Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 95 Moving forward in the storm

"Southern Weekend" had a huge influence in 2001.

When he published a special article on it, using wheel bearings as an example to expose the chaos in the automotive after-sales industry, it naturally attracted huge attention in the industry.

Especially car owners have been cheated by car repair shops to some extent.

Repairable parts must be replaced for you.

Replace original parts with sub-factory parts.

If there's something wrong with the engine, I'll fix the gearbox for you.

Install old car parts into new car.

There are even exaggerated cases where sugar is added to engine oil and salt is added to gearbox lubricating oil.

People who own cars in this era generally still have some say.

Now that some chaos in the car repair shop has been exposed, it has naturally attracted huge attention.

In particular, several brands that were named immediately started various actions internally based on the complaint information in the "400" call.

"Hassan, so the test report provided by Nanshan is true and reliable?"

As the first manufacturer to react, Modu Volkswagen naturally acted the fastest.

By the time public opinion began to erupt, they had completed internal comparative testing of wheel bearings.

"Yes, although the results are a bit unbelievable, Nanshan's wheel hub bearings are indeed better than the SKF ones we are using now."

"Even I heard that the latest generation of wheel bearings that SKF is developing have no better parameters than this."

As the manager of the Quality Management Department of Modu Volkswagen, Dr. Hassan still adheres to principles in his work.

With data as support, it is natural to say one thing and another.

"If this happened to other Chinese suppliers, I wouldn't believe it anyway."

"But this Nanshan is indeed special, and I still want to believe that this is the fact."

Bu Defan's double standard was unexpectedly recognized by Hassan.

It seems that the previous nut plate incident left a deep impression on everyone.

Later, there were cases where the performance index of wheel bolts exceeded that of imported parts. Everyone already knows about Nanshan's strength.

"I have also reported this situation to the quality center at the headquarters."

"After all, high-quality wheel bearings can reduce fuel consumption, which is still very critical for Volkswagen globally."

These days, neither Volkswagen, nor General Motors, nor Ford are top students in terms of fuel efficiency.

Now seeing the opportunity to reduce fuel consumption, Dr. Hassan immediately attached great importance to it.

"Well, then the replacement of wheel hub bearings for our Santana and Passat models can begin immediately."

"But wheel bearings are still a very critical part after all. I think we should first use Nanshan as the point B supplier of wheel bearings and give it half of the share."

The term AB point was not very popular in the Chinese automobile market in 2001.

But after more than ten years, you can see it everywhere.

To put it bluntly, this is the same parts of a car being developed by two suppliers at the same time.

It can not only effectively guarantee supply, but also serve as a bargaining chip when negotiating prices.

Today, tell supplier A to reduce the price by 10%, or else your share will be reduced, or even all of them will be switched to supplier B.

Tomorrow I will tell supplier B that if we want to support you, it is not impossible. You can just lower the price by another 10%.

After going back and forth like this, the annual price reduction KPI was successfully completed.

Of course, this trick is not useful all the time.

For example, tires are often developed by several manufacturers such as Michelin, Continental, and Goodyear.

But if you use the AB point method to negotiate price reductions with others, it will only have a one-time effect at most.

"No problem. So far, the individual product tests have met our drawing requirements, and have even far exceeded our requirements."

"The Quality Management Department agrees to use wheel hub bearings from Nanshan Technology Co., Ltd."

Dr. Hassan agreed to Budfan's proposal without any hesitation.

For the switching of parts in Volkswagen, most of the time only single product testing is required.

Unlike some manufacturers such as Honda, which frequently conduct durability tests on the entire vehicle.

That would be very inefficient.

……

"Boss, I investigated with people from the after-sales service department and the technical department. Some of the information mentioned in this report is indeed true."

“Even many car repair shops in Qingcheng are using Nanshan wheel bearings to repair Fukang faults.”

"I also called people from SKF. Although they did not directly admit that their wheel bearings are not as good as Nanshan's, they did not dare to deny it."

"They were just talking nonsense about how they are a century-old company and how stable their quality is."

"In the past year, the company's pressure on us to reduce costs has also increased. Should we take this opportunity to replace SKF's wheel bearings?"

"In this way, a car will have a price reduction effect of at least more than 200 yuan, or even more."

"At the same time, it can also force SKF to reduce prices for us in gearbox bearings and engine bearings."

Inside the Shenlong Car, Han Hao was reporting the situation to his manager Chen Lei.

In automobile companies, there are often two ways to change parts suppliers.

One is a top-down political task, going through the process in order to introduce a certain manufacturer.

The other option is to consider switching suppliers normally from a QCD perspective.

Obviously, Nanshan's wheel hub bearings now belong to the latter.

So even if Zhang Fugui did not come to PR Han Hao, he took the initiative internally to switch the wheel bearings to Nanshan products.

Of course, after the incident is completed, Zhang Fugui will definitely not be so ignorant about life.

Han Hao also knew this.

"It can reduce costs, improve quality, and effectively deal with this wave of public opinion. I have no reason to object."

Chen Lei thought for a moment and agreed to the plan.

After all, if a car repair shop now uses Nanshan wheel bearings instead of SKF products, they will be scolded for using sub-factory parts instead of original parts.

But if all original parts become Nanshan, then there will be no pressure from public opinion if car repair shops continue to use Nanshan products.

"Okay, then I'll make an appointment right away and call all the relevant departments together, as well as people from Nanshan, to come up with a specific switching plan."

Shenlong Auto, which has always been a bit slow to react, finally moved a lot faster.

However, the faster they move, the greater the pressure on SKF.

"Xue, please immediately prepare relevant information about the bearing industry from China."

"Especially the situation of Nanshan Technology Co., Ltd. must be clarified."

"Headquarters has asked us to make a special report. This matter can no longer be hidden."

SKF China Branch, Holm looked a little haggard.

He was under too much pressure during this time.

Almost every day, people from the OEM call him and ask about wheel bearings.

This left him a bit exhausted.

In such a passive situation, it is naturally impossible for SKF to take no action at all.