In Guangrao, the competitiveness standard of a tire company is quietly changing. Nowadays, it no longer depends solely on the number of production lines, but on how many services are “integrated” into the production line.
This change has allowed Guangrao Tire to move onto a new development track and reshape the tire value chain.
Some time ago, when Li Xiaodong, the foreign trade sales director of Shandong Hongsheng Rubber Technology Co., Ltd., was investigating the East Malaysian market, he discovered that there were special needs for local vehicles transporting palm oil.
These vehicles need to drive on potholed dirt roads first, and then turn to flat asphalt roads, making multiple trips a day. Ordinary mine tread tires and conventional tread tires cannot take care of both.
The company quickly organized sales and R&D personnel to conduct multiple on-site surveys and repeatedly tackle key problems, and finally launched a product that can take into account both road conditions.
The customer is very satisfied and now thousands of items are shipped steadily every month.
In addition, the company has also developed a variety of snow tires suitable for different scenarios and consumer groups in response to the winter tire needs in Northern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Its annual export volume has reached 2 million.
From “selling what is available” to “making what is lacking”, Hongsheng Rubber’s transformation is a vivid epitome of Guangrao’s tire industry moving towards service-oriented manufacturing.
In the pilot base of Guangrao Rubber Industry Research Institute of Qingdao University of Science and Technology, the rubber raw material of “hollow microspheres” was added to become a silent and highly wear-resistant tread masterbatch.
This innovation opens a new breakthrough for Shandong Huasheng Rubber Group, which is adjacent to the research institute, to solve the problem of tire noise control for new energy vehicles.
Xiao Shenglong, R&D director of Huasheng Rubber Group, said frankly that in the past, the built-in silent cotton solution was mainly relied on to solve tire noise, but there were problems such as complicated processes and increased weight.
In response to the pain points of enterprise technology research and development and the precise docking needs of the research institute, the two parties jointly tackled the problem and used micron-sized silicon-based hollow microspheres to replace part of the silica, achieving simultaneous optimization of cost and performance.
Such achievement transformation has become the norm in Guangrao.
The institute has implemented more than ten technologies such as dual-power intelligent vulcanizing machines into local enterprises. After the vulcanizing machine project was put into operation, its production capacity increased by 8%, creating economic benefits of more than 50 million yuan.
After R&D services were embedded in the production line, Guangrao Tire’s competitiveness quickly gave rise to a higher level of “service overflow” – technology output.
Not long ago, Shandong Huasheng Rubber Group reached a technical cooperation with Pakistan GTR Tire Company and established a joint venture in Pakistan.
Huasheng is no longer a pure product supplier, but as a “technology exporter”, providing a full set of core process and equipment support.
GTR production manager Karim said that China’s tire industry is at the forefront of the world, and Huasheng is their best partner for upgrading.
GTR company occupies 70% of the local market share, with an annual production capacity of 4 million pieces.
This cooperation is not only a strong alliance, but also marks Huasheng’s strategic upgrade from product export to all-round output of technology, standards and experience.
Technology going overseas requires quality escort.
At the Guangrao County Rubber Tire Product and Material Quality Inspection Center, the tire rolling resistance testing machine is running at high speed.
The center’s testing results are internationally recognized, with an annual testing capacity of 2,600 items.
Song Jian, director of the office of Yongsheng Rubber Group, said that in the past, the inspection cycle was long and the cost was high, but now the inspection center is at the doorstep.
The facilitation of testing services has forced manufacturing upgrades. Yongsheng Rubber has built an Industry 4.0 smart factory. The CNC rate of core equipment exceeds 95%, reducing labor costs by 2/3, and simultaneously improving production efficiency and quality.
At present, the digitalization rate of key tire companies in the county has reached 90%, and the “Rubber Tire Industry Brain” is about to be launched.
Service-oriented manufacturing also requires a complete industrial ecological foundation.
Guangrao has formed a full industrial chain centered on tire manufacturing and integrating synthetic rubber, additives, skeleton materials, carbon black, molds, etc., with a local matching rate of up to 75%.
Based on this, Guangrao innovatively implements the “tire-as-a-service” model, builds a full life cycle management platform, and promotes the extension of the industry to the entire chain of R&D, testing, marketing, and operation and maintenance.
On May 15, the 16th Guangrao International Rubber Tire Exhibition will open.
With the theme of “Global Manufacturing, Guangrao Service”, this exhibition will set up a service-oriented manufacturing exhibition area for the first time. A service-oriented manufacturing innovation and development conference will be held at the same time.
Moussa, an Algerian businessman, has witnessed the transformation of Guangrao Tire. He said that when he first came to Guangrao ten years ago, the tires were competitive at low prices; now they are of excellent quality, with high-end products priced at more than 1,000 yuan per unit, and the price/performance ratio is still leading.
From R&D services to technology output, from customized design to testing and certification, from smart factories to industrial brains, from supporting circles to exhibition platforms – Guangrao Tire’s transformation path is clearly visible: with manufacturing as the foundation and service as the engine, every tire is “filled with” the added value of service.
