Prove your strength with your actions – The gradual path of Hema safety shoes

Prove your strength with your actions – The gradual path of Hema safety shoes

Feng huai hai

At an exhibition held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in mid-April, a company faced two conspicuous sections, one of which featured a set of automatic production equipment for safety shoes, which was constantly in operation.  

In the alternation between the conveyor belt and the mechanical arm, the audience can see in the place close to the equipment: one safe shoe cover moves from left to right in sequence through the robot hand, slowly moving, through the equipment is automatically molded, injected… the whole process does not need manual operation.  Some of the audience watched it with interest and approval.  After seeing it, some professional audience sighed: “Xima company is taking big steps!”  

Shanghai Xima Technology (Group) Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Xima Group) is the company that brought the automatic shoe-making equipment to the exhibition.  Coincidentally, I am familiar with Xima Group.  I am not surprised to see the development and changes of CMA Group.  Because, xima group’s entrepreneurship and development process, in a sense, is a representative or epitome of the development of China’s labor protection products industry.  

On June 2nd, after the exhibition, I went to the R&D and production base located in Baoshan District of Shanghai and visited the experimental building of the group for the first time.  After a quick visit, more feeling.  Then, I turned over my memory and tried to make a little record for Xima Group.  The author believes that xima Group has many meanings from the perspective of industry development and management.  

Innovation starts differently  

Shanghai Xima Shoes Co., LTD was established in 2004.  In 2006, in a protective equipment exhibition in Shanghai, the author had the honor to stop in front of the booth of Xima Company, and got to know the chairman of the company, Mr. Zou Qiang.  He was 28 years old, but tall and burly, he was instantly impressive.  

In the exhibition with a great number of exhibitors, the reason why THE author left a deep impression on Xima company and Zou Qiang, who are only two years old, is another important factor: Xima company keeps advertising its products in the national industry media.  And at that time in the relevant newspapers and magazines have the ability to advertise, mostly foreign-funded enterprises;  Also because, “Xima” the word seems to have the element of translation sound, often let a person mistakenly think that the company is a foreign enterprise.  In the face of others’ misunderstanding, Zou Qiang was proud to explain to outsiders: “We are a genuine Chinese private enterprise.”  

At the beginning of opening, the company sticks a brand to produce safety shoes.  A year later, he started to establish the “Xima” brand and produced three series of safety shoes: safety series, administrative series and clean series, with more than 200 styles of products.  

Careful innovation, win by details, make Xima company in the opening of the first few years, a big step in product sales, soon in the protective equipment production enterprises.  In 2008, the company’s sales reached 35 million yuan.  This is uncommon in similar enterprises.  

In less than 10 years, Shanghai Xima Shoes Co., Ltd. has become one of the top 50 labor protection products in China.  

However, the company’s small site in Shanghai, the old factory space cramped, has been a significant drag on the pace of the enterprise forward.  

Zou qiang set his sights on chuzhou, nearly 300 kilometers from Shanghai.  In April 2018, the opening ceremony of a new enterprise belonging to Xima Group was held in Chuzhou.  The name of this enterprise is: Anhui Xima Safety Protection Technology Co., LTD.  

Let people really know you  

From 2004 to 2018, the change of Xima company is obvious: from “Shanghai Xima Shoes Co., LTD.” to “Shanghai Xima Technology (Group) Co., LTD.”.  The eye-catching word “science and technology” is naturally embedded in the group’s name.  

It is reported that Shanghai Xima Group has registered three companies, and has set up seven or eight offices and marketing departments in major cities.  In Chuzhou, Mr Zou points to the new factories being built. “Most of these rely on companies’ own capital,” he notes. “Not only are loans small, but the amount is also falling.”  

In the new factory in Chuzhou, there are two conspicuous “automatic intelligent cutting production lines”, which made my correspondent who attended the opening ceremony quite curious.  At that time, this automatic intelligent cutting machine is the footwear industry in this process is very advanced equipment.  The two devices cost more than 1 million yuan, while similar ordinary devices cost only about 40,000 yuan.  Zou Qiang said that investment must be used in good equipment, because to improve the technological content of equipment, is the general trend.  

One of the group’s factories in Baoshan district is called the experimental Building.  Why is it called that?  “The ‘experimental building’ was transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to let users know something about us,” Zou said.  

And the landscape here, it really shines.  Cma Group offices  

The production area is clean, orderly and clearly marked.  There are plastic flowers on the counters on either side of the walkway.  The materials in the warehouse area are not only neatly stored, but they also create some easy ways to find them.  To do not let the hunk leather that makes a shoe press press is out of shape, still made wide elliptic bracket specially.  Among them, some object “inventor” be zou qiang.  The contrast is striking when I recall the scene of their warehouse.  And Zou Strong also realized the promise that lets warehouse management compare shoulder foreign capital enterprise.  

In the production workshop, the German automatic robot production equipment DESMA brand disc machine is still visible, and will enter the production workshop of XiMA Group in 2020.  However, the actual size of the device is somewhat larger than that shown at the show.  It is reported that similar equipment is used in similar shoemaking enterprises, still a few up to now.  

Pointing to the new equipment, Zou Qiang said: “The price of this equipment,  

That’s more than we’ve ever paid for all of our equipment.”  As he said this, he made some slight remarks.  

In one corner of the workshop, I saw a robotic arm moving on a large flat plate, and the lights were dim.  “It is intelligent cutting robot”, seems to see our doubts, Zou Qiang introduced: “because it is automatic operation, do not need the light is too bright.  Energy saving consciousness is also reflected in dribs and drabs.  Then, he led us to the robot’s console, pointed to the display and said, “Look, 7,323 pieces have been cut this afternoon.”  He believes that using robots to cut raw materials for shoes can reduce waste, save energy and achieve high accuracy.  At the same time, he did not shy away from: “But slower than artificial.”  “Last year, we used to have five people on our scribing machine. Now we have two,” he continued.  And the group invested 2 million yuan “automatic sewing machine” after the use of efficiency increased by more than 70%.  

It is reported that last year, a large state-owned enterprise inspected more than 20 shoe-making enterprises in the pre-examination and inspection activities of safety shoes bidding. The inspection team inspected the production and development site and related professional facilities of Xima Group, and gave a high evaluation.  Finally, Xima Group became a qualified shortlisted enterprise.  

Cima wants to collaborate with Shanghai University of Engineering Science on big data related to materials, product testing and applications.  University researchers took a tour of the laboratory building and were deeply satisfied.  After unremitting efforts, Xima Group research and development of new material development software personnel, has more than a few years ago.  

It seems that this “experimental building” really played its due role.  “You have to let people really know you. How long can the relationship last?”  Zou strong intonation gently spit out this sentence, expression is very confident.  

Deep chop for weak points  

Seventeen years later, in the field of safety shoes production, Xima Group can also be said to be flourishing.  Zou Qiang has never stopped thinking about macro and micro topics such as the future development of the enterprise, the personal protective equipment market and how to deal with customers.  

He was also outspoken about some of the issues involved in business.  

In terms of bidding and tendering for products, he thinks that enterprises have too much work to do with bidding and tendering.  And some price ratio is very little, and the relationship with the product is not big.  And a large part of them, related to technical standards, business standards and enterprise qualifications including patents and so on.  These, directly or indirectly in the “reluctant” to promote the cost of the passive growth of enterprises.  

Moreover, the customization of products produced in the bidding process also restricts and influences the large-scale production and intelligent production of enterprises.  

He believes that too many tenders drain a lot of energy and motivation for innovation.  

As for the quality problems of safety shoes, he thinks there are many reasons: not only the customer’s selection is wrong, but also the dealers do not understand the other side’s working environment, and so on.  

And now the enterprise is in the recruitment, employment and other aspects of the problem, also in the thinking range of Zou Qiang.  China’s demographic dividend is gradually disappearing, and the “labor shortage” of labor-intensive enterprises has also emerged in third-tier cities.  For example, Anhui Xima Company combines the age and skills of workers with intelligent sewing machines when recruiting topside sewing workers.  Not only can play the advantages of intelligent automatic equipment, but also can open the age of the operator, and then combined with skill management.  

Order production inevitably has to work overtime, which often happens in labor-intensive enterprises. Xima Group company has increased investment in capital and strengthened job training for employees, so that the enterprise has retained high-quality technical personnel in a long-term and stable manner, and xima’s advantages can be inherited.  

“A lot of regulation work needs to be done,” said Zou Qiang, “and the investment of ‘money’ is also necessary for the development of enterprises to adapt to the changes in the labor force.”  Despite the difficulties, Zou is confident about his future development.  He believes he is willing to invest in product updates and technological changes, which are more important in competition.  

“I’m going on.”  He said, to further production and management of the process straightened out and through, and constantly solve the barrel in the “short board” constraints, eliminate weak links.  

“I don’t put production first.”  

After talking with Zou Qiang in the “experimental building” for nearly two hours, many questions did not unfold.  However, what we have seen and heard is enough to make people sit up and take notice of Xima Group and Zou Qiang.  

In the future, expect to learn more good news about Xima Group and Xima safety shoes.