Liu Bin: Doing the "Best" Dongfeng Cummins

"Actually, electronically controlled engines are not as complicated as they are supposed to be. They are as simple as the ordinary electronic products we use." Liu Bin's remarks were immediately filled with icy, dull, and full of high-tech Chinese III engines. Curiosity and intimacy. As general manager of marketing company of Dongfeng Cummins Engine Co., Ltd., he defined the products of the service company as follows: "Dongfeng Cummins's engine is not the most expensive, but it can be guaranteed to be the best." After concise discourse, Dongfeng Cummins has become a steelmaker. The technology, products and services are silently supported.

Independent innovation is significant

As Cummins' world's largest medium- and heavy-horsepower engine production plant, Dongfeng Cummins has gained fame in the early years when the diesel engine market was not yet prosperous. It was the first to introduce pressurized medium-cooled diesel engines to the Chinese market. The products are based on simple structure and excellent performance. The reliability and lower fuel consumption have achieved the friendly title of "Consumer" and have made a lot of contributions to the market. Working hard in the medium-sized engine market has laid a good foundation for the Chinese market. 60% of the main business is all the strong momentum of the trucks, which makes it hard for the company with the ambition to target only the “horsepower engine market”.

Since it is necessary to develop, it means innovation and we must expand our product platform. In the past, Dongfeng Cummins relied on the introduction of Cummins mature products for local production in China. With an in-depth understanding of the Chinese market, Dongfeng Cummins increasingly feels that it must “have to own a product that is truly its own”—from the research and development, production, and sales of products to the implementation of the Chinese team. "Dongfeng Cummins is optimistic about the future of the Chinese truck market power upgrade, and has many years of mature experience in the manufacture of automotive engines, we hope to further expand the engine to the high horsepower market," Liu Bin said. It is not difficult to understand why Dongfeng Cummins would not hesitate to spend a large sum of 320 million yuan to develop the ISZ13L engine with the largest displacement on the market. "Products from the earliest ISD, ISL series to ISZ series, Dongfeng Cummins gradually from the introduction of technology to digestion and absorption, independent innovation. ISZ engine is the first Dongfeng Cummins has completely independent intellectual property rights, designed specifically for the Chinese market, one step In place to achieve local production of products. It is also an important complement to the entire Cummins product family, has now completed all road tests in China in harsh conditions."

The ISZ engine not only inherits the excellent "descent" of the Cummins family - small size, high power, small parts, platform design, high level of enhancement, high reliability, easy maintenance and other outstanding features, but also unique "in one step The "localization" advantage, which undoubtedly means more competitive prices and more convenient services. The ISZ13L engine is still in the prototyping stage. In the second quarter of this year, it has been completed on Liuqi, Futian, Hualing and Dongfeng vehicles. It is expected that the ISZ13L will be officially approved for production in the third quarter. "Even if a company outside Cummins China wants to produce ISZ series products, it needs to pay intellectual property fees to Dongfeng Cummins." Liu Bin is full of pride and self-confidence. "Our next step is to fully launch the ISZ marketing campaign in the domestic market." Although 13L machines are not yet mainstream, I believe that around 2011, with the advantage of 'the longest available time and the shortest stopping time', the 13L will become the mainstream power match for China's heavy trucks."

Multiple procedures in place

In most people's opinion, perhaps "excellent" is more encouraging than "in place."

However, the actual market tends to use facts to remind people that, in the competitive environment in which demand changes, “in place” is more responsible and more cautious than “excellent”, whether it has truly matching capabilities, service capabilities, etc. All are testing the adaptability of different manufacturers to the market. Thanks to Cummins unique PITTI and IQA (InstallationQualityAssessments engine installation review) procedures, Dongfeng Cummins can follow the standardized workflow to ensure that the "optimal results" appear in the above links.

The PITTI program for the after-sales service is a manifestation of Dongfeng Cummins's "all-round care" for new products. PITTI consists of five major components - Parts; various product-related materials, including manuals and service manuals; Training; Tools and Infant-care. These five systems are interlocked to ensure Dongfeng Cummins' service quality. For example, for the training, Dongfeng Cummins has set a strict number of restrictions, do not seek refinement more, do not seek deeper and faster - electronic train engine training for each class not more than 10 people, implemented in two phases. The first phase of training, side operations, while setting up faults, while solving problems; the second stage of on-site practice operations, through the strict process control to deepen service personnel and users of product awareness and understanding.

“In IQA, Dongfeng Cummins can work together with customers to ensure that the engine's optimal fuel consumption area overlaps with the specific performance of the entire vehicle and achieves matching optimization. If we do not complete the IQA review, we will never provide bulk shipments to customers.” Liu Bin said, "This can be said to be the characteristics of Dongfeng Cummins, but also other manufacturers can not do." To some extent, IQA can be understood as Dongfeng Cummins to meet the specific needs of different users of the process security system. Liu Bin added that as the country entered the third phase of the electronic control era, the engine has more and more powerful features, but in the Chinese market, due to the restrictions of the development stage, the vehicle can not fully play the engine's maximum functionality. In this way, manufacturers need to close some functional interfaces according to the needs of users. "Many advanced features of Dongfeng Cummins Engine have been widely used in Europe and the United States, such as GPS positioning and "black box" that are conducive to logistics management, and will be gradually connected to Chinese customers through IQA based on demand."

The institutionalized work flow is sufficient to ensure Dongfeng Cummins to do the best product; and in the exchange with Liu Bin, the "strict" word repeatedly emphasized, but can not help but let people appreciate that Dongfeng Cummins's products are going down the assembly line and submitting users. In the process of being formally put into operation, it has been undergoing rigorous self-test. This company, which has always been committed to “best quality”, is using its own efforts to tell a fact: companies that pursue success not only need good technology and good products, but also need good marketing and service system protection, otherwise In the long-term market competition, the dream is likely to eventually turn into a mirror of the lack of support.