solutions. On the other hand, it must be noted that the development history of the market economy in our country is still very short. There are still many areas of non-standard and imperfect markets in the operation of the market, affecting the healthy development of the company. Sometimes this effect is still very serious. It is necessary for the government and enterprises to communicate and reach consensus and the government should come forward to solve the problem. For example, "vicious competition of inferior and low-priced products" and "unfair investment orientation" have hindered the healthy development of the tool industry for many years. Both of these issues are directly related to government actions.

As mentioned earlier, China has produced 40% of the world's tool materials, but the sales of tool products have been less than 6% of the world's total. This amazing waste of resources will be shocking to anyone. The waste of resources has also caused vicious competition for inferior and low-priced products.

Over the years, the tool industry has long been subject to "unfair investment orientation." The phenomenon of "re-hosting and supporting lightly" is an institutional problem that must be corrected as soon as possible. The corrective measure is not to ask the government to “back up parts and light mainframes”, which is also a problem. Instead, it hopes that the government will return investment decision-making power to enterprises, let the market determine the rational allocation of resources, and create a fair and competitive investment environment for the development of the spare parts industry, including the tool industry.