Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Yuan Zhiwei is an employee of the Quality Department of Modu General Motors. He has been very irritable these days.

On the one hand, after the company's production line was suspended, their employees were also under great pressure.

As a member of the quality department, he still knows a lot of information, and has also personally participated in the parts development work of other new suppliers.

Even in order to shorten the development cycle of new supplier parts as much as possible, people from their quality department are basically required to station at the supplier's site.

Everyone worked overtime to rush forward the work and shorten the production shutdown time as much as possible.

But the development of some parts cannot be caught up as quickly as you want.

"Gong Yuan, the high-pressure oil pump is a very critical part of the engine. It pressurizes the low-pressure gasoline in the oil pipeline to dozens of MPA."

"Although we now have some mass-produced products supplied to other customers such as Modu Volkswagen, they are all specially developed for them."

"Each engine is different and requires different high-pressure oil pumps."

"Now, even if we carry out adaptability development based on the specifications of Modu Volkswagen, we will definitely need to adjust some parts."

"Taking into account the preliminary verification and parts preparation, it normally takes more than a year."

"Even if we work overtime, it will take at least seven or eight months. It can't be faster than this."

As the general manager of United Electronics, Li Jia now attaches great importance to this project of Modu General.

The other party plans to hand over half of the high-pressure oil pump orders to United Electronics for production. These were previously the cake of Nanshan Auto Parts.

The price of a high-pressure oil pump normally costs several hundred yuan. This time, in order to rush for time, Modu General Motors did not bother with United Electronics on the price.

So in the end, Li Jia and the others quoted a very special price, and the other party accepted it.

In this way, Li Jia naturally hopes to launch this product as soon as possible.

But as soon as Yuan Zhiwei came up, he asked to arrange the production plan according to the three-month mass production schedule, which immediately confused the people of United Electronics.

Last month they developed a high-pressure oil pump, something they would never dare to think about.

It's simply impossible.

"Except for some major adjustments in the installation interface, the other structures and principles are similar."

"As long as the functions can be implemented normally, some minor problems can be slowly improved later."

At this time, it must be the top priority on the schedule.

Appropriate sacrifice of some quality can also be considered.

Therefore, although Yuan Zhiwei is the person in charge of quality, he can only force United Electronics to rush to the deadline, and even proactively expressed that some compromises can be made on quality.

"The most common quality problem with high-pressure oil pumps is oil leakage."

"If our validation is not adequate, there will be oil leakage issues."

"Or if the relevant performance parameters do not match, the abnormal noise will be very obvious by then."

"No matter which one it is, it will lead to a large number of consumer complaints, and even oil leakage will cause safety hazards."

"Gong Yuan, unless your company can sign a liability exemption agreement with us, we will not dare to skip various basic tests."

Although Li Jia really wanted this order, as a joint venture of Bosch in China, they also had some basic work processes that could not be changed.

Otherwise, various explanations will be required.

Without the written endorsement of Modu General, it would be impossible for him to explain those things within the company.

"If you can't do it, then we can only consider other suppliers."

"I believe there are suppliers who can do it."

Yuan Zhiwei directly stepped up his tactics and threatened Li Jia with orders.

Not to mention, this trick is really useful.

After the two people stared at each other for more than a minute, Li Jia said: "Half a year, Mr. Yuan, we can complete all the verification work and deliver the parts to Magic City General Motors within half a year at the earliest."

"I believe there must be some other parts on the vehicle that will take more than half a year to develop."

"As long as our high-pressure oil pump is not the bottleneck part, the difference between developing it in half a year and developing it in three months is actually not that big."

After Li Jia finished speaking, he looked at Yuan Zhiwei nervously.

This is basically the bottom line of United Electronics.

No matter how compressed it was, he didn't know how to compress it anymore.

"Okay, then in 6 months, you will immediately lay out the plan for all aspects, and we will sign the official meeting minutes."

"Then we have to hold a separate reporting meeting every week to explain the progress of each project, and we must ensure that no link can fall behind."

Yuan Zhiwei actually knew it well.

Modu General has made an internal inventory of the main parts and knows that full production can be resumed in half a year, which is basically the ideal situation.

Therefore, it is still acceptable to give United Electronics half a year.

Compared with the situation on Yuan Zhiwei's side, there are still projects in charge of some people, and the progress is even more complicated.

"Peng Ke, to be honest, I really have no way to take this order."

"On the one hand, our production capacity is limited and we cannot eat so many parts."

"On the other hand, it is very difficult to prepare so many hot stamping parts within half a year."

"The most important thing is that if we accept this order at this time, we will completely offend Nanshan Group."

"Our hot stamping production line, from heating furnaces, presses to laser cutting machines, are all purchased from Nanshan Equipment."

“In terms of raw materials, we also use hot stamped steel plates jointly developed by Baosteel and Nanshan Special Steel.”

"No matter how greedy I am at this time, there is nothing I can do."

Wang Qian, the general manager of Yifeng, specially invited Peng Qing, the head of the Parts Procurement Section of the Modu General Procurement Department, to have a meal in order to explain to him why he did not accept the order.

They are now supplying some relatively difficult hot stamping parts to Modu General Motors.

However, complex parts such as integrated hot stamping door knockers and hot stamping parts of unequal thickness plates are basically supplied by Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory.

Of course, Yifeng also supplies some such parts to other independent brands, which is technically possible.

But business matters are sometimes not as simple as technical implementation.

"If you don't have enough production capacity, you can only accept orders within the production capacity range."

"As for half a year, I think employees can still overcome it as long as the money is provided."

"At worst, there will be no holidays in the next six months, and then the mold processing will be done in two shifts, working day and night."

"It will definitely be done in the end."

"As for the retaliation from Nanshan Group, I don't think you need to worry about it."

"Nanshan Equipment is not the only manufacturer in the world that can produce hot stamping production line equipment."

"For example, Cosma's production lines are mostly products that are common to other equipment purchased."

“Benteler and Gestamp also use production lines provided by manufacturers other than Nanshan equipment.”

At this time, Peng Qing could only coax Yifeng into supplying goods to Modu General.

As a part that has a relatively long preparation period and is widely used in the entire vehicle, if it cannot be fixed, then resuming production will be a joke.

"Other equipment manufacturers can indeed provide similar equipment, but their prices and after-sales service attitudes are completely different."

"The most important thing is that if we take your order, then our orders from customers such as Chery and Geely will probably be lost."

"I believe you are also very aware of the influence of Nanshan Automobile Group in China's automobile industry. Manufacturers such as Chery will definitely give them face in this matter."

"In addition, our hot stamping molds, as long as they are more difficult, are all made by Nanshan Mold."

"Under such circumstances, it is simply impossible for Nanshan Mold to produce parts and molds for us that are universal in the Magic City."

When Wang Qian said this, he immediately made Peng Qing depressed.

This trick is really a bit difficult to crack.

As long as it is China's local parts supplier, basically no one is not afraid of this trick.

Because most of the customers of local suppliers are local independent brands.

If it loses orders from its own brands because of accepting these orders temporarily transferred from Modu General, the loss will be huge.

"Wang Ke, Cosma, and Benteler all have hot stamping factories in Shanghai, and Gestamp also has a factory nearby."

"I think it would be better to cooperate with them?"

Seeing that Peng Qing stopped talking, Wang Qian added his suggestion beside him.

This order was poisonous and he would never dare to accept it.

He also doesn’t have the strength to continue.

"On the one hand, Cosma and Benteler have limited production capacity. On the other hand, their schedules last for more than a year. There is simply no way to meet our requirements."

"And their hot stamping molds are designed by the headquarters, and those people won't work overtime for us."

Since it was a private occasion, Peng Qing was willing to say some things that were inconvenient to say on the table.

If Modutong had other options, he would definitely not come to ask Wang Qian.

Usually the other party begs me to give him more orders.

"If it's just a matter of schedule, it can actually be done, right?"

"Most of it is to give a high price for this batch of parts, so that the other party has sufficient motivation."

"It should be possible to take this opportunity to let their local employees try to develop it."

Wang Qian made a suggestion that was not so reliable.

Cultivate the development capabilities of local employees, which will be useful for increasing speed in the future.

But at this critical juncture, it was obvious that the water far away could not quench the near thirst.

However, Peng Qing also knew that it was impossible for Wang Qian to accept this order this time, so he did not force him again.

As for how to solve this problem, we can only go back and find a solution.

If that doesn't work, some products are the same size as those at the American headquarters, so we can only consider importing them from there.

But the cost of that is really exaggerated.

And it also faces the problem of sufficient production capacity.

In short, the interior of Modu General is now a mess.

The purchasing department, quality department and other departments were extremely busy. The production site was idle because the entire factory was shut down.

The situation is obviously much more serious than GM initially predicted.

…

Nie Xiaojun is an owner of the Cruze, which has become very popular in recent years.

Even though this car was designed in Korea and then produced in China, strictly speaking it is not an original Buick model.

However, after its launch, sales were still very good due to its relatively large space and reasonably priced price.

Although it is not as strong as the same period in history, it can still be regarded as one of the sales pillar models of Modu GM.

"My car has been repaired at your 4S shop for a week, and it has not been repaired yet."

"Didn't it say that it could be done in three or four days?"

"Why is it still not working after so long?"

Nie Xiaojun was a little busy during this period. He was so busy that he didn't have enough time to sleep. As a result, he rear-ended another Cruze.

You are solely responsible for it, there is nothing to dispute, just take insurance.

Both vehicles were sent to the same 4S shop for repairs.

I'm used to driving to and from get off work every day, but it's really hard to get used to not having a car.

Even if he can take a taxi, Nie Xiaojun hopes to drive back to his car as much as possible.

He just called the 4S store for several days in a row and didn't get any accurate information. He was really a little angry.

"The manufacturer didn't send after-sales parts, so there's nothing we can do."

"The only item in stock has been used by another car."

The after-sales maintenance manager of the 4S store replied helplessly.

He really wasn't lying.

For him, he definitely hopes to repair the car as soon as possible so that he can earn money.

Insurance repairs like this kind of car accident are often very profitable.

How could he deliberately delay the repair?

"Don't you usually have some inventory of after-sales parts in your store or at the manufacturer?"

"Why did it take so long to get it done?"

Nie Xiaojun is the director of the SKF Technology Department, and he is relatively clear about many things in the automotive industry.

Nie Xiaojun was naturally dissatisfied when people used this reason to deal with him.

"Mr. Nie, you are right. Normally this is the case."

"But you must have seen the news recently. Due to the United States' all-round suppression of the Nanshan Group, Nanshan Auto Parts has stopped supplying Shanghai GM."

"This action has led to the suspension of production at all GM factories in Modu. Many after-sales parts in our 4S stores have begun to be out of stock, or are about to be out of stock."

"To be honest, I have a worse headache than you now."

Nie Xiaojun was stunned after hearing this.

Has the suspension of auto parts supply in Nanshan affected the supply of after-sales parts to Modu GM?

This matter is a bit troublesome.

For models that are currently in mass production, GM is working hard to find other suppliers for alternative production.

As long as production resumes in the future, there will definitely be no problem with after-sales parts.

But for some old models that have been discontinued, the supply of after-sales parts is really a big problem.

Modu General Motors has definitely not started to consider this issue yet.

The most important thing is that even thinking about it is very troublesome.

Because although they are after-sales parts, they still need to make molds for production, and even need to invest in special production lines.

But the cost of developing brand new parts just for the dozens or hundreds of after-sales parts every year is too high.

Even if Modu General is not short of money, it would not dare to do such a thing.

The only good thing is that my Cruze is not a discontinued model.

"Did the manufacturer say when after-sales parts will be available?"

"It can't be that my car cannot be repaired forever, right? Or you can arrange a mobility scooter for me to drive."

Nie Xiaojun is a little frustrated now.

According to this situation, it seems that there is no way to repair my car in a short time.

"I'll go back and apply to see if there's any way to arrange it this way."

"But it's very possible that there won't be any results."

The other party was very honest and did not try to deceive Nie Xiaojun.

But the problem was not solved, and Nie Xiaojun's mood did not get better at all.

Naturally, the situation faced by Modu GM spread quickly within the automobile industry.

"Mr. Yu, I think the after-sales maintenance issues of Modu GM and Changan Ford can be well reported."

"It is said that some of their stores now directly purchase some parts from unknown sources from outside to sell them as original parts."

"Or just park the consumer's maintenance vehicle there without repairing it."

"In short, we want to completely ruin the reputations of GM and Changan Ford."

He Ling knew exactly what Autohome should do at this time.

Helping Nanshan Automobile Group deal with GM and Changan Ford is the most important thing at the moment.

"Well, this matter can indeed be dealt with properly."

"We can even think of ways to encourage some owners of GM and Changan Ford to make trouble and ask the OEM to give an explanation."

"At the same time, it will also make it impossible for those 4S stores that are still selling cars in stock to continue selling them."

Although GM and Changan Ford have been forced to suspend production, their 4S stores are still open.

After all, under normal circumstances, the combined inventory of OEMs and 4S stores is one or two months.

Even when the auto market is in recession, some brands can have as much inventory as five or six months.

In other words, if you stop production for half a year, the inventory of cars in the store may not be sold out.

"Yes, now that Nanshan Automobile Group has broken its relationship with General Motors and Ford, it will definitely hit these two brands as hard as possible."

"Otherwise, the United States bullies us every time, as if they have no influence at all."

"This time we will let Americans know what it feels like to kill a thousand enemies and suffer eight hundred losses."

He Ling must have very strong opinions on what the United States is doing.

If companies in the Nanshan Group are suppressed at every turn, it will be impossible to see companies in China mastering core technologies.

"In addition to after-sales parts, during this period, both GM and Changan Ford are desperately looking for replacement suppliers to produce parts."

"We all know that it normally takes one or two years or even longer to complete the development of important parts."

"As a result, they want to complete all the work within half a year, which will inevitably lead to some parts being installed on the car without sufficient verification. This is irresponsible to consumers."

"We should let everyone know about their behavior. Even if they resume production in the future, there will be no way to attract consumers to continue to buy their models."

If you hit a snake, you have to kill it, otherwise you might get bitten.

Yu Yu is also very clear about this.

After discussing the countermeasures with He Ling, Yu Yu personally called Mi Ying and made an appointment with Cao Yang for a face-to-face report.

"Of course these actions can be done."

"But you don't have to feel any pressure. In the end, GM and Changan Ford will definitely not be able to easily resume production."

"Don't worry, they are now hurriedly finding a bunch of companies to produce our substitute products, but this process will take half a year at the fastest."

"After they have worked so hard to come up with all the replacement products, we can use another method to drain the bottom line and make them fall into a new round of suspension of production."

When Cao Yang said this, Yu Yu immediately continued: "Mr. Cao, is there any backup plan in our group that we haven't used yet?"

Yu Yu had been racking his brains during this period and could not think of a way to permanently stop production of GM and Changan Ford.

Unless relevant Chinese departments come forward, this is obviously unlikely.

After all, although the relationship between the two sides is deteriorating, China cannot take the initiative to break away from the world like North Korea.

"It's very simple. When the time comes, just find one or two suppliers to cooperate with and let them find a reason to cut off supply to GM and Changan Ford."

"There are so many parts on the car. Without any one part, the vehicle will not be able to roll off the production line smoothly."

"When this method is used a few more times, it is estimated that the hearts of GM and Changan Ford will be completely dispersed."

When Cao Yang said this, Yu Yu couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.

This move is really a bit cruel.

It makes you so heartbroken that you will never be able to resume production.

Both GM and Changan Ford have hundreds of suppliers, and there must be several manufacturers among them that are willing to be bought by Nanshan Automobile Group.

The cost is that they will no longer be able to do business with General Motors and Ford, and even the joint venture car companies will no longer be able to do business.

But Nanshan Automobile Group is fully capable of finding ways to make up for other people's losses.

Everyone starts a company just to make money. As long as Nanshan Automobile Group can find a better way for people to make money, then some suppliers are willing to backstab GM and Changan Ford.

As for whether doing this will lead to lawsuits, there are many ways to avoid it.

For example, the equipment suddenly breaks down, a fire breaks out in the factory, or the mold is damaged.

Anyway, you don’t want the parts to be produced normally, so why can’t you find a way?

Ordinary companies will not use this trick, but once it is used, the lethality is absolutely huge.

"Mr. Cao, if this is the case, I think the people at General Motors and Ford will regret their participation in the comprehensive suppression of us."

Yu Yu's inner pressure suddenly decreased a lot.

The situation of Nanshan Automobile Group is far from being as bad as I imagined.