February 28th, the two sessions are about to be held, and the Chinese construction machinery industry is also looking forward to new policies and new opportunities. According to industry insiders, with the further deepening and expansion of China's new urbanization, there may be more favorable news for the Chinese construction machinery industry at the two sessions, driving the entire sector up and performance stronger.

In the Chinese construction machinery sector, with the large-scale development of China's open-pit mining equipment and the need for large-scale engineering construction, the market demand for large-tonnage excavators is becoming more and more urgent. Due to the constraints of core technology, product performance and other factors, in the Chinese excavator market of "domestic market, international competition", large excavators are almost completely monopolized by foreign brands, and the voice of domestic brands is minimal. Since 2010, XCMG Group has taken the step of independently developing large-tonnage excavators. After three years of concentrated research, it has successfully achieved large-scale production and sales. In 2013, in the ranking of 70-ton excavator market share, XCMG's independently developed XE700C crawler hydraulic excavator took the lead with a market share of 34.7%, breaking the monopoly of foreign brands. This news undoubtedly gave Chinese excavator companies the confidence and strength to catch up.

XCMG's excavator industry started in 2008 and has been in operation for 5 years. In just 5 years, it has gone through the development path of 10 or even 20 years for peer companies, and the speed has amazed the industry. In 2013, XCMG's excavator product sales reached 9,000 units, ranking among the top two domestic companies in China. Behind these achievements, relying on XCMG's world-renowned brand influence and powerful industrial platform, condensed XCMG's unremitting efforts to adhere to independent innovation and adhere to the dream of equipment power.

Independent research and development, overcoming the technical difficulties of large-tonnage excavators

Large-scale mining excavators are mainly used in open-pit mining. Due to their harsh construction environment and high-load construction intensity, they have strict requirements on the advancement and reliability of products. In order to achieve mass production and sales, they must have super strong technical strength and be able to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies such as power, hydraulics, and parts.

"We must plan and implement the cultivation and market entry of large-scale excavators from a high starting point to create a new growth point of "three highs and one large." This is the clear requirement of Wang Min, Chairman of XCMG Group, to the Excavator Machinery Division.

The construction characteristics of large-scale mining excavators are high operation intensity and long construction time, which places particularly high requirements on the reliability of structural parts. In order to meet the user's use requirements, the large-tonnage excavator R&D team went deep into the construction site, collected the working load spectrum in detail, mastered the stress and strain distribution state of the working device during the working process, combined with the use of finite element analysis and laboratory bench experiments, and continuously optimized the structure through data analysis and collation, strengthened the weak parts, and effectively improved the life of the working device under complex working conditions.

Compared with internationally renowned brands, domestic excavator brands have a large gap in technology accumulation. In order to break the technical barriers, the XCMG excavator R&D team successfully developed its own control system and successfully applied it on large excavators such as 37 tons, 47 tons, 70 tons, 90 tons and 130 tons, making XCMG excavators reach international advanced levels in terms of energy consumption and efficiency indicators, and achieved good market response.

Cost-effectiveness and economy are the focus of customer attention, and low fuel consumption and high efficiency are important criteria for measuring excavator performance. In the early stage of the experiment, the efficiency and fuel consumption indicators of XE700C were not ideal. The R&D team collected a large amount of actual data at the construction site in Inner Mongolia, and continuously optimized the control system, greatly reducing power loss. After on-site testing, while ensuring the original efficiency, the excavator's fuel consumption was reduced by an average of two liters per hour.

Subsequently, when conducting verification experiments in mines in Qinghai, large-tonnage excavators experienced a series of "altitude reactions". The entire R&D team had a heated discussion on how to solve the problem of environmental adaptability and opened up a "second battlefield" on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After countless days and nights of hard work, we finally developed a plateau adaptive mode. The excavator can automatically adjust the system power according to the working environment, successfully overcoming the problem of "difficult breathing" in the plateau environment. At the same time, the newly developed multifunctional machine effectively solves the problem of high hardness of plateau soil and maximizes the excavation efficiency.

With the support of the global collaborative R&D platform, XCMG Excavator Division strives to solve the common technologies, key technologies and supporting technologies of industrial development through key technology innovation and system integration innovation, and accelerates independent innovation and industrial upgrading. Major breakthroughs have been made in the research of autonomous hydraulic systems and key hydraulic components of large-tonnage excavators. The 70-ton excavator has a number of patented technologies such as power adaptive matching control, plateau frozen soil construction, and hydraulic vibration elimination closed-end branch, which shines in the plateau environment.

Focus on customers and ensure high reliability of products

Quality is the lifeline of products. XCMG Excavator Division takes the promotion of XCMG Continuous Change System (XPS) and "T Plan" strategy as the main line, and uses Lean Six Sigma management and benchmarking management as the method support to build a lean design, lean manufacturing, and lean supporting quality platform, and continuously cultivates a professional team of employees who pursue quality, so that product quality has been rapidly improved, and key quality indicators such as early failure rate have gradually approached the advanced level of the industry, supporting the continuous high-speed leading of business development with quality breakthroughs.

Advanced manufacturing technology is a strong guarantee for product reliability. At the beginning of 2013, the first phase of the new XCMG Excavator Industrial Base was put into operation, and a number of industry-leading manufacturing equipment such as intelligent flexible welding lines, automated coating lines, automated flexible assembly lines, and online monitoring systems for whole machine performance were put into use, which comprehensively improved the equipment level.

Behind the improvement of manufacturing methods is the sublimation of management ideas and the cultivation of professional capabilities. Since 2009, XCMG Excavator has begun to fully implement lean management and established a lean manufacturing operation system consisting of a comprehensive change management system, a comprehensive flow management system, and a full-staff production maintenance system. Comprehensive flow management makes value flow and improves enterprise efficiency and effectiveness; comprehensive change management system forms a culture of full participation in improvement and provides a continuous driving force for change; full production maintenance ensures the stability and efficiency of manufacturing process resources.

Details determine success or failure. In the welding process of the excavator working device, it is often necessary to grind the weld. A slight grinding scratch may cause a boom to crack. How to avoid scratching the surface of the steel plate is a difficult problem. The process technicians and workers repeatedly experimented and tried different grinding tools and grinding techniques. After repeated experiments and repeated failures, they finally summarized a set of standard grinding processes. The cracking rate of the booms ground by this method is greatly reduced. It is the countless times of such meticulous detail processing that ensures the high reliability of XCMG excavator manufacturing quality.

While strengthening internal quality control, XCMG excavators have broadened the vision of lean manufacturing to the entire value chain. In order to solve the casting technology problems of large excavator working device castings as soon as possible, process technicians entered the supplier's production site. After months of all-night tracking and analysis, we finally found a solution to the problem that affects casting quality. It is through such unremitting efforts that XCMG excavators have established industry-leading process technology standards and quality control standards, and their product quality has reached the industry's advanced level.

Create differentiated services and achieve "zero distance" service for large tonnage

Mining sites are generally constructed with excavators and mining dump trucks. Once the excavator fails, it will affect the entire construction progress, which puts extremely high demands on the after-sales service of the product.

In 2012, customers in major mining areas across the country had a deeper understanding of XCMG excavators' "full process, all-weather, all-round, wholehearted" service commitment. Regardless of day or night, whether it is sunny, rainy or snowy, whether the excavator fails or not, service engineers patrol the mining area around the clock as "personal guards" to ensure that each machine is working normally and create the greatest value for customers.

This is the unique feature of XCMG excavator's "one-to-one zero-distance" service model - professional service engineers are stationed in the mining area, a common parts reserve is established, and points are set up according to the mine. When the mine moves, the points move, and when the points move, the people and parts move with it. As the customer Mr. Zhang said: "The large excavator body is heavy and high, difficult to repair, requires a lot of auxiliary equipment, and is relatively time-consuming. In order to save time for our customers, XCMG built a service point in my mine, which is the first time in the industry!"

Large-tonnage "zero-distance" service is not only an innovation in service model, but also an extension of XCMG excavator's service concept of "creating customer value and helping customers succeed". As XCMG's large-tonnage excavators account for an increasing proportion in the product sales structure, continuously improving service levels and customer satisfaction, and creating a highly personalized and differentiated service brand have become the unremitting goals of XCMG excavators.