Li Guiping, Managing Director of CIMC Vehicles, pointed out that China’s traditional manufacturing business is facing a large number of challenges, and the automobile industry is undergoing unprecedented changes, including the control of oversize and overload transport, the tightened environmental protection supervision, the elimination of outdated manufacturing equipment and backward technologies, the shortage of labourers and limitations due to emissions.
The establishment of Guachebang, a CIMC start-up, should not be simply considered as CIMC Vehicles’ extension of its manufacturing business to service sectors. It is CIMC Vehicles’ efforts to perform its corporate social responsibility and to implement its operating principle to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the industry. By pioneering the share trailer business model, encouraging increased participation of well-known companies and stimulating the reasonable reallocation and utilisation of industrial resources, CIMC Vehicles will help the logistics industry reduces costs and improve efficiency.
With the mission statement: ‘Global operation, local knowledge’ China’s ambitious OEM, CIMC Vehicles Group, is dedicated to providing reliable and efficient trailers and vehicles for road transport businesses worldwide.
CIMC Vehicles has 25 production facilities and a total of 13,000 employees. In fact, more than 60 per cent of the OEM’s trailers are sold in mainstream markets throughout the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Australia as well as emerging markets including the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America.
On the manufacturing front, CIMC claims to use world-leading weld sensing and arc tracking technology, which is integrated into robotics to effectively correct positional deviation as per assembly and welding deformation. With offline programming software, the commissioning time of the robot system has been significantly shortened, resulting in efficiency gains.
To bolster its production pedigree, CIMC invests in a coating process that includes electro coating and powder coating, which is not only efficient but also environmentally friendly. The OEM offers a seven-plus year warranty to its customers for this standard service offering. In terms of research and development, CIMC has obtained over 500 patents and key technologies.
Over the past few years, CIMC Vehicles has improved its intelligent manufacturing competence. At a vehicle evaluation and delivery ceremony, Zhang Xueli, a senior engineer from the Research Institute of Highway – Ministry of Transport, noted that a particular cusrtain-sider build incorporated the advantages of “intelligentisation” and lightweight design – embodying the wisdom of engineers from different countries.
In terms of design and manufacturing techniques, the trailer demonstrated an advanced level of ‘Made in China’, which is pivotal in the formulation, testing and verification of important industrial safety standards of the Ministry of Transport. This innovation also inspires China’s trailer industry to focus on improving safety, sustainability and efficiency.
In the logistics sector, CIMC Vehicles says that loading and unloading efficiency equates to operational efficiency. “Normally, a logistics company needs two hours to unload cargo from a truck and three hours to load. With our products, it needs 20 to 30 minutes for unloading, and one hour for loading and fastening – that’s a time saving of around 70 per cent.
This innovative curtain-sider has been integrated into the OEM’s R&D ‘Intellgentisation’ programs – equipped with with intelligent hardware and information management platforms. It is capable of solving such logistics problems as asset management, cost reduction, efficiency improvement and safety precaution, accessing the real-time status of cargo, conducting big data analysis, enabling transparency in the transport, and monitoring the safety of vehicles and payload via CIMC’s Sparks IOV System. Also, the vehicle features a number of the state-of- the-art technologies such as trailer tracking management, tyre temperature and pressure monitoring, RSS intelligent roll stability system and intelligent impact prevention and warning, bolstering vehicle safety.
As a world renowned supplier of quality road transport equipment, CIMC Vehicles has established a supply chain that ensures stable and prompt fulfilment via a calculated purchase strategy, which is backed by agile customer service and after-sales support.
Fast Fact
Following a boom in the Chinese market – driven by comprehensive regulatory reform – CIMC Vehicles sits comfortably at the peak of Global Trailer’s OEM ranking (see page 32). In 2014, the OEM sold a total of 115,200 special CIMC vehicles while last year it confirmed an upwards trend of 163,000 units.
Fast Fact
Meanwhile, the US arm of the Chinese powerhouse, CIMC Intermodal Equipment, hired Doug Dorn as Director – Business Development to help expand the North American market for intermodal chassis. Dorn brings extensive commercial vehicle industry experience with him to his new role at CIMC Intermodal Equipment, with more than 25 years in increasingly-responsible positions with SAF-Holland, and most recently as Vice President of Sales. Prior to joining SAF-Holland, he had held executive positions with Holland Hitch, West Publishing Company and Hormel Foods. Throughout his commercial vehicle career, Dorn has specialised in new business generation focusing on key market development.
“CIMC Intermodal Equipment is expanding in North America at a substantial pace,” said CIMC Intermodal Equipment Vice President Sales & Marketing, Trevor Ash. “Doug’s skills, along with the relationships he has built in our industry, will be a primary driver to our future growth. We’re certainly pleased he has joined the CIMC IE team,” he said.