Haier Zhijia： Go ＂new＂ and create a ＂world-class intelligent living ecological enterprise＂
Text/Global magazine reporter Zhang Haixin
Editor/Le Yanna
Home, a place closely related to people’s lives, a place where productivity changes are easily detected.
"Print 3 beef labels", as soon as the voice falls, the labels of ingredients with shelf life will be automatically printed and entered into the ingredients database synchronously. Every time a package is taken, the number of beef in the background will be updated synchronously, so there is no need to worry about the ingredients being expired and wasted.
To wash clothes, the washing machine automatically detects the residual amount of laundry liquid, and once it is insufficient, it immediately beeps and gives an alarm, and it can also automatically lower the laundry liquid storage basket for easy access.
If you want to take a nap, the bedroom lights will automatically adjust the illumination according to the weather conditions, and the air conditioner and humidifier will jointly customize the professional-grade sleeping atmosphere …
One venue, 101 original technologies, and dozens of intelligent scenes-this is the appearance of home depicted by Haier Zhijia Pavilion at the 2024 China Household Appliances and Consumer Electronics Expo (AWE 2024), and it is also the new appearance of "traditional home" when it meets new quality productivity.
In the 1980s, Haier has become one of the important representatives of traditional manufacturing in China. Today, it has become an important window to observe the new round of productivity changes. Why is it always Haier? The reason may be not only the success of its products, but also that it has found a paradigm, a way for traditional industries to "new". Along this path, China’s huge traditional industrial resources can be activated and become an important position to cultivate new quality productivity.
Go for the "new"
In this year’s government work report, "vigorously promoting the construction of modern industrial system and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces" is listed as the first task. What is the new quality productivity? How to develop new quality productivity according to local conditions? All walks of life are actively exploring.
Many industry experts believe that the new quality productivity is roughly composed of three "new", namely, new manufacturing, new services and new formats.
The first dimension: new manufacturing. New manufacturing lies in new technology. What can be called "new quality productivity" must not be ordinary scientific and technological progress or marginal improvement, but subversive scientific and technological innovation. It is precisely subversive products and technology that push the production possibility curve of Haier Zhijia and realize new expansion and leap.
The research and development of home appliance industry is like an iceberg, from module to product to user experience, which belongs to the part above the water surface of the iceberg. The general research and development of the industry is at this stage. For example, if an air purification module is carried on a certain product, a new product with air purification function can be obtained. However, the research and development of Haier Zhijia is to find a way in theory and principle, that is, to carry out research and development and innovation in the deep water below the surface of this iceberg.
For example, in the past, the preservation of meat was usually achieved by freezing, but after freezing, ice crystals would destroy the cells of meat, resulting in nutrient loss and poor taste. In view of this, Haier Zhijia has successfully developed the "magnetic control cold fresh technology" for three years, which can keep the taste of cold meat unchanged for 10 days.
This is just a silhouette of Haier’s wisdom family bravely breaking into the deep water area and insisting on in-depth research and development. Haier Zhijia also has a 3D perspective drying technology specially developed to solve the problem of drying down jackets and other clothes. There are "flat-embedded refrigerator" and "full-embedded invisible range hood" specially designed to solve the problem that traditional products can not be flush embedded and affect the appearance; The "wild pot anti-dry burning" gas stove specially developed to avoid the risk of dry burning, etc …
In the past year, Haier Zhijia has listed more than 1,000 original technical products, adding 37 international leading scientific and technological achievements. Today, Haier Zhijia has been the first scientific and technological position in the industry in four aspects: patents, standards, national recognition and industrial design.
These original technologies are the powerful foundation for the traditional manufacturing enterprises to upgrade to high-end, intelligent and green with the new quality productivity characterized by high technology, high efficiency and high quality.
The second dimension of Haier’s wisdom to be "new" is new service. In 1966, the famous economist Greenfield put forward the concept of producer service when studying the classification of service industry. Since then, producer service has become an increasingly important part of the total GDP of developed countries around the world. In other words, to realize Chinese modernization, we must accelerate the development of producer services; To achieve high-quality manufacturing in China, we must also develop high value-added producer services. Haier Zhijia has been working hard for it.
In the past, Haier Zhijia was able to respond to users’ after-sales service demand at the first time and provide professional and sincere after-sales service. Haier Zhijia is synonymous with good service in China. In the era of Internet of Things, users’ needs are changing. Haier Zhijia has built a digital platform for users in the whole process of pre-sale, mid-sale and after-sale, opening up online and offline global contacts, bringing more efficient and convenient smart service experience and redefining the concept of user service in the new era.
Haier Zhijia entered the stage of fully implementing digitalization, and carried out the digital transformation of the whole process from intelligent manufacturing, logistics management, online and offline integrated sales to after-sales service. After the intergenerational breakthrough of the big model, the intelligent process of Haier Zhijia’s customer service accelerated and its service ability jumped sharply.
In Haier Zhijia, the story of "sincerity forever" continues, but it has a new service connotation in the new era.
Reconstruct a new format
An ant has no wisdom, no desire and no plan, but if many ants gather together, it will give birth to the wisdom of creatures that do not belong to this dimension. This is the emergence phenomenon described by John Holland in Emergence: From Chaos to Order.
This is also the third dimension of Haier’s intellectual development of new quality productivity-the ultimate form of new format. Take yourself as a platform and build an unbounded ecology. After everything is connected, wisdom will emerge.
Through years of exploration, Haier Zhijia has built a cross-regional and cross-industry co-creation and sharing platform by using globalization and digitalization. Haier Zhijia has built an efficient global supply chain collaboration system, laid out a global 10+N open innovation system offline, and built a HOPE innovation ecological platform online, linking 1 million+first-class resources and 250,000+experts around the world.
The infinite integration of resources has opened the evolution of Haier’s intellectual family. First of all, it promotes the optimal combination of production factors and opens up globalization and collaborative innovation in all fields. For example, in the United States, the most common laundry scene is that one laundry needs two machines, which not only takes a long time to wash and dry, but also consumes a lot of electricity. In this regard, GE Appliances, Haier Qingdao and Haier Europe "joined forces" to develop a Combo ultra-efficient washing and drying machine, which shortened the washing and drying time that the industry generally takes 6 hours to complete to 2 hours and saved energy by 50%.
Secondly, it breaks the shackles of industry boundaries and allows the wisdom of different industries to coexist. For example, in the traditional concept, although home and home appliances are highly related, they have always been in two parallel worlds. People should consider the unity of styles of home appliances, home furnishing and home improvement, and the size, color, shape and location should be perfectly matched. Three-winged bird will open up the home appliance and home furnishing industries, and consumers can customize the overall solution of home appliances and home furnishing in one stop according to their own needs. This new mode of home appliance integration subverts the traditional whole-house intelligent mode, but also brings new opportunities to some traditional home appliance and home appliance distributors, distributors and store operators. The construction of the brand of Three-winged Bird Scene has transformed Haier Zhijia from a smart home appliance to a smart home, opening up a new growth space, and at the same time realizing the transformation from products to scenes, bringing users the best life experience. By the end of 2023, Triwinged Birds had provided smart living solutions for 413,000 families.
Finally, the transformation of productive forces will also reconstruct production relations and open a new form of integration between consumers and producers. The identity of consumers will change greatly. They will become a "producer" from a single consumer and participate in the design and production process of enterprise products. On the user side, the intelligent interaction engine proposed by Haier Zhijia can customize the perception and stimulate effective demand through personalized interaction; On the supply side, flexible production can be realized through network collaboration and accurate allocation of resources. In this way, consumers can participate in the whole product design process. In Haier’s view, consumers are not bystanders, but promoters of new quality productivity.
Towards "world-class intelligent living ecological enterprise"
Haier Zhijia, which is going "new", has not only opened a new chapter in the upgrading and transformation of traditional household appliances, but also pushed it to "world-class intelligent living and ecological enterprise" and achieved global leadership.
At present, Haier has ranked first in the global retail volume of large household appliances brands in Euromonitor for 15 consecutive years, and achieved the first market share in six countries including the United States, Japan and New Zealand, and entered the top three in nine countries including India and Italy, and entered the top five in five countries including the United Kingdom and the Philippines.
Behind the dazzling achievements, Haier Zhijia insisted on the road of independent brand creation for more than 30 years. This road is risky, costly and has a long payback period, but it is a "difficult and correct road". In the 1990s, domestic enterprises set off a tide of "going out to sea", but most enterprises chose to do trade, because the threshold of OEM is low and it is easy to obtain immediate profits and scale. However, Haier Zhijia gave up such a relatively experienced way of "going out to sea" and chose to "make a brand" to carry out the "trinity" localization layout of R&D, manufacturing and marketing overseas.
The investment is large, the cost is high, and the financial data is not good-looking. Haier Zhijia’s "going out to sea" model has been questioned, and the road to brand creation is difficult and long. However, Haier Zhijia firmly believes that it is necessary not only to sell its products to the world, but also to take root in people’s hearts.
"I am a Haier fan. After I went to college, I chose Haier’s new life package. The product has been with me for four years; Now that I have graduated for more than ten years, I have taken up my job, got married and got married. I once again choose Haier household appliances. I think Haier is the representative of excellent brands. Haier is making progress and is trustworthy. I want more people to know this fact. " Mr. Yamato, a Japanese user, explained why he chose Haier Zhijia. After many years, Haier Zhijia finally ushered in the harvest period and gained a lot of fans overseas.
Haier Zhijia achieved the first market share in the United States and Japan through its own brand Haier and the acquisition of GE Appliances and AQUA. Moreover, it took Haier Zhijia only two years to turn GE Appliances, which had suffered losses for many years, into profit, and it took Japan Sanyo Household Appliances only eight months to turn losses.
How did Haier Zhijia do it to bring the enterprises that have suffered losses for many years back to life? This is due to the localization of its "trinity" and the mode of "one person and one person", which enables enterprises to achieve zero distance with users. It is also in the mode of "one person and one person" that employees’ enthusiasm is stimulated, and many innovations tailored to local conditions emerge one after another, which also makes Haier Zhijia gain a firm foothold in markets such as the United States and Japan.
With the footsteps of Haier Zhijia traveling all over the world, more miracles of win-win cooperation are still happening. When the "brief history of the future" of intelligent manufacturing opens, this new-quality productivity revolution, which originated in China, will also inject new vitality into the world economy.
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