Interview with Mr. Tan Qing, General Manager, Asia Pacific Region, Shanghai Representative Office

I saw a very abstract set of figures: When people breathe, they can make 550 million alveoli activities. These small alveoli send oxygen from the air into the bloodstream, passing through 950 km long, one-way blood vessels that allow oxygen to reach various organs of the human body. There are 500 billion oxygen molecules in a person's body. There are 250,000 billion red blood cells that deliver oxygen. Adults breathe oxygen at 11,500 liters per day. They need 10 trees to produce oxygen through photosynthesis. People can stay under water without oxygen. In 42 seconds! People are very busy when they are deprived of oxygen and die.

Let's look at a set of data: With the development of modern industry, the amount of pollutants discharged into the atmosphere by human beings greatly exceeds the self-purification capacity of the atmosphere, and volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and wind blowing dust discharge about 550 million tons of pollutants into the atmosphere each year. Industrial pollution sources, sources of agricultural pollution, urban and rural transport sources, and residents' living sources, etc. Each year, they discharge more than 650 million tons of pollutants into the atmosphere, mainly industrial emissions. At present, the annual number of excess deaths caused by indoor air pollution in China has reached 111,000, and the number of emergency cases exceeded 4.3 million. The direct and indirect economic losses amounted to US$ 10.7 billion. Children are more vulnerable to this pollution hazard survey shows that on average, modern people live and work indoors for 90% of the time and at home 65% of the time. The degree of indoor air pollution in modern cities is several times higher than outdoors!

One can imagine how everyday we live in such a hostile environment. Whether at home, in a company or in a hospital, or outdoors, the role of gas sensors becomes more and more important. British City Technology Co., Ltd., as the design and manufacturer of gas sensors for personal portable and fixed security systems, has long been known worldwide for its technological innovation and reliable quality, protecting people from harmful gases and their lives.

Starting from a Center Drives GDP Growth

City Technology Co., Ltd. has had a history of more than 30 years since its establishment in 1977 at the City University in London and has grown into an international company with more than 400 employees in the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Taiwan and the United States. In the past ten years, it has developed into the Asia Pacific region centered on Europe, and joined the Hontywell Group to form an entire sales system in the Asia-Pacific region, offering all-round Asia-Pacific customers.

Urban Technologies Co., Ltd. is currently centered on Europe and has established four factories in the United Kingdom, Germany, and China. In general, the company’s sales from 2011 to the present day have been developing very well as the industry as a whole, not only including traditionally designed sensors, but also recent medical, industrial emissions, and vehicle exhaust emissions.

The general introduction said that with the cooperation of the entire market and its customers, the company has consistently adhered to its commitment to promote product quality to a new level, and has led instrument manufacturers around the world to provide customers with the most accurate and reliable gas detection solutions. . At present, City has already had a certain influence in the market and made its own contribution to the instrument industry in the whole China, especially the gas detection industry.

As the company continues to grow, customers continue to grow, and the entire industry improves. At the same time as the entire sales situation has grown, the company's technical level has also been further improved. According to the general introduction, according to the development of China's entire instrument industry, the development of sensors will be slightly higher than the average economy. According to statistics, City's global forecasting situation should be about 2% to 3% higher than the average GDP growth. This will lead to an increase in the GDP of China as a whole.

Three core competitive products sell more services

Talking about the company's core competitiveness, the general manager said that the core competitiveness of City Technology Co., Ltd. can be summarized into three points, namely, the application technology and services of scientific research and products.

He said that in terms of gas sensors, especially electrochemical sensors, City's strength is very strong. The company's R&D team has 3, 40 scientists in Europe and Honeywell's production system in the Asia-Pacific region. The R&D team of the company consists of two parts, one part is its own team called Application R&D, which transforms the existing technology into sensor technology, and the other part is called the basic R&D team, that is, the company not only uses its own scientific research strength. He also used Ho's entire Honeywell research team and network's scientific research team to link it.

He said that at different levels, the company’s focus and investment in scientific research are City's most proud areas in the field of scientific research, because 6% or 7% of sales will be invested in research fields each year. This proportion may be It is also a very important proportion in the general business.

In the 1970s, in order to cooperate with the United States Apollodon lunar plan, British urban technology first developed an electrochemical sensor, and then as it developed, it constantly broke its technology. From this point of view, City should be said to be recognized by the industry. There are relatively large influence and forward-looking companies. At the same time, in the next development, City will cooperate and discuss with everyone, and the overall industry standard will be improved.

When doing some internal training in the company of the company, the company often emphasizes that the City company not only sells the sensor itself, but also guarantees the quality service system of the sensor itself sold and the service of the technology contained in the sensor. This is like Starbucks sells not only coffee but it also sells an experience. After having good technology and products, we must let customers use it well and play well in order to make this industry develop. For the market, City Company opened its entire service network to grow with customers.

Guaranteed quality system Ciyt grows with everyone

As the homogeneity of products continues to increase and competition continues to increase, it is always because of this that it may be both a challenge and an opportunity for many instrument companies. In the past, the instrument industry may have more focus and traditional industries, but as the market advances, it may need more technical standards.

Instrumentation as a technology-intensive industry, although the business climate in 2012 is not very good, City company has also been affected, but the new market opportunities generated by this market will now only seize the company, do it yourself The things that drive the development of the entire industry chain.

At the beginning of the interview, Tan had always mentioned to us that the company now has three factories: Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, Poole in the United Kingdom, and Bonn in Germany. All three factories also received bronze medals from the HOS system. Honeywell is also a very high standard and honor.

The company's guarantee for quality is also guaranteed in many aspects such as the production system. In the process of research and development of new products, in the setting process, in the selection of suppliers, and in the final product inspection and input market, there is a very complete system called Honeywelloperationsystem, referred to as "HOS system", this system guarantees that all procedures from R&D to production to customers can be found, not only guaranteeing quality but also ensuring high efficiency.

Although the overall development of the industry in 2012 was impacted, the company of the city continuously requested the development of the enterprise itself, and even the development of each link has a relative system to protect. The general said that even for some small industry companies, they must make their own contributions to bear their own responsibility. Although the company has never faced such a situation, this kind of state is a challenge for anybody. City company It will continue to develop in the future in accordance with its own plans and ideas.

Looking at the development of enterprises from their performance

Compared with foreign companies, they not only have unique advantages and core competencies in terms of technology, but also have unique management areas in their management. City Technology Co., Ltd. belongs to Honeywell Group, so in the management of the company, especially in the management of the company itself, it also follows Honeywell's management system. There is an HOS system in production, and there is a SixSigma system in the usual management.

In general, companies with more domestic companies will focus on results. In contrast, foreign companies or a considerable part of foreign companies will also pay attention to the results while paying attention to the results. In other words, a foreign company or a foreign-funded enterprise will pay great attention to the cultivation of people. Only when the training of a person reaches a certain stage can he continue the cultivation of the results, or it can accumulate the level of talents. This is the largest The difference. City In the past few years, focusing on the results of industrial development, we have paid attention to the training of personnel and the introduction of talents to ensure the further improvement of the company.

From 1977, when the company developed and produced the first portable gas sensor to the field that it leads the market for toxic gas and oxygen sensors, Tan said that in the past 30 years, City has taken a big step. In the face of future developments, gas sensors will be more widely used. On the one hand, they hope to enter the homes of the people they are looking for. On the other hand, they hope to continue to develop on the basis of science and technology. There are new products and technologies are produced. Developed to make the world more exciting, City also hopes to witness such historical development.

Both basic and technical skills must be hard

With the development of the entire instrument industry, China's instrumentation industry has strong scientific research strength after more than 50 years of development. It is one of the industries with the highest national productivity, but among them, foreign-funded enterprises have dominated the Chinese instrument industry. Although it started early, it is still at a stage of development. The reason has always given us an analysis that both the technology and the foundation must be grasped, and both hands should be hard. Not only should there be sensor technology research and development but also a basic research and development plan.

Although the development of sensors in China has a certain basis, compared with developed countries in Europe and the United States, the relative emphasis on the development of sensor-backend electronic technology control planes is relatively high. However, there is a certain amount of research and development for sensors, especially sensor-based R&D. difference.

Developed countries in Europe and the United States are industries that develop sensors based on a very solid foundation of R&D. In general, it is said that R&D of sensors may be the application of materials and technologies, but R&D of sensors is the invention of materials, or the invention of materials technology. This requires the entire industry and even the entire scientific research system to support it.