LiuGong News

What Started Off as Ordinary Became Great

2022-12-12

What Started Off as Ordinary Became Great

—Feature Story 19 of the 20th Anniversary of LiuGong’s Globalization

In 2002, LiuGong proposed to build an open and globalized LiuGong. Then it set up the Overseas Business Division, with a dozen employees drawn from various departments and branches. The office was located in a three-story building at the LiuGong headquarters, and was jokingly called the “little third floor”. This was where the grand blueprint of LiuGong’s globalization strategy extended from.

Liu Shuangfeng, who joined LiuGong in 1999, transferred to the Overseas Business Division in 2006, and has been responsible for the production planning management of international orders ever since. This is a challenging job. From the input of demand from overseas markets, to the material preparation of imported parts and various components in the factory, as well as the feedback of production warehousing times, all of which test the accuracy and timeliness of information. With the increase in export business volume, product categories, configuration diversity, and customized orders from customers, low efficiency and error-prone manual filling became the biggest headache for Liu Shuangfeng’s team.

Yang Weilin also felt the same. After joining LiuGong in 2008, Yang Weilin has been in charge of order processing, shipping, production of various export documents, and cargo tracking in overseas regions. At that time, all kinds of data were filled in through mail forms, and the efficiency of manual collection and aggregation was far from meeting the speed of market changes.

Building a digitized management system and achieving “Comprehensive Intelligence” is undoubtedly the solution. After much research and development, in 2011, the North-South foreign trade system was officially launched, carrying the offline orders to the system, which solved the problems of contract entry, order making, payment recognition, and archiving. In 2019, the DMS project was launched, integrating the whole process data of orders and enabling dealers to place orders online, track progress, share and integrate information more intelligently. This greatly improved work efficiency and accuracy, not only for internal staff, but also greatly improved customer satisfaction. 

In 2020, the spread of the pandemic and changes in the global environment made it difficult to find space for international transportation, and there was an increase in freight rates, causing considerable impact on the shipment and delivery of export goods. The timeliness of delivery and the reduction of transportation costs in the post-pandemic era have become the main goals for Liu Shuangfeng’s team. Within two years, China–Europe and China–Vietnam direct trains were opened and strategic agreements on chartered transportation were signed with many shipping companies, etc. The logistics cost and transportation time have been reduced and they have managed to ensure the timeliness of delivery.

Every holiday season is extremely busy. In order not to delay delivery, it is normal for Yang Weilin and her colleagues to work overtime. In 2021, LiuGong’s export business revenue saw 66% year-on-year growth, with global sales of loaders ranking first and overseas sales of other product lines growing rapidly. Behind the skyrocketing data, every business has made silent contributions behind-the-scenes. Working mechanically requires dedication and patience, and this effort has enabled the company to achieve strong international performance.

At the beginning of the “little third floor” days, the office did not even have air conditioning, only a few large electric fans to withstand the high temperatures of the Liuzhou summer. The scene of more than a dozen colleagues working there is still vivid in their minds. Today, LiuGong’s international team has grown in proportion to the business, and the overseas business accounts for 40% of LiuGong’s overall performance. The hard work and dedication in the early days were a key part of the globalization journey, and it has yielded fruitful results, filling everyone with incredible pride. 
Liu Shuangfeng and Yang Weilin are representatives of LiuGong’s international inhouse team. They are ordinary people, but their efforts have led to 20 years of greatness. They are dedicated to their work, whether it was the manual operation at the beginning or the intelligent office seen today, every step of globalization has been carved out of such ordinary positions.
If “Total Intelligent” is the goal and pursuit, then those who were critical to bringing about this reality are all worth of praising and remembering.