欲善其事先利其器[文檔資料]

欲善其事先利其器 本文檔格式為 WORD,感謝你的閱讀。 奧地利 EFS 汽車咨詢公司總裁 市場成熟度一直是中國汽車專家反復討論的話題。市場飽和與客戶需求增長如何導致品牌整合，如何進行具體化、專業(yè)化運營，弄清楚這些并非難事。事實上，中國汽車市場的成熟比預期來得早，而且影響力也已形成。為什么我要這樣說？因為 2013 年最后一個季度新品發(fā)布或擴張計劃未能成為熱點新聞，成本降低反倒一躍成為當今的熱門話題。 再也沒比生產商降低成本更清晰的市場 成熟信號了。多數中國汽車廠商，無論自主還是合資品牌，從某種意義上都在解決這一問題。市場飽和、廠商競爭促使管理者第一次將降成本看做是與企業(yè)生存發(fā)展息息相關的戰(zhàn)略活動。 我們目睹了成本戰(zhàn)的雙重國際化：一方面自主品牌憑性價比優(yōu)勢來取悅發(fā)展中國家日益壯大的中產階級，并像平板電腦和筆記本取代傳統(tǒng)個人電腦那樣挑戰(zhàn)高端產品，他們將知名汽車廠商從舒適與自滿中喚醒；另一方面跨國大鱷利用規(guī)模效應、企業(yè)成熟度以及可用平臺在中國低價汽車陣營爭奪市場份額。雖然輕型商用車市場已在瓜分之列，但其他細分市場也在跨國廠商目標范圍內 。 降低成本的方法有很多，人們往往注重價值鏈從產品開發(fā)到售后服務的特殊階段，偶爾還會探索新的方法。江淮汽車是個好例子：它跳過傳統(tǒng)經銷模式，直接采用互聯(lián)網銷售緊湊型汽車并取得不錯的效果，成功招攬了既想擁有汽車，又看重家庭用途（實用性、目錄選車甚至無需試駕）的新型客戶。有的汽車廠商則將研發(fā)工作外包給專業(yè)工程公司或簡化測試需求、削減開發(fā)預算。盡管我們還有一些諸如降低產品技術規(guī)格或簡化企業(yè)結構等降低成本的優(yōu)化方法，但實施其最恰當的方式究竟是什么呢？ 我認為短期方案不可行，真正、可持續(xù)地降低成本是一項長期活動。真正有效的、長期的成本優(yōu)化在企業(yè)內部表現出兩大重要特征：成本狀況意識和直接流程負責制。我們先談第一大特征。 很多時候，汽車業(yè)管理者容易忽略掉一個事實 未能覺察價值鏈不同階段的成本狀況，從而不能優(yōu)先發(fā)展成本優(yōu)化策略。這在產品設計方面非常重要。詳實、可靠的汽車和零部件成本計劃是應對利潤率萎縮、投資受挫、隱形滲透最好的解藥。通常，成本計劃可降低成本，也就是說過多冗余的成本在首次成本考核時將被消減。 了解了企業(yè)的成本狀況后，企業(yè)理念就能更好地在此基礎上生成。跨職能工作非常重要，企 業(yè)需要依據成熟有力的管理架構進行經營。然而，中國的汽車廠商如今具有什么樣的理念呢？ 在汽車業(yè)，像江淮汽車那樣異軍突起的案例仍有發(fā)展空間，我們非常有必要進行全面思考。但總的來說，市場成熟意味著更強烈的客戶需求，更昂貴的勞動力，更高的質量標準 跨職能支配型的企業(yè)戰(zhàn)略就應運而生了。 讓我們再看看產品開發(fā)，沒有技術所有權很難形成長久發(fā)展。逆向開發(fā)總在犧牲質量，外包設計總在讓路價格談判。更糟的是，企業(yè)應對非預期市場環(huán)境改變的能力受到影響，即使在內部發(fā)展情況下，點對點的方法本應對特定產品起到較好的 成本控制，但整個投資組合需要模塊化才能贏得長期的競爭力。 對買家來說，同供應商討價還價或許會造成供應商疲憊這樣的負面影響。解決這一問題有個辦法就是去開發(fā)那些具有相同成本意識的供應商。 至于生產方面，中國的人工成本優(yōu)勢最近幾年已大幅削減，產品價格也因此大幅增長。模塊生產戰(zhàn)略等復雜方法為產生類似于工具標準化以及規(guī)模經濟這樣的深遠影響提供了可能。甚至于被人們認為非常先進的高度復雜性活動，比如虛擬生產仿真，正成為眾多汽車廠商面對成本壓力時常用的方法。 但僅僅具有理念遠遠不夠。方法成功實 施需要透明度和以業(yè)績?yōu)閷颍ǘ皇且誀顟B(tài)為導向）的管理架構，從這個角度看，小型民營廠商較國營廠商更有優(yōu)勢。因此，我認為真正的成本優(yōu)勢只有通過掌握技術來實現，這在汽車業(yè)可以理解為掌握技術所有權以及精益流程設計。成本優(yōu)化以及成本意識必須成為企業(yè)關注的重點。正如故事里所講，為了砍樹時提高效率，你需要學會磨快斧頭。 Sharpening the axes Cost optimization activities and cost awareness have to be high in the priority rank of the corporation. As the tale goes， to improve the efficiency at cutting down trees one has to take breaks to sharpen the axe. Market maturity has been a recurring topic among industry experts in China for a long time now. It wasnt un usual to read about how market saturation and growing customer demands would lead to brand consolidation and a different level of practice and professionalization on the OEMs side. Actually， maturity has arrived earlier than expected， and its effects are already to be seen. Why do I say that？ because in this last quarter of 2013 the big headlines are not being made by new product launches or expansion plans. On the contrary， the new trending topic of the time is “Cutting costs”. There is no clearer sign of market maturity than the fact that producers feel forced to reduce their operation costs. Most OEMs present in China， fully domestic or joint ventures， are addressing this question in one way or the other. Market saturation and competition from other OEMs is pushing managers to， for the first time， face cost reduction as a strategic activity crucial to the survival and success of their companies. On top of that， we might see an interesting double internationalization of the cost battle： on one side Chinese products start to appeal to the growing middle classes of developing countries， offering basic performance at a very affordable price. They challenge higher-end products almost the same way notepads and tablets almost brought the traditional （ and heavily overspecified） PC to extinction. Their arrival has shaken more established OEMs out of their comfort zone and the self-complacency that they were enjoying. But on the other side multinational OEMs are taking advantage of scale effects， corporate maturity and available platforms to compete for market share in lower price ranks of the Chinese market. While this is particularly true for light commercial vehicles， other market segments are also within target. There is an unlimited number of approaches to reduce costs. One can focus on a particular step of the value chain， from product development to aftersales network， and explore new radical approaches. It comes to my mind the good example of JAC， who decided to skip traditional dealer networks and go straight to an internet-based sales model for its compact car division， with very good results. They succeeded to address a new type of （ less emotional） buyer that faces car ownership at the same level as other household utilities： pragmatic， choosing out of the catalogue， not even requiring test drives. Other OEMs are outsourcing their R D efforts to specialized engineering companies or trying to streamline the testing requirements and cut development budgets. Other obvious means of optimization are reducing production costs， downgrading product specifications or streamlining corporate structure. But which way is the most appropriate to implement each one of them？ As good as radical solutions might look like in the short term， I am of the opinion that true， sustainable cost reduction is a long-term activity. A really effective and long-lasting cost optimization requires two important characteristics to be present in the company： cost situation awareness and direct process ownership. Lets start by the first. As trivial as it might sound， managers of all industries tend to overlook the fact that one cant effectively prioritize cost optimization strategies without being aware of the cost situation of the different steps in the value chain in the first place. This is particularly important in the case of product design： a sound and exhaustive cost planning of all vehicles and parts is the best antidote against shrinking profit margins， portfolio flaps and hidden sinks. Moreover， cost planning activities normally bring cost reduction as a by-product： there is a lot of redundancy that can be directly smoothed out after a first examination. Once the cost situation of the company is known， it is the right moment to start with the generation of ideas. For this purpose cross-functional work is essential， and the company needs to have a mature and dynamic management structure to run it successfully. But which kind of ideas are available to Chinese makers today？ Of course there is still room for one-hit-wonders like the mentioned case of JAC， and it is very necessary to do a lot of thinking outside the box. But in general， market maturity also means sharper customer demands， more expensive labor and higher quality requirements： cross-functional， overarching strategies are required. Looking at product development， it is difficult to achieve durable effects without true technology ownership. Reverse-engineering efforts will always compromise quality； outsourced design leaves blank price negotiations as the only possible way for further optimization. Even worse， the companys ability to react to unexpected market environment changes is seriously compromised. And even in a situation of internal development， design-to-point approaches might have a better cost result in a particular product， but the whole portfolio will require modularization to be competitive in the long term. For purchasers， tough price negotiations with suppliers might cause supplier exhaustion as a side effect. The suggested alternative is to foster supplier development in the same cost awareness culture that one requires his own company to have. In the case of production， Chinas labor -cost advantage is shrinking in recent years， and commodity prices are also on the rise. More sophisticated approaches like modular production strategies offer the possibility to achieve deeper effects such as tool standardization and economies of scale. Even highly sophisticated activities such as virtual production simulation， once