Either move forward smartly or stay put and get eliminated – the new era style of the heat exchanger market

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This post was last edited by wiseboy on 2018-3-9 at 13:58. Starting with the bidding processes for recent engineering projects: I. Historical tradition. As is well known, the traditional bidding process for heat exchange equipment follows this sequence: ① The owner hires a design institute to carry out the design – > ② The design institute produces the design drawings – > ③ The owner and contractor use these drawings to issue a bid – > ④ The manufacturing factory uses the drawings to proceed with production. Under this model, what matters most for manufacturers is: ① manufacturing equipment ； ②Manufacturing technicians II. New models: In the past 4 years (2015–2018), for modern tenders for heat exchange equipment, a considerable portion of these projects have followed one of the following two processes: 1. ① The client hires a design firm to carry out the design work -> ② The design firm passes the design tasks on to the manufacturing factory -> ③ The manufacturing factory prepares the design drawings and carries out the production. 2. ①The owner requests the manufacturer to produce the design drawings and carry out the manufacturing. In these two modes, what manufacturers compete on is: ① design technology ； ②Manufacturing equipment ； ③Manufacturing technicians – of course, the traditional model also exists, coexisting with the new one. The new model is now quite common, which has led to a differentiation among heat exchanger manufacturers: ① Some manufacturers stick to the old model; they are unable to participate in many tenders, cannot even understand the tender documents, and are thus excluded from such bidding processes, having to rely barely on the business opportunities provided by the old model to survive ； ② Some manufacturing plants stick to old models; unable to survive on the limited business generated by those old methods, they go bankrupt ； ③ Some manufacturing plants adapted to the trends of history by establishing design teams, successfully transitioning to new models and thus remaining invincible. III. How to Transition to the New Model 1. The key lies in mindset: The new model incorporates advanced design techniques, which deter some manufacturers psychologically and consciously; without conducting any research, they arbitrarily assume it is impossible to implement ； 2. Level of difficulty: Objectively speaking, design skills at an average or basic level are not more difficult than manufacturing skills; in fact, they are far easier than manufacturing skills ； 3. Investment: Simply put, the investment in terms of personnel and funds is minimal—just two or three people, a few tens of thousands of yuan, and a few days of training; this is sufficient to get things started, and it’s far cheaper than purchasing manufacturing equipment. IV. Summary of Transformation Practices 1. The need for transformation has been emphasized for over 5 years, and many manufacturing plants have successfully carried out this transformation. Judging from these successful cases, small manufacturing plants are the norm, rather than large, well-established factories ； 2. The key to successful transformation lies in the owner’s mindset, rather than personnel or financial investment. It has been proven that: two or three people, a few tens of thousands of yuan, and a few days of training are sufficient to get started ； 3. Family businesses need to bring in talent from outside the family. In some family-owned businesses, the transformation does not go as well as hoped; the key is for the owners to maintain the purity of the family lineage by preventing people from outside the family from entering the business. Moreover, these families suffer from poor human resources conditions – for example, they lack even any decent professionals in scientific or technical fields. V. Opportunities: In one sentence, it’s still possible to transform now. You either move forward smartly or stay put and get eliminated. Reference link: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1933373