On April 12, the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Academia Sinica (CRC) of Midea. Regarding the history of the past ten years, Wei Chang, vice president and CTO of Midea Group, commented: "The ten-year-old Midea CRC is still very young. From a global point of view, many corporate research institutes have a history of 100 years. From ten years to one hundred years, in Wei Chang's view, there are only four words at the core: "persistence, investment." ”
The road is simple, but it is not easy to do. Behind the persistence and investment, it must be the continuous implementation of achievements and the "two-way running" of the corporate culture that can drive R&D personnel to continue to innovate.
We will continue to consolidate the technical foundation and continue to promote the implementation of innovation
After ten years of growth, Midea CRC today is very different from when it was first founded. From the perspective of technical layout, the eight basic technology research institutes established by Midea CRC at the beginning of its establishment were more focused on the demand layout of Midea's main business at that time, that is, the field of home appliances, including fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, materials science, etc. As Midea's business continues to expand to the TO B field, Midea's Central Research Institute has also laid out technical directions such as medical devices and advanced energy storage.
Although Wei Chang did not disclose the proportion of projects involved in the two major fields of Midea's CRC TO B and TO C, Dr. Hust, assistant to the dean of Midea's CRC and director of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics, revealed that at present, Midea's CRC is divided into four areas of technology layout to support the group's business development, namely smart home, medical, robotics and energy. Among them, the field of smart home is divided into four directions: future home appliances, differentiated products, energy saving, and health and comfort products, the medical field is divided into four directions: CT, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasound and core components, the robot field is divided into four directions: heavy-duty reducer, heavy-duty core components, complete machine, and application technology; and the energy field lays out four technical directions: power electronics, next-generation heat pumps, batteries and new application technologies. In this regard, Wei Chang told the reporter of "Electrical Appliances": "Midea's CRC should focus on which technical fields to focus on depends on two aspects. One is to be highly matched with the group's strategy, and the second is to depend on the group's business areas to meet the demand for Midea's CRC technical support capabilities. ”
Dr. Li Taotao, director of the CT Research Institute of Midea CRC Medical Device Research Institute, introduced that Midea CRC Medical Device Research Institute was established in 2021 after the acquisition of Wandong Medical by Yumei, mainly responsible for the research and development of high-end medical device products and technologies. Midea CRC Advanced Energy Storage Technology Research Institute was established in 2023, and Huang Qunjian, director of the institute, introduced that Midea's CRC technology layout in this field focuses on the next generation of energy storage battery technology, which is also the technical layout with Midea's acquisition of Hekang New Energy and Kelu Electronics. Wang Wei is the head of visual perception at Midea's CRC Perception Technology Research Institute, and his main field is TO B, and the industrial vision field he focuses on is also empowering automation equipment based on KUKA. "More than 100 scenarios we have developed have been delivered to KUKA, including use cases such as tire assembly for Audi cars, using our vision technology solutions. ”
It is worth mentioning that the layout of various technical fields is not separated. The technological synergy and collision between various technical fields have produced more innovative results.
"For example, around 2015, we started building our thermal technology simulation capabilities, starting with writing the low-level simulation code, which at that time was mainly focused on refrigeration systems and heat pump systems. However, the simulation capabilities built from the underlying code can be further extended to Midea's other business lines, such as heat pump dryers, heat pump dishwashers, and refrigerators. For example, Hust said, "If you take refrigerators as an example, the new energy efficiency standards in Europe are now significantly higher than the previous ones, and the new A energy efficiency standards are 30% lower than the previous A+++ energy consumption." In this case, if we didn't have this set of simulation tools, it would be very difficult for us to achieve this level of energy consumption for our products. ”
Li Taotao also said that due to Midea's CRC's years of accumulation in mute technology, it can be quickly empowered to medical device products. "At present, the noise level of our CT and magnetic resonance products is significantly lower than that of the industry. In his view, Midea's CRC thermal technology can also empower the medical device category: "For CT products, thermal management is a very key technical point. In one of the projects we are about to complete, in the design of ultra-high-end CT detectors, Midea CRC Thermal Technology Research Institute can help the detectors achieve good temperature control. ”
In addition to the innovation achieved through the collision and integration of different technologies, the accumulation of ten years has also allowed Midea CRC to continue to cultivate in various technical fields. The Institute of Fluid Technology, where Hust is located, is a technical field that Midea CRC has laid out since its establishment. After ten years of accumulation, the fluid-related technologies of Midea's major business divisions have also been precipitated and accumulated, and the technical capabilities have been significantly improved. In this case, how can the CRC's fluid technology research institute set up in the United States continue to play its value? Hust told the reporter of "Electrical Appliances": "This will allow us to be deeper, more free, and more free in the research and breakthrough of fluid technology." Hust said that in this case, on the one hand, the institute can do more cutting-edge and innovative research, and on the other hand, it can empower Midea's new product field.
A culture of innovation is taking shape, and the attractiveness of talent is greatly enhanced
Obviously, the increasing expansion of Midea's business field, continuous investment in R&D, and Midea's CRC accumulation for ten years have also formed its own innovation culture, and Midea is forming a "magnetic field" that attracts talents to join.
After Li Taotao passed the interview, he was still hesitant to join Midea in his heart, until Midea invited him to participate in that year's Science and Technology Month, which made him make up his mind instantly. "At that time, my heart could only be described by the word 'shock'. For the outside world, Midea is a home appliance company. But the Science and Technology Month made me see Midea's technical strength and Midea's determination to continue to invest in R&D. Li Taotao said, "You must know that for medical devices, continuous investment is needed to become a global top enterprise like 'GPS' (referring to GE, Philips, and Simense Healthcare)." The beauty made me see such strength. ”
For Wang Wei, Midea's broad business field has brought him challenges and space to exert its value. "For example, in the application scenario of Audi tire assembly, the accuracy requirement is 0.2 mm. I am at Midea CRC, and the opportunity to receive such external demand is very attractive to me personally. Fu Degang is a leading simulation expert in the thermal system engineering laboratory of Midea's CRC Institute of Thermal Technology, and will join Midea CRC in 2023. "Through simulation, it's very clear that the division has improved R&D efficiency," he says. In addition, Midea's business scope is very wide, which can enable simulation technology to be empowered in many fields. ”
The culture thus formed is summed up by Hust as "a culture of mutual fulfillment". Huang Qunjian further said: "On this platform of Midea, our R&D personnel can realize their personal value and put what each of us has accumulated over the years into use. At the same time, we can also promote the development of the enterprise. It's a mutual achievement, and it's a two-way street. Wang Liying, head of functional coatings and materials at Midea's CRC Materials and Health Research Institute, also said: "It is very rewarding to match what you have learned with your corporate strategy and do something that can drive the development of the industry." ”
Cao Hongjun, a system dynamics expert from Midea's CRC Institute of Solid Mechanics, has been with Midea for more than ten years, but will only join Midea's CRC in 2023. "Doing R&D in Midea's business division is more about thinking about solving specific problems, while in Midea's CRC, the challenge is more about the difficulty and depth of the problem itself. He told the reporter of "Electrical Appliances", "I came to the CRC in the United States because I hope that I will have a bigger platform and do professional things deeper and at a lower level." ”
In addition, Midea is becoming more and more tolerant of R&D personnel, and has also become the core of its corporate culture to attract talents to join. Cao Hongjun introduced that he once spent four years to solve a technical problem and became the science and technology star of the year. In response, he said: "I am very grateful to the company for giving me so much time to solve a problem. As a "young veteran" of Midea's CRC, Hust has a deeper understanding of the company's tolerance for R&D personnel: "On the platform of Midea's CRC, we can not only do the projects that the company needs you to do, but also put forward our own ideas. It's the other way around, if I think it's valuable to the business, and I think I should do that direction, I can bring it up. This is a particularly rare aspect of organizational culture. ”
In 2020, I joined Midea CRC just after graduating with a doctorate, and the perspective of "tolerance" is trial and error. "If you do a lot of exploration and try and you end up failing, that's okay," he said. I came up with a 'misconduct report' of the failure case, which is to tell people that this path is not going to work, and it is still a very valuable thing. ”
Regarding the importance of innovation culture, Cheng Li said: "There are many capable people in this world, but there must be the right soil for his ability to be brought into play." That's culture. ”
As for the connotation of innovation culture, Wei Chang concluded: "Freer and more flexible working hours, a fault-tolerant environment, allowing failure and even embracing failure, these are all innovation cultures that can inspire R&D personnel to be self-driven." ”
Sit for ten years, look at a hundred years. Regarding the future of Midea CRC, Wei Chang said: "Our goal is to make Midea CRC a world-class R&D institution. We are still far from that goal. Therefore, we need to further expand and improve the R&D team, and in addition, we must further strengthen the organization's support for R&D personnel. Midea CRC has been established for 10 years, ten years, really young, and we still have a long way to go. What we want to do is to consolidate the technical foundation in accordance with the established strategy, support the business growth of the group through technological innovation, achieve business traction, and achieve technological leadership. ”
Text/Chen Li