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"Leader in the Rail Transit Industry" CRRC Zhuzhou Institute: How to Leverage Knowledge Management to Empower R&D Innovation?
Release time:
2024-12-23 16:27
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As the world's most authoritative and professional knowledge innovation practice exchange platform, the Most Innovative Knowledge Organization (MIKE) Award has unearthed a large number of outstanding knowledge-based enterprises. As the initiator of the MIKE Award, Lanling launched the "MIKE Award Case Tour" activity to share excellent knowledge management experiences recognized by global experts with more enterprises that focus on knowledge management construction.
CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhuzhou Institute") was founded in 1959 and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of CRRC Corporation Limited. After 60 years of reform and development, it has formed four major industrial sectors: "Electrical Transmission and Automation, Polymer Composite Material Applications, New Energy Equipment, and Power Electronics (Basic) Devices," achieving sales revenue of 34.4 billion yuan in 2018 (including Times Electric).
Lanling has been deeply engaged in the field of knowledge management for 18 years, is a core participating unit in the "Knowledge Management Standards," and, as the initiator of the MIKE Award, has become a co-organizer of the MIKE Award in mainland China with the Tsinghua University Technology Innovation Research Center, promoting the selection of the global MIKE Award in China. Enterprises that rank in the top three of the China MIKE Award will be recommended to compete for the global MIKE Award.
In 2019, Lanling specially initiated the "MIKE Award Case Tour" activity to share excellent knowledge management experiences recognized by global experts with more enterprises that focus on knowledge management construction, discussing together: why enterprises should build knowledge management systems, and how knowledge sharing can help enterprises accelerate their pace...
As a leader in the rail transit industry, Zhuzhou Institute has always attached great importance to the combination of knowledge application and R&D innovation, accumulating profound experience in the field of knowledge management, and was awarded the "China MIKE Award" in 2018. In this issue of the "MIKE Award Case Tour" activity, we are fortunate to invite Wen Suying, the common technology management supervisor of Zhuzhou Institute, to share innovative achievements and successful experiences in the field of knowledge management.
Strategy: Diversified expansion with a unified focus,
Radiating multiple industries
Q: Zhuzhou Institute has always attached great importance to technological innovation. What achievements has Zhuzhou Institute made in the field of technological innovation?
A: Zhuzhou Institute adopts a unified and diversified development model, evolving from a research institute focused solely on railway electrical technology to a global high-tech industrial cluster, forming several major industrial sectors and corresponding knowledge systems. Under the guidance of the unified and diversified knowledge application expansion innovation strategy, each business sector has achieved good development:
● Electrical Transmission and Automation: Developing the "heart" and "brain" (AC transmission traction system) for railway vehicles, overcoming multiple core technologies, making China the only country mastering "high-speed" and "heavy-load" transmission control technology, obtaining the leading rights to 9 international standards, and publishing the only 3 international standards in the field of rail transit in China.
● Polymer Composites: Owning a holding company—Zhuzhou Times New Material Technology Co., Ltd., whose independently developed aramid insulation materials, polyimide films, and other products have broken foreign monopolies. The relevant polymer composite material technologies have been applied in wind power, military industry, automotive, shipping, and petroleum fields.
● New Energy Equipment: In the field of wind and solar power generation equipment, we have built a complete system solution design, wind resource analysis, overall load calculation, control strategy analysis, and testing platforms for wind turbine units and components. The product quality and technical level are among the best in the country; in the field of new energy vehicles, we are currently the largest supplier and technical service provider of electric bus drive systems and key components in China.
Zhuzhou Institute has won multiple national science and technology awards, with over 600 government science and technology projects. Our proportion of invention patents exceeds 65%, the highest among equipment manufacturing enterprises.
Practice: 8 major dimensions,
Empowering technological innovation in all aspects
Q: How does Zhuzhou Institute ensure a continuous source of innovation for enterprises? What specific measures and tools support this? Could you elaborate?
A: Zhuzhou Institute ensures technological innovation from multiple aspects such as talent, technology, and platforms, mainly including the following 8 aspects:
Formulating research and development strategies
Zhuzhou Institute has developed from a research institution to an industrial group, always having its own ambitions in innovation. From a planning perspective, we have proposed corresponding goals for different fields: to be a leader in electrical systems and new materials in the transportation and energy sectors; to be a leader in expanding operations in new industries; and to be a successful player in the capital market.
Specifically in terms of technological planning, we have proposed three transformations: fully realizing the shift from technology-following innovation to technology-leading innovation, from concentrated internal innovation to global open innovation, and from practical talent teams to strategic control forces, providing green and intelligent technical solutions for global users, supporting the company's multinational operations, industrial expansion, and becoming a world-leading supplier of high-end equipment system solutions for transportation and new energy.
Emphasizing the cultivation and incentive of scientific research talents
First, we have independently created a "Qiao"-type human resource model, positioning employees comprehensively from several aspects: head (core values), shoulder (organizational sharing and performance), hand (key capabilities and behaviors), and foot (basic conditions and knowledge). Based on this model, we break the traditional notion that those who excel in academics should be promoted, encouraging R&D personnel to "pursue their interests, excel in their specialties, achieve their aspirations, and be rewarded accordingly," transforming the engineering technology channel into a path that can reach the same height as company executives or even higher.
Secondly, we implement a comprehensive compensation strategy (NEW 3P compensation) among scientific research personnel, integrating position, capability, and performance, adding innovation as a consideration for capability assessment, ensuring that employees can gain more benefits through innovation and guiding capability development.
We have an engineering and technology team of over 6,000 members (including overseas), which includes 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, over 100 senior engineers at the professor level, more than 150 PhDs, and over 1,700 master's degree students. This has formed a research team led by academicians, national-level "Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand" talents, State Council special experts, CRRC scientists, and chief experts.
Creating a "Double High Double Efficiency" management model
We have proposed a "Double High Double Efficiency" management model, constructing three major systems of management, knowledge, and quality, and building three major technical platforms for products, manufacturing, and design, supporting high reliability, high safety, high efficiency, and high benefits development. Our "Double High Double Efficiency" management model has also won the second China Quality Award, and the only equipment manufacturing enterprises that have won the China Quality Award are Huawei and Zhuzhou Institute.
The three major platforms are a distinctive feature of our innovation and product R&D at Zhuzhou Institute. We build a complementary knowledge structure for basic common technologies and platform technologies through the three major technical platforms of design, manufacturing, and products, expanding the coverage of product development, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of rapid product development, and promoting the iteration of innovation and continuous product updates. Our technical innovation project for the construction of the three major technical platforms has also won the second prize for national scientific and technological progress.
Strengthening internal and external cooperation and communication
We propose to create a market-oriented open technology innovation system with corporate characteristics (Motif model), aimed at the future market, guided by a technology innovation strategy, and driven by standardized processes and dynamic evaluation and monitoring systems, to promote the efficient use of technology innovation resources and the high-quality output of technology innovation results, and to achieve open innovation goals through external cooperation, sharing, and collaborative mechanisms.
In terms of building R&D resources, we are laying out globally, focusing on the integration of advantageous resources through overseas mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and school-enterprise cooperation, and have established four overseas R&D centers, forming a global R&D network of "1+X". In addition, leveraging national-level technology cooperation projects, we deeply integrate domestic government, industry, academia, research, and application innovation resources.
Cultivating an organizational innovation culture
The innovation culture within our company is "innovation as the foundation, achieving results as the priority, encouraging innovation, and allowing failure." In such a cultural atmosphere, we have also created a rich variety of innovation cultural carriers, including:
● Aggregated Innovation: Creating a cultural platform for "integrating wisdom and gathering energy";
● Collaborative Innovation: Creating a "shared responsibility" innovation platform;
● Open Innovation: Creating high-quality activities for "sharing and inheritance."
We have held activities such as "Academicians Are Here" and "China Academy of Engineering Summit Forum" for many consecutive years. There are also many experienced old experts in rail transit within our organization, and we regularly organize activities related to sharing technology inheritance.
In such an innovative cultural atmosphere, Zhuzhou Institute has forged a consciousness of independent innovation and a firm belief, and our Fuxing high-speed train has achieved complete independent intellectual property rights.
High-intensity technology investment
Zhuzhou Institute invests 7-8% of its sales revenue in research funding each year, with a cumulative investment of nearly 10 billion yuan since 2010.
Emphasizing knowledge management construction
We have built a complete knowledge management structure, knowledge management system, and knowledge base model, creating a comprehensive knowledge management system, and on this basis, we have established a knowledge management platform to support the sharing and operation of knowledge.
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As of now, the company has over 500,000 pieces of knowledge, with core knowledge nearing 100,000 pieces, and it is growing at a rate of 15% each year.
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We have also integrated the knowledge management platform with R&D tools such as Office and Cadence, integrating business management systems like PLM to achieve knowledge push and integration, making it convenient for users to utilize knowledge.
At the same time, we have established corresponding incentive mechanisms to encourage innovation in results, including knowledge achievement points rewards, special rewards for technology achievement releases, and project initiation rewards for common technology projects, with annual reward funds reaching several million yuan for these three items.
Building an innovation incubation mechanism
We have created a mechanism for incubating ideas and opportunities, focusing on foresight, pioneering, exploratory, and disruptive aspects, striving to incubate disruptive technologies, cross-border new technologies, new thinking technologies, and upstream and downstream technologies, improving product quality and reliability, significantly enhancing product efficiency, filling technological gaps in the industry, and ultimately striving to form new major industries. We were among the first batch of specialized maker spaces recognized by the state, and at that time, there were only 17 nationwide, making us the only one in the rail transit field.
Outlook: Exploring knowledge,
Persisting in innovation
Q: Zhuzhou Institute has done a lot of work in the field of scientific research innovation and has achieved remarkable results. To continue to maintain leadership in the rail transit field, what do you think are the key points?
A: We maintain our leadership in the rail transit industry through both management innovation and technological innovation. To ensure this leadership, we must respond to the current trends of cross-border integration and the continuous emergence of disruptive technologies, including intelligence, safety, greenness, and diversity. How do we work in this area? This requires us to continue exploring knowledge and persisting in innovation.
Recently, we have also laid out many new cutting-edge technologies, including a 600 km/h ultra-high-speed maglev system and next-generation traction technology based on higher power density, which will enable us to have a voice in the global rail transit industry.
Q: You just mentioned "exploring knowledge." What will be the future focus of Zhuzhou Institute in the field of knowledge management construction?
A: Although we have made many explorations in innovation, management, and systems, our journey in knowledge over the past five years has made us feel that there is still much to learn. In the future, we hope to integrate knowledge more into the innovation process, mainly focusing on the following aspects:
● How to closely integrate knowledge with R&D business, allowing R&D personnel to have greater stickiness with knowledge;
● Deeply integrating knowledge with existing tools, enabling R&D personnel to access knowledge more conveniently, quickly, and even passively;
● Providing knowledge services based on the behavior of R&D personnel;
● Further improving knowledge management, expert system construction, etc.
Previous Case Sets
Book Title: "Intelligent Knowledge: 2023 China MIKE Case Compilation"
Publishing Unit: China MIKE Organizing Committee Release Date: March 2024
Book Title: "Knowledge Resilience: 2022 China MIKE Case Compilation"
Publishing Unit: China MIKE Organizing Committee Release Date: October 2022
Book Title: "Knowledge Productivity: 2021 China MIKE Case Compilation"
Publishing Unit: China MIKE Organizing Committee Release Date: December 2021
Book Title: "China MIKE Award 10th Anniversary Special Edition"
Publishing Unit: China MIKE Organizing Committee Release Date: December 2020
The China MIKE Awards have so far unearthed nearly a hundred outstanding knowledge management and innovation management organizations, some of which have rushed out of the country and won the global MIKE Awards.
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