In 2018, for export-oriented enterprises such as Phoenix Artist Material, the Sino US trade dispute is almost an unavoidable external challenge. The one-year long and still ongoing Sino US trade dispute inevitably affects the export of enterprises. At this year's Canton Fair, foreign businessmen are in a strong wait-and-see mood. Some are afraid to place orders for fear of high tariffs, and some transfer orders to Southeast Asia and other countries. In the face of many uncertain factors, the series of efforts made by Phoenix Artist Material show the world an example of Chinese Enterprises' survival in adversity.
Take precautions and turn danger into opportunity.
Since the United States provoked a trade dispute between China and the United States in March this year, the top management of Phoenix Artist Material has paid close attention to the changes in the situation. After the experience of "the first anti-dumping lawsuit between China and the United States in the era of post quota", Phoenix painting material has shown a better ability to predict and a more mature response mechanism in the face of the trade barriers once again built by the United States. As early as when the United States provoked a trade dispute, the top management of Phoenix Artist Material realized that the trade friction between China and the United States would be a long-term conflict. Sooner or later, the stick of the high tariff list swung by the United States will spread to products such as painting materials. Sure enough, in September of this year, the United States continued to issue a list of about 200 billion US dollars-worth of goods, including painting materials, to be taxed to 25%.
In order to turn the passive into the active, the top management of Phoenix Artist Material immediately responded, first of all, to stabilize and pacify the confidence of American customers. It's always been Phoenix Artist Material's practice to actively create value for customers. This time, in the face of high tariffs, Phoenix Artist Material also informed American customers in advance, if the U.S. government imposes tariffs, in order to ensure that customers' procurement costs will not increase due to tariffs, Phoenix Artist Material can transfer orders to overseas factories in advance, and provide feasible solutions for customers to choose, so as to avoid tariff barriers and boost customers' confidence in continued cooperation. Since September this year, the frequency of American customers visiting factory of Phoenix Artist Material Vietnam has increased significantly, which fully shows that Phoenix Artist Material's active appeasement has achieved remarkable results.
Arrange Belt and Road Initiative, enhance the capacity of overseas factories to order.
As early as 12 years ago, in order to avoid trade barriers in the United States, Phoenix Artist Material set their eyes overseas and created Phoenix Artist Material in Vietnam, and Van Gogh Artist Material in Cambodia in 2014. After more than ten years of steady operation, overseas factories have been mature and can undertake the transfer and adjustment of orders in time. Compared with the same industry, they have the initiative in the market competition. This comparative advantage continues to work today: some of the orders lost to competitors return to Phoenix Artist Material. Therefore, in order to prevent or reduce the impact of Sino US economic and trade disputes on exports, Phoenix Artist Material started to further expand the production capacity of overseas factories in the first half of the year. By 2019, Phoenix Artist Materia will further expand the scale of overseas factories and is expected to create the second Phoenix Artist Materia in Vietnam.
Adjust the order structure in time to enhance the overall response capacity. On the one hand, Phoenix Artist Material distributes orders, timely transfers the economic frame orders from American customers to Phoenix Artist Materia in Vietnam and transfers most unconventional professional orders from Vietnam to domestic factories. On the other hand, turn the external unfavorable factors into the transformation power, comprehensively promote the automation technology transformation and lean production, promote the factory to further enhance the production capacity, improve the management level and forge the core competitiveness of the factory.In order to cope with the order transfer, the group's various factories have adjusted their structure of product accordingly, giving full play to their respective advantages. Phoenix Artist Material in Vietnam strives to improve its production capacity and further enhance the production capacity of economic frame. For example, for large customers who have been duplicating orders for a long time, we should plan ahead, prepare conventional materials in advance, reserve schedule, and improve the overall production capacity, so as to greatly shorten the delivery time. To actively control the production cost, use the merchandiser system in the production management, let each merchandiser control 1-2 customer orders full-time, intervene from the beginning of business orders, track the procurement and material preparation, production planning, on-site scheduling, quality control, and product delivery. At the same time, responsible for the financial cost data and the continuous improvement of the whole process, so that each batch of orders are responsible for the cost control.
As a sample factory of automatic large-scale production of Phoenix Artist Material, Shuyang Phoenix Artist Material further promotes automatic technical transformation and lean management this year, and comprehensively improves the production capacity of economic frame. Although Wuxi Phoenix Artist Material mainly undertakes unconventional professional frames, it also takes the initiative to make some improvements according to the actual situation of the factory including the first, through the classification and integration of professional orders, promote the standardization of professional picture frame products. For a long time, professional frames are all determined by artists themselves, and the sizes quoted by different artists sometimes differ by a few millimeters. When the production volume is large, this kind of personalized production mode is difficult to undertake and digest. In order to make the production complex but not chaotic, Wuxi factory classified and merged the orders from 75 kinds to 30 kinds, with less specifications and varieties, there will be more conducive to intensive production and quality management. Second, the equipment has been upgraded, such as the addition of automatic mortise machine, automatic drilling machine and other equipment, so that the processing quality of professional orders is more guaranteed, and the quality is more stable. The third is to optimize the production process, improve production efficiency, and introduce automatic conveyor belt, frame operating floor and other equipment to make each process more compact.
For traditional manufacturing enterprises, the factory is a strong backing to deal with all the storms. No matter how the international market changes, as long as we stick to our ingenuity and concentrate on making our products well, we can always find a chance to survive.
Actively explore overseas markets and strive for greater development space.
Globalization is not only an irresistible trend, but also an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises to avoid the US trade pressure. In recent years, Phoenix Artist Material have made great efforts to expand overseas markets in non-U.S. regions, such as Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. At the same time, it spared no effort to promote its own brand. By building its own sales channels, developing exclusive agents, and relying on e-commerce to sail out to sea, it continuously enhanced the influence of Phoenix Artist Material's own brand in the local painting material market, gradually got rid of the dependence of OEM production on foreign businessmen, and avoided the uncertainty brought about by trade disputes.
With years of experience in overseas market development, Li Jinsong believes that: for Phoenix Artist Material, the impact of tariff may be avoided in the short term, but in the long run, from the perspective of the whole painting industry, the situation is still grim. Especially in the non-U.S. region, since many domestic enterprises have lost the U.S. market objectively, they are bound to compete in the non-U.S. market. The price war of painting products in these regions will be more intense. In this regard, only by practicing our internal skills, producing excellent products and sticking to industrial ingenuity can we be called a responsible Chinese brand.