It Is Worth Expecting the Agricultural Machinery Market Driven by Innovation Unceasingly

The agricultural machinery market, which has kept more than ten years’ steady development unceasingly, provides the god-given opportunity for the agricultural machinery enterprises to achieve the goal of being large and strong and speed up the adjustment of the industrial structure. Confronted with the new industrial mode, namely, generation change and upgrade of products, adjustment of the industrial structure and remodeling of the market structure driven by “National III standard” changing-over and quality upgrade, the agricultural machinery enterprises are being confronted with the new development and breakthrough goals.

Influenced by the industrial restraining factors, the development bottleneck needs to be solved

The sound development of the agricultural machinery industry, agricultural machinery market and agricultural machinery products is a systematic project, which needs to be promoted by goal integration, resource synergy and capacity. By means of comprehensive analysis of rule of industry and special research on development path, the strategic reflection, industrial breakthrough and user orientation are still important issues for cohesion of strength and pursuit of being strong.

Firstly, analysis is made from the strategic level. At present, in the industry, the low-end capacity is seriously surplus; the industrial concentration is low; the quantities of manufacturing enterprises are too many and the development capacity “ceiling” and the operation performance “trammels” cause the industrial overall efficiency to fluctuate in the low level. Strengthening the strategic concentration, having more confidence in development and adapting to the “New Normal” become important issues, which need to be thought and solved by some agricultural machinery enterprises.

Firstly, strategies of some agricultural machinery enterprises are passive because these enterprises lack the long-term layout and continue to adopt the inertial thinking in aspects of the strategic ideas, strategic countermeasures and tactical countermeasures etc.; the allocation and synergy of the strategic resources and implementation of strategies of these enterprises cannot keep pace with the times and the development environment cannot be effectively utilized or influenced by these enterprises. Secondly, the development orientation is not clear. Some enterprises are accustomed to pursuing the large scale and comprehensiveness, and their strategic resources, implementation routes and promotion capacity lack collaborative configuration, optimization measures and innovation means. They use the limited resources and capacities to implement the cross-industry and diversified industrial development. Their traditional and backward industries are eliminated and emerging industrial development lacks the strategic measures. Their main businesses are large but weak and subsidiary businesses are fine but more. So the pattern of synergy is difficult to form. Thirdly, the decentralized strategies result in the decentralized competitiveness.

From the perspective of the common features, the whole ecological innovation transformation, commercial value reconstruction, sharing measures and means are lacking, thus it is difficult to grasp the development opportunities and the competition initiative. Low-level input, modular reproduction, homogeneous following up and price competition of middle and low-end resources in the industries and enterprises cause the core competitiveness to be formed difficultly and it is difficult to make breakthrough in high-end products and core capacity.

Secondly, research is made from the perspective of industry. The industrial development practice proves that a part of enterprises will be eliminated because they cannot adapt themselves to the new-phase transformation during the abandonment stage of the economic development phase.

Firstly, the manufacturing capacity of high-end agricultural machinery products is weak in our country. In our country, rate of agricultural machinery products that reach the international leading level is lower than 10%, and overall, the industrial structure is located in the middle and low-end level in terms of international division of labor and industrial chain. Affected and restrained by the manufacturing capacity, environmental protection upgrade, technical barrier, research & development capacity and the fund barrier etc., the manufacturing and development capacity of middle and high-end products is lacking and the capability of independent innovation is also lacking in aspects of advanced technologies, materials and hydraulic pressure etc. So, high-end parts are mainly outsourced. Secondly, the level of existing manufacturing equipment and technologies falls behind that of the developed countries. The organic integration between newborn high and new technologies and traditional manufacturing level is lacking and the practical application needs to be improved quickly in aspects of flexible manufacturing system (FMS), networked manufacturing system and information management etc. Thirdly, the core technical breakthrough for key technologies and key parts, and continuous improvement, optimization and control for the platform technology are lacking in terms of middle and high-end products; disconnection between research & development and manufacturing links and agriculture, lack of market-oriented and user-centered idea and being accustomed to researching & developing and manufacturing products as per the traditional means, inertial thinking and experience cause difficulties in researching & developing the differentiated products with synergy between the machinery and agriculture as per the demands nature, planting patterns, operation features and user perception of different areas.

Thirdly, argumentation is made from the perspective of demands. In 2016, the periodic adjustment, structural upgrade of products and continuous changes of demands occur in the agricultural machinery market. It seems that this situation reflects that market demands slow down superficially, but this situation is the reflection of the forced pull of the terminal demand upgrade in essence.

Firstly, analysis is made in terms of the product management value. The agricultural machinery product is the means of production. The users’ first selection is the value embodiment of the product management capacity when purchasing the agricultural machinery. For some agricultural machinery enterprises, they lack the research on the actual management demands of the terminal; the conformity of the agricultural machinery and agriculture is weak and quality, reliability, functions and performance etc. of their products have a certain disparity with displayed demands of the users. They are subjectively satisfied with their current situation, lack full consideration of the future development motivation and competitive factors, thus they only can provide the staged or local value scheme for users. Secondly, analysis is made in terms of the environmental protection upgrade. The agricultural machinery products bear the bidirectional roles, namely, requirements for industrial transformation and product upgrade brought by the constant upgrade of policies and standards related to environmental protection; the forced pull of the energy-saving and efficiency-enhancing terminal market requires that enterprises must improve their competitive means and capacity to grasp the environmental opportunity and develop advantages and avoid disadvantages. Thirdly, the product upgrade is slow. The upgrade of the agricultural machinery products is unable to keep pace with the users’ upgrade requirements in the short term. The middle and high-end, large and middle-sized, intelligent and series agricultural machinery products have the weak research & development, manufacturing, marketing and service capacities, and they have low proprietary intellectual property rights, core competitive capacity and market share. Thus, in the short term, the replacement cannot form, and the overall breakthrough and the integral improvement are difficult to achieve.

Carry out coordination propulsion effectively and achieve development by innovation

By the comprehensive and systematic understanding, differentiate, analyze and find out the key points of development, abide by law of development and comply with the development trend. Meet the terminal demands, restructure resources, remodel capacity and reestablish advantages by measures for tackling difficulties in dimensionalities of strategic promotion, industrial development and progressive increase of value and achieve the new development goals constantly by innovative impetus.

Firstly, insist on the strategic concentration and seek for the first-mover advantage. Adapt to and grasp the tendency features and staged characteristics that China’s agricultural machinery industry enters the New Normal. Keep the strategic concentration, have more confidence in development, optimize resources, improve capacity and make road clear to strongly promote the competitive level of the agricultural machinery to develop into a higher-form, faster-speed and better-quality stage.

Firstly, strengthen strategy performance. Keep pace with or be ahead of the development trend of foreign and domestic industry orientation and product technologies etc., blend in the strategic environment, do a good job in overall design, top-level design and hierarchical design of strategy, implement enterprises’ goals, enhance the implementation of strategies and strategic coordination propulsion and strive for achieving the innovation and upgrade of the commercial mode. Secondly, focus on the core resources, core capacity and core markets, position the industrial space, product platform and market dimensionality, innovate the development mode, determine implementation approaches and means of goals, optimize the growth form and build the competitive advantages of providing the corresponding agricultural equipment solutions for users. Thirdly, construct the development advantages. By centering on the staged goal of “being large and strong and being fine and professional” and contrasting advantages and disadvantages of the main competitors, dynamically utilize the value chain on the strategic map to determine the “golden section ratio” of the industrial chain, establish the flow mechanism of personnel, finance, and material resources, production, supply and marketing, and responsibility, power and interests, and cultivate, establish and keep enterprises’ differentiation competitive advantage and continued development support in aspects of industry, products, technologies and other resources and capacities.

Secondly, construct the core advantages and achieve the performance breakthrough. Based on the enterprises’ features and capacities, select the transformation direction accurately, do a good job in coordination of market demands, technical equipment, talent training and selling network etc. and achieve the stable and progressive increase of performance.

Firstly, do a good job in development reserve. The enterprises shall keep up with the world’s advanced technology and take opportunity of “Made in China 2025” and “Industry 4.0” to strive for achieving automation and informatization of the enterprise manufacturing and management, enlarge the intelligent manufacturing input of intelligent equipment and intelligent factories etc. and use the information technology to improve the traditional industry, propel upgrade of manufacturing capacity and promote the enterprises’ sustainable development. Secondly, speed up the industrial upgrade. In terms of industrial development, actively develop the new type high-efficiency tractors with power of 147 kW (200 hp) or above, tractors with 8 kinds of power shifts or above, main transmission electronic control and main clutch electro-hydraulic control CVT stepless speed change tractors; large-sized grain combine harvesters with the feed quantity of 10 kg/s or above, high-trafficability characteristic rice combine harvesters with the feed quantity of 8 kg/s or above and new type corn kernel harvesters and other products. In the meantime, speed up promotion of large scale, extent, complete set, intelligentization and precision of agricultural machinery products. Thirdly, optimize the research & development mode. Based on the domestic and foreign resources, speed up construction of production-learning-research-using interflow mechanism, do a good job in technical transformation and docking of production and demands, form the collaborative innovation and combination between the production and using, and promote the new mode of basic industrial development by market. Speed up the research & development, popularization and application of advanced materials, hydraulic and electronic control technologies and other core basic parts, advanced basic technologies and key basic materials.

Thirdly, promote the closed-loop management and extend the value chain. The leading agricultural machinery enterprises shall transform from the price layout to the value delivery gradually, and the competitive mode shall develop into the competition of comprehensive strength under the system platform from the single product competition. In addition, providing the most valuable solutions for users becomes the source power to support the enterprise development.