The heroes of Yuchai

Yuchais sales volume in the 4^th quarter last year was plunged because the market slump resulting from the global financial crisis. However, its annual sales income was still surpassed 20 billion Yuan owing to the excellent performance in the previous three quarters. It fulfilled the goal to build another Yuchai in 3 years that was proposed in 2006 on time.  

In 2009, when many companies still were hit by the financial crisis, both the production and sales of Yuchai Group in the first quarter exceeded 175,000, in particular, the production in March recorded an amount of more than 90,000.  

What enabled Yuchai to brave the financial tsunami and top the industry? Lets have a review on Yuchai people.  

Chairman of the board of Yuchai Group Yan Ping emphasized that the core competitiveness of Yuchai was in the training, reserves and structural optimization of human resources. The companys biggest success represented the success of employees given that Yuchai builders were not just a group of common workers, but a creative labor force!

So, who are the Yuchai people?  

Yuchai Technician Association has a large team of about 600 technicians that plays a significant role in the training of staff. Those technicians trained a large number of the treasures of Yuchai or Yuchais Xu Zhenchao--- a renowned model worker in China !  

Regarding product R & D, Yuchai Engineering Institute---the power source of Yuchai has the top R & D team in the domestic industry with a 360-member staff. They include 18 PhDs, 56 master degree holders, 28 senior engineer, 3 recipients of State Council subsidy. Yuchai has the largest sales and service network with 31 domestic offices, more than 1,400 distribution centers, 6 overseas offices and overseas distributors in over 30 countries. The network also is known as the Iron Army. Its sales income of 2008 was totaled 20.8 billion Yuan that achieved the goal of to build another Yuchai in 3 years.  

Yuchai people believe it will get better because of me. The goal for Yuchai people is excellence Yuchai and the globalized quality. The practice of Yuchai is green development and win-win in harmony!  

It all depends on our effort! It is because of Yuchai people that Yuchai Machinery is able to advance against difficulties and stand out from a large number of rivals.

Let us review some of heroes  

Su Wei: senior technician, vice president of Yuchai Technician Association, director of the maintenance center of the cooling process plant under Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd., receiver of the 2009 May 1^st Medalist of Guangxi.  

Su Wei came to the office as usual at 7 oclock on April 16, 2009. Following receiving the shift, he checked the performance of the crankshaft rolling system and other key instruments from the computer and reviewed the maintenance records of various equipments.  

At 8 oclock, after assigning jobs in the department, he inspected the workshops of the cooling processing plant-- he would visit his cherished machines once he got the time.  

This imported crankshaft rolling machine costs 16 million. We could not let it goes wrong! If these key equipments faulted, the whole production in the workshop will stop! his attentive eyesight showed his deep love to the machines. To keep the equipments runs properly, he had devoted lots of efforts.

In the National Day of 2007, a honing machine imported from Germany was suddenly failed. Su Wei and his colleagues could not repair it at the beginning. The counterparts in the domestic industry could not be reached due to the holiday and the long-distance control of Germany experts could not help.  

They had to resolve it by themselves, or else the production of the whole workshop would be halted! After four consecutive days and nights of investigation, they found and fix the problem. The production was resumed.  

Su had experienced lots of emergencies. He told the reporter: only after we learn all maintenance techniques of all equipments then we can deal with problems in a timely manner. Depended on others too much would result in production interruption.  

The parts of imported equipments are very expensive. They often cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Yuan. Additionally, the excessive parts reserve will add to the costs of inventory. Even we willing to pay, the delivery of the equipment will need several days since the disadvantageous geographic location of Yulin city. We could not afford to lose any time. So, he always dedicated himself to the repair of used parts. Only in 2008 alone, he repaired parts that were valued at over 2.5 million Yuan.

Su Wei was graduated from Liuzhou Technical School in 1993 and joined the cooling plant of Yuchai after graduation. He has been engaged in the maintenance of imported equipments and domestic electrical numerical control equipments. 16 years later, he becomes the key person of Yuchai Technician Association by hard working.  

Yuchai Technician Association has a team of nearly 600 technicians. Each of them has signed a pact of teaching and apprenticing to train a large group of skillful professionals.  

Apprenticing is an interaction, as well as a two-way learning process for the master and apprentices to accumulate the work experience and grow together, Su Wei said.  

We have professionals to develop products. We have professionals to produce the products, too. deputy party secretary of Yuchai Group Zhang Jiasha said with huge pride. Although the production of engine requires high skill workers, Yuchai has a technician labor force that is enviable to peers in the industry. Yan Ping, chairman of the board of Yuchai Group, called them treasures of Yuchai.  

In February 2009, a total of 50,000 engines were produced in Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd. The output in March set a record of 70,000! If Yuchai did not have an excellent and skilled technician team, it could not deal with the large amount of incoming orders.

Lin Tiejian: a PhD of Yuchai Engineering Research Institute, chief engineer of engine combustion technology development, senior engineer, receiver of National Model Worker of Machinery Industry, receiver of Top 10 Outstanding Youth of Yuchai and Medalist of 2009 National Labor Day  

During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, over 2,000 green buses assembled with Yuchai State IV engine were used for the Games. Lin Tiejian was excited for Yuchais outstanding performance because he was responsible for the development of Yuchai State IV engine combustion system that contributed to the great moment of Yuchai.  

At the end of 2005, Lin Tiejian gave up his job at the State Key Laboratory of internal-combustion engine combustion at Tianjin University and joined Yuchai, a company located in a far-flung area.  

At the beginning, he was dedicated to the combustion development of two common-rail State III models of Yuchai 4F and 6J. He was responsible for matching the combustion systems to the two models. Trough working overtime every day, he and his technicians tracked the tests, and decided the parameters of the two models fuel system that met the State III standard. Of them, 6J-30 diesel engine became a major model for domestic urban public transport and brought over 100 million Yuan profit to Yuchai.

At the development of 6J State III model, the sensitivity tolerance of the engine performance need to be tested to various parameters and related parts. It needed substantial time and effort tests that were not achievable for the testing cost and progress. Lin Tiejian introduced a new method after making rational analysis. This method was proved to be an effective one to cut the testing time and increase the efficiency. In addition, the method was able to pinpoint the thickness of combustion chamber and cylinder pad, swirl ratio, fuel injector and other parameters. It strongly supported the production control of the parts.  

In 2008, Lin Tiejian was responsible for the development and tracking of low-emission combustion technology, organizing the development of combustion system of State engine. He made substantive contributions to the selling of 50,000 engines a year and the good performance of 2,500 buses assembled with Yuchai engines during the Beijing Olympic Games.

Lin Tiejian always stayed to the objective of excellence Yuchai and the globalized quality related to product development. He said: Yuchai is an independent engine manufacturer that has no OEMs for exclusive selling. It has to rely on the continuous developing of new products and improving of new products to win the market.  

It is because of the top-caliber R &D team that made Yuchai Machinery able to develop from a single product and single auto market into 13 major series of diesel engines ranging from vehicle, marine, engineering machinery, agricultural machinery, power generators and others.

It enabled Yuchai to take the advantage of the center government policy to subsidize agricultural machinery that took effective in 2008, and release the corresponding products to occupy the market and withstand the financial crisis.

Wu Qiwei: deputy general manager of Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd., receiver of the 2008 Top 10 Figure of Chinese Bus Industry  

The year 2000 was a turning point for Wu Qiwei who entered the sales team and assumed the general manager of the Sales Company at the time. He had been in the technology department of Yuchai for 11 years. For a technician that had been engaged in the technology for a long time, it was a challenging mission.  

However, 9 years later, in the 4^th year that he became the general manager of Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd., a role that supervises the sales of the company, the sales income of Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd. amounted to 11.347 billion Yuan that contributed hugely to the achievement of to build another Yuchai in 3 years.  

From a technical staff to a top sales figure in Chinese power industry, Wu Qiwei made a successful transition.  

Anybody who knows Wu Qiwei is impressed by his kindness and firmness. Having been engaged in technical work for more than a decade, Wu is pragmatic and rational. His clear understanding on policy and regulations, professional resolution of market divisions of engine and clear understanding of supporting parts market made him to gain trust from partners and end-users.  

This is the nature of a marketer as well as a key for Wu Qiwei in the success of Yuchai marketing.  

Yuchais marketing services team, enjoying the name of Iron Army, under the leadership of General Wu Qiwei, achieved remarkable results in every market divisions of engines.  

Truck market: worked with OEMs to build a platform for State III diesel engine and the heavy- and light-duty truck market, continued maintaining the leading edge in the light-duty truck market, and released LNG and CNG diesel engine above 300 horsepower.  

Passenger vehicle market: the volume of Yuchai products accounts for over 51% with its gas engines has been used in large amounts in markets in Tianjin , Hainan , Sichuan and other places.

Construction Machinery Market: Yuchai products were adopted by domestic mainstream manufacturers like LiuGong and Xiagong in large amounts.

  Marine and generator markets: the sales increased by 87%.  

Agricultural machinery market: the sales was up 80% compared to the same period of last year, becoming the first power choice for agricultural equipments.  

Wu Qiwei did not drive much pride from these achievements or the 2008 Top 10 Figures of Chinese Bus Industry but from the Top 10 Brands of Chinese Bus Industry that he valued most.  

For Wu Qiwei, a modest and calm person who always has ambition for future has a far-sighted vision for the objectives of the Iron Army over the next few years notwithstanding the financial crisis.Yuchai Groups targets over the next 3 to 5 years are to increase the sales income to 35 billion or 55 billion Yuan, 2015, 80 billion.  

That will post another great challenge to Wu Qiwei and the Iron Army under his leadership.

Conclusion: a school of martial arts does not only have one or two masters; similarly, an enterprise does not only have one or two elites. The success of Yuchai in the financial turmoil relied on the large number of hard working heroes. Being one of the national 10 model study-oriented organizations in 2008, influenced by the corporate culture, everyone in Yuchai strived to be a master and elite. The examples of other employees can not be listed in details in this short story, but from the portrait of the above 3 employees, we can get a glimpse of Yuchai people. It proofs that Yuchai deserves its success!  

Authors: Wei Zhengzhu, Huang Wenjuan                Source: Guangxi Laborer News