Technology as the Ridge

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Aug 19, 2022, Mr. Wang asked Long Weiquan, director of the standard office, to share the abnormal case of A066 customer orders, and took this as an introduction to illustrate the creation of an internal culture centered on technology from the aspects of technological innovation to be ahead of the market, the verification of new processes to be rigorous and to overcome the current technical bottlenecks.

The abnormal case of A066 customer orders reflects that the internal technical strength of the enterprise is still insufficient in some aspects, and the engineering department does not play the functional role of the "four centers". The "four centers" include: R&D center, technology center, technical basic data Center, technical personnel training and delivery center. How to create an internal culture centered on technology, promote and apply new processes and new materials to actual production, and achieve mass and rapid production is the topic I will share with you at this meeting.

Technological innovation to be ahead of the market

The abnormality of A066 customer orders in the production process reflects the lack of our technological innovation ability and lack of pre-research ability. China's aerospace industry follows the development route and innovation approach of "exploration generation, pre-research generation, development generation, and production generation". The exploration generation focuses on long-term development and new concept research, the pre-research generation focuses on solving technical bottlenecks and new technology research that hinder aerospace development, the development generation refers to the development of new products, and the production generation refers to the formation of products and equipment or delivery to users. The route and approach of the "Four Generations" have been advanced in a scientific and orderly manner, which not only reserves the technology, but also successfully realizes the transition from achievement to product. The same is true for the development of communication network technology. While vigorously promoting 5G in recent years, communication companies represented by Huawei and ZTE have begun to develop 6G, and some companies are even exploring 7G technology. Although our technological innovation cannot achieve the "four generations", the research and development work must be ahead of the market or customer needs. For example, at this stage, the hot stamping process is mainly used in plastic frame products (or glue frame accessories). Should our technical team start to study the direct application of the hot stamping process to products made of metal, titanium, wood and other materials? In addition, the material assembly process of our temples is relatively mature in the product structure of solid color at the end of the leg + transparent color at the front end. Have we considered the transparent color in the middle + solid color at the front and rear, or the combination of transparent color at the front and rear + solid color in the middle to ensure that there will be no color mixing? In terms of technological innovation, we must be ahead of the market or customer needs, rather than waiting until the customer's new project has some technological structure, and then we find that our technical strength is not enough, and then we cross the river by feeling the stones. Only when technological innovation is ahead of the market, and when we have technical reserves and preparations in advance, can we respond quickly.

The verification of new processes to be rigorous

For each new project developed, the R&D department should expose all technical problems during the trial production of new products. If the technology at this stage is not mature enough or there are some technical bottlenecks, the R&D personnel should not be swollen and fattened, but should raise their hands in time to feed back the real situation to the salesman, who will inform the customer of the trial production or evaluation results. Don't let customers wait passively with expectations. This is not only responsible for the customer, but also responsible for the enterprise. Just as business investment needs to learn to stop loss in time, if it is not stopped in time, it may bring more trouble to customers. This requires a rigorous validation process from stock technology to product realization. In other words, the application and promotion of new technologies and new materials must be trial-produced in small batches of new products. In the trial production stage of new products, we must be scientific and rigorous, and we cannot pick out one or two samples from more than a dozen pairs and send them to customers like more than ten years ago. During the proofing stage, neither the problem was exposed nor the technical bottleneck was resolved. In the end, the customer placed a large-scale order, and the production workshop had to produce with illness. Trial production of a new product is like a new drug that goes through Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III clinical trials before it is officially launched on the market, and finally formulates the corresponding pharmacological instructions. Trial production of new products is to find and solve problems, to ensure mass and rapid production of large goods, and to formulate corresponding technical standards and quality standards to guide workshop production.

To overcome the current technical bottlenecks

For some new projects that were cancelled or closed midway due to technical bottlenecks in the early stage, we cannot close the case with the mentality of passing the test. New projects cancelled or closed midway do not mean that there is no market demand, nor does it mean that other customers will not place new projects with similar product structures. As a technical team, you must be bloody, and not being able to face technical problems is like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. The business team is the pioneer of open source, and their responsibility is to seize every opportunity to cooperate with customers, while the responsibility of the technical team is to find ways to implement new technologies and new materials through new products to meet customer needs. To this end, the company requires the engineering department to summarize the technical problems that affected cooperation with customers in the early stage, and organize forces to conduct trial production of new products and overcome technical problems. We must also master the mature craftsmanship of the eyewear industry such as adhesive, wrapping, hot stamping, and diamond setting, which can improve the company's ability to resist risks. Because most of the suppliers that cooperate with Wenzhou glasses manufacturing enterprises are some small-scale processing plants, their ability to resist risks is weak. If we rely too much on external processing factories, one of the processing factories will fail due to poor management, or the resignation of a certain technical backbone of a certain external processing factory may affect our delivery time, affect our quality, affect our output, and ultimately affect our customer service. Therefore, we have to study and delve the crafts that can be processed by some external factories, and we must take our destiny into our own hands. If we do not have the processing power of these crafts, we will be at the mercy of others. From an economic point of view, we can outsource processing, but outsourcing does not mean that we cannot do it. Whether or not an enterprise can do it is one thing, and whether it can be done is another.

In order to create an internal culture with technology as the ridge, in addition to understanding the most cutting-edge technologies outside, we should also be self-reliant and make research and development work ahead of market or customer needs, so that we can respond quickly. In addition, in the trial production stage of new products, we must be scientific and rigorous, learn to stop losses in time, and ensure that large quantities can be produced in batches and quickly. At the same time, we must formulate corresponding technical standards and quality standards to guide workshop production. For some new projects that have been cancelled or closed midway, we still have to carry out new product trial production and technical overcoming. For some mature craftsmanship in the optical industry, we must also study and delve, we must control our destiny in our own hands, which can not only improve the anti-risk ability of enterprises, but also improve the competitiveness of enterprises.