News and Information
ASIMCO Camshaft (Yizheng) Co., Ltd.
Hone Your Core Strength, Thrive in Adversity
Release Date:
12-10-22
Since the beginning of this year, the sluggish heavy-truck market has disrupted our company’s development trajectory and had a significant negative impact on various business performance indicators. At the same time, however, it has forced us to step back from responding to nearly irrational market growth demands, thereby exposing the drawbacks and shortcomings of our previous rough-and-ready expansion strategy. Despite this roller-coaster ride in market conditions, ASIMCO Camshaft remains firmly convinced that only superior quality, cost efficiency, and operational effectiveness can ensure the company’s survival. In active response to the Group’s call to “win in the downturn,” we have launched a series of improvement initiatives, pooling our collective efforts to maintain sales and EBITDA margins, enhance operational quality, and translate our corporate credo—“Quality is the bottom line for survival; efficiency is the condition for survival”—into concrete production practices. The core competitiveness of an enterprise lies in its internal strengths. Chen Aiguo, the company’s general manager, has emphasized that this year’s priority is to raise manufacturing standards while reducing production and operating costs. By stabilizing product quality, lowering COPQ, and enhancing product R&D and manufacturing capabilities, we aim to consolidate our foundation and strengthen the company’s ability to withstand market risks. On the technical and quality front, we continue to refine our process FMEA database, conduct monthly reviews, update control plans, and steadily improve both input-output ratios and the physical quality of our products. As a result, our cumulative COPQ has decreased by one percentage point compared with the same period last year. Given the large number of “second-hand” machines in our fleet—most of which have been in service for over 25 years and are increasingly difficult to maintain—the equipment department has continuously enhanced the FMEA database for equipment maintenance, providing technical support for timely and efficient repairs. This has led to a substantial reduction in failure rates. Moreover, workshop maintenance teams now draw up predictive maintenance schedules each month; for example, serious malfunctions such as derailments and overturns on the casting B line, which were common in previous years, have been completely eliminated over the past two years. Since the beginning of this year, there have been virtually no instances of production being disrupted due to equipment failures, ensuring smooth operations and putting an end to the past practice of using “second-hand equipment” as an excuse for problems. Meanwhile, the production department leverages on-site TPM management and lean manufacturing principles, conducts ergonomics research to reduce labor intensity, boost shift productivity, and lower unit production costs. Project management also maintains strict control over project timelines, advocating low-cost new-product development and rigorously advancing new-product R&D according to plan, so as to cultivate new growth drivers for the future. In addition, every manager is required to submit at least one rationalization proposal each month, employee suggestion activities are actively encouraged, and comprehensive cost-reduction and improvement initiatives are being carried out, ensuring that the principles of quality, cost, and efficiency permeate every stage of production and operations. To date, despite a roughly 15% increase in labor costs, a rise of about RMB 0.04 per kilowatt-hour in electricity prices, and a more than 3-percentage-point increase in sales and administrative expenses compared with the same period last year, these improvement measures have still resulted in a slight increase in sales and EBITDA margins compared with last year. We expect full-year performance to remain broadly flat versus last year, thereby ensuring the company successfully navigates the current market downturn.
Since the beginning of this year, the sluggish heavy-duty truck market has disrupted our company’s development and had a significant negative impact on our business performance. At the same time, it has prompted us to step back from responding to almost irrational market growth demands, exposing the drawbacks and shortcomings of our rough-and-ready expansion. Despite this roller-coaster market fluctuation, ASIMCO Camshaft remains firmly convinced that only superior quality, cost efficiency, and operational effectiveness can ensure the company’s survival. In active response to the Group’s call to “win in the downturn,” we have launched various improvement initiatives, pooled our collective wisdom and efforts, ensured that sales and EBITDA margin do not decline, enhanced operational quality, and translated our corporate credo—“Quality is the bottom line for corporate survival; efficiency is the condition for corporate survival”—into concrete production activities.
A company’s core competitiveness lies in its internal strengths. Chen Aiguo, the company’s general manager, has emphasized that this year’s priority is to enhance manufacturing capabilities while reducing production and operational costs—by maintaining product quality, lowering COPQ, and strengthening product R&D and manufacturing capacity—in order to solidify the foundation and bolster the company’s resilience to market risks. On the technical and quality front, the company has continuously refined its process FMEA database, conducting monthly reviews and updating control plans to steadily improve input–output efficiency and the physical quality of products; as a result, COPQ has cumulatively declined by one percentage point compared with the same period last year. Given the large proportion of “second-hand equipment” in the company—most of which have an actual service life exceeding 25 years and are difficult to maintain—the equipment department has consistently enhanced the FMEA database for equipment maintenance, providing technical support for timely and rapid repairs, thereby significantly reducing the failure rate. In addition, workshop maintenance teams now draw up predictive maintenance schedules each month; for instance, serious failures such as derailments and rollovers on Casting Line B, which were common in previous years, have been completely eliminated over the past two years, and since the beginning of this year there have been virtually no instances of production being disrupted by equipment malfunctions, ensuring smooth operations and putting an end to the past practice of using “second-hand equipment” as an excuse for problems. Meanwhile, the production department leverages on-site TPM management and lean manufacturing principles, conducts ergonomics research to reduce labor intensity, boost shift productivity, and lower unit production costs. Project management also maintains strict control over project timelines, advocating low-cost new-product development and rigorously advancing new-product R&D according to plan, with the aim of cultivating new growth drivers for the future. At the same time, every manager is required to submit at least one improvement proposal each month, employee suggestion initiatives are actively encouraged, and comprehensive cost-reduction and efficiency-improvement activities are carried out across the board, ensuring that the principles of quality, cost, and efficiency are integrated throughout all aspects of production and operations. To date, despite a roughly 15% increase in labor costs, a rise of about RMB 0.04 per kilowatt-hour in electricity prices, and a more than 3-percentage-point increase in sales and administrative expenses compared with the same period last year, these improvement measures have nonetheless resulted in a slight year-on-year increase in the sales-to-EBITDA ratio, with full-year performance expected to be broadly flat compared with last year—thus enabling the company to successfully navigate the current market downturn.
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ASIMCO Camshaft (Yizheng) Co., Ltd.
Recruitment Phone:+86-514-80857900/83429619
Sales Phone:+86-514-80857906/80857907
Procurement Phone:+86-514-80857930/80857931
Fax: +86-514-83429699
Email:liut@asimco-camyz.com
Address: No. 8, Shuanghuan Road, Yizheng Automotive Industrial Park, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province