Ef Grant Reit: From faltering to the little giant over the years

Economic Observer reporter Feng Qingyan has thick eyebrows, big eyes, a Chinese character face, a partial head, and wears a pair of rimless glasses all year round, Xu Lijin himself gives people a kind and simple feeling. Recently, he often lamented to the outside world, "In recent years, the robot industry is in a hurry, nor can it be slow, nor can it wait." Xu Lijin saw that the external environment faced by Eft Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. (688165, hereinafter referred to as "Eft") is undergoing rapid changes. "Now we are facing major changes unprecedented in a century," Xu Lijin, chairman of Eft, admitted in an exclusive interview with the Economic Observer reporter recently.

After graduating from university in 1998, Xu Lijin has been engaged in working with equipment. "From maintaining equipment to developing equipment by yourself, the company I led eventually achieved a market launch in the science and technology innovation version," he recalls. Now that Eft has been selected into the first list of the new small giants of the national specialization, Xu Lijin said that this is more of a spur and encouragement to them.

"The birth of disruptive technologies, the emergence of new business models, changes in customization and intelligent needs, etc.," Xu Lijin said, in order to meet this change, Eft has also been keeping up with the trend and development of the times, in new directions and fields layout.

Xu Lijin frankly said that only by maintaining the advanced and irreplaceable nature of technology and intensively cultivating the direction of "specialization, refinement, specialization and novelty" can we take advantage of the momentum and be the "little giant" of the industry.

origin

"After I graduated from college, I joined Chery and had the honor to participate in and witness the historical process of Chery's rapid progress." Xu Lijin told reporters, "The significance of this journey in my heart is extraordinary, during this time, I participated in and witnessed the establishment of China's own brand cars. ”

After graduating from university, Xu Lijin stood in Chery's automobile production workshop. The scene that Xu Lijin personally experienced at that time has been lingering in his mind for many years. He saw that in the stamping workshop, the workers carried dozens of kilograms of steel plates to form and punch on the side of the press, and the heavy stamping parts were pressed breathlessly. There was a loud noise that made people's eardrums buzz. If you are not careful, you may be bruised, scratched or crushed.

In the welding workshop, welding machine sparks are splashed. In the middle of summer, the summer is steaming, the workers hold tens of kilograms of welding tongs, wear thick protective clothing, tired and sweaty, and if they are not careful, they will be burned by sparks and welding chips splashed in the air.

The scene in the painting workshop is also not beautiful. The air smelled of paint, and despite the protective gear, workers inevitably inhaled paint and dust over the years when spraying their cars with bright "exteriors."

In the assembly workshop, the workers work hard to carry heavy parts, one by one on the car, heavy and boring.

To this day, Xu Lijin has to sigh, although cars were luxury goods at that time, buying a car can even buy three or five suites. But back then, the working environment in the automobile manufacturing industry was relatively poor, and the workers worked tirelessly, not only hard, but also dangerous. "The company's entrepreneurs are in the midst of China's reform and opening up. At the time, China's manufacturing industry was faltering, especially the auto industry, which represented high-end manufacturing. Xu Lijin recalled to reporters.

At the beginning of 2000, by chance, Xu Lijin could visit and study in developed countries. "The first time I went abroad to study in Germany, when I walked into the Production Workshop of Volkswagen and BMW, the fully automated production scene. Let me deeply feel that the huge gap between domestic and foreign intelligent equipment, such an efficient production workshop, brought me a huge shock. Xu Lijin told reporters.

That was obviously a different sight. Xu Lijin saw that the automobile manufacturing workshops in developed countries are full of robots and automated assembly lines. Workers only need to sit in the monitoring room, watch live video, remotely start and diagnose equipment. As soon as the worker pressed the button, he passed from the stamping workshop to the assembly workshop, and one car after another went off the production line. "'If China wants to catch up with and surpass foreign countries, it obviously can't rely on the tactics of the sea of people alone.'" This was my biggest impression at that time," Xu Lijin admitted, and it is precisely because of seeing the huge gap between home and abroad that Chery began to introduce foreign equipment, while considering the economy, in the process that can be replaced, it is replaced by automation equipment, which opens the road to automation of Chery.

Then came the new question. Xu Lijin said that China did not have the conditions to manufacture robots at that time, so it had to be bought! Auto companies import high-end robot equipment from abroad, from internationally renowned companies such as KUKA and ABB. Although this has changed the production conditions of the workshop, the ability and financial resources necessary to control these high-end equipment should not be underestimated. "If the robot at the production site fails, asking foreign engineers for technical support is not only expensive, but also delays the production cycle."

"The equipment bought from abroad encountered the bottleneck of after-sales service, which triggered me to develop robots independently," Xu Lijin said of the birth of Eft.

A deep feeling of Xu Lijin is that "the core technology cannot be bought, and if China does not master the core technology, it will always be subject to foreign countries." "Buying advanced equipment can only solve the urgent need, can not solve the fundamental problem: only advanced "weapons" can make China win the "hard battle" of intelligent manufacturing.

So, in 2007, the prototype of Eft, Chery Equipment Company, was established. Xu Lijin may not have imagined that the company, which was born out of the equipment manufacturing department under Chery Automobile Equipment Department, will grow into the largest robot leader in China's production and sales in the future, and was successfully listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board in July 2020.

gene

"By chance, but by necessity." Xu Lijin told reporters. With the establishment of the company, the prototype of the company's mission was also born - "manufacturing intelligent equipment and liberating human productivity". Xu Lijin led Eft, and since then has opened the road of research and development and manufacturing of high-end robot equipment.

Xu Lijin deeply realized that high-end equipment manufacturing is indeed not as easy as making shoes and cups, and it is not something that can be made just by reference. The robot industry needs higher technical gold content, but at that time, the robot industry was almost all gathered in foreign developed countries.

Xu Lijin remembers that in 2008, the second year of the company's establishment, the first key node event occurred along the way of the company. That year, the first robot developed by Eft in cooperation with HIT was officially put into use, "which is a major breakthrough in our research and development results," Xu Lijin told reporters. It was a spot welding robot with a heavy load of 165 kilograms. In Eft's ticker symbol "688165", the last three digits "165" were specially chosen by Eft to pay tribute to this robot.

After that, Eft realized the original dream of applying the first spot welding robot workstation and the first spot welding robot production line in the automotive industry, but the company is still a child who relies on the big tree of Chery, not only in the nature of the company, it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chery, and most of the robot products produced are supplied to Chery's automobile production line.

"2013 was a very critical year." Xu Lijin said he believes this is the company's second critical milestone after 2008. That year, Xu Lijin, who was depressed to find a solution to the problem, overheard that the owner of the bathroom company complained that the high salary of the glaze spray link could not recruit people, and made a bold decision. Since then, Eft has gradually stepped out of the automotive industry, and has applied the self-developed industrial robots in sub-industries such as sanitary ware, ceramics, home appliances, 3C electronics, furniture, etc., and has achieved the success of market expansion.

Two years later, Eft ushered in a third critical juncture. "In 2015, in the process of subsequent market segment development, I obviously felt the technical shortcomings. It is necessary to lead to 'wisdom' and must go out of the 'ocean'. Xu Lijin told reporters that in order to enhance technical capabilities, Eft practiced the two-wheel drive strategy of "independent innovation + overseas mergers and acquisitions". After 2014, Eft has acquired CMA Robot, EVOLUT, ROBOX and so on. "The four European companies that have been acquired successively can form a deep complement with Eft, and truly make up for shortcomings and strong capabilities." Xu Lijin told reporters that Eft really got it, and digested and sucked up foreign technology, not only to hold the Chinese market, but also to leverage the ultra-high cost performance of domestic intelligent equipment, and grabbed the European and even global markets.

In this process, the company's mission is also clearer. That is, "making" intelligent equipment has become "intelligent" intelligent equipment. Xu Lijin believes that we must innovate, we must learn, we must have an international vision, and we must create a world-class standard. Therefore, the company's mission took shape as follows: "'Smart' to create intelligent equipment, liberate human productivity." The company's vision is formed: "Committed to becoming an international first-class intelligent equipment provider." ”

Xu Lijin told reporters that from the birth of Eft's first welding robot in 2008, thousands of companies have now applied Eft's products. After the test of time, Eft robots and cross-industry intelligent manufacturing solutions are widely used in automobiles and parts, 3C electronics, rail transit, aerospace, casting, furniture and wood, sanitary ceramics, photovoltaics, construction machinery and other industries, and exported to Europe, Asia, Africa and other countries and regions.

"My lifelong pursuit is to provide affordable, easy-to-use and affordable intelligent robots for global customers, as well as cross-industry intelligent manufacturing overall solutions." To build the first brand of industrial robots in China and become the first echelon enterprise of global industrial robots. Xu Lijin told reporters.