When will I have a long tassel?

The China Machine Tool Exhibition on the other side of the ocean has also affected the old German machine tool company Botech. In the small conference room at the headquarters of PATEO, Sales Director Short reported a terrible news to the company executives while playing a projection on the big screen:

"China displayed twelve types of precision milling machines and seven types of precision boring machines in Chicago, covering our main models. The prices of their milling machines and boring machines are generally more than 30% lower than ours, and they are highly competitive in the market. Our products in the United States Several major customers have sent us letters stating that unless the price of our products is reduced by 50%, they will consider using Chinese machine tools."

"Lauser, do you know anything about the Chinese products? Are their products up to our level?"

Chairman Wardenberg looked livid, turned his head and stared at Technical Director Lauther and asked.

Rauser adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose and replied calmly: "I didn't go to visit the Chinese machine tools on site, but according to what I learned from some American colleagues, the technical performance indicators of these Chinese machine tools are very high. Some of them have even surpassed our level. If Americans want to replace our machine tools with Chinese machine tools, it is technically feasible."

"How can the Chinese machine tools surpass our level? Is there an insider in your technical department and leaked our technical secrets to the Chinese?" an executive named Paulin asked angrily.

Lauther shrugged his shoulders and said: "Mr. Paulin, I cannot accept your accusation. In fact, the batch of milling machines and boring machines launched by the Chinese adopted a completely different design idea from ours. This is a It’s a design idea we’ve never used, so it definitely can’t be technology obtained from us.”

"You mean, they are using a more advanced design idea?" Paulin asked.

Rauser nodded: "You can say that. Although the ideas of machine tool design cannot be said to be absolutely brilliant or not, their methods at least have some unique features and are worth learning. A few years ago, we paid attention to The Chinese machine tool industry has proposed the idea of ​​​​using systems engineering methods to optimize machine tool design, and we have also conducted research on this idea. The machine tools exhibited by the Chinese this time are the perfect embodiment of this design idea, which is a milestone in the history of machine tool design. A new achievement.”

"But why was such a new achievement not proposed by Mr. Rauser, but by the Chinese? I remember that Mr. Rauser once won the title of the most outstanding mechanical engineer in Europe." Paulin said Said with sarcasm.

"That's a thing of the past." Lauther replied without hesitation. Of course he could feel Paulin's hostility towards him, but he could not refute it. He said: "This method of the Chinese evolved from aerospace engineering, and I saw some shadows of Russian technology in it. Everyone knows that Germany is not as good as Russia and China in aerospace technology, and their accumulated experience is also helpful for machine tool design."

"But……"

Paulin wanted to say something else, but Wardenberg stopped him. This kind of heart-wrenching question actually didn't help. Wardenberg turned his head to Short and said: "Short, I remember you once reached an agreement with the Chinese. The Chinese promised not to get involved in our product field. But now, they have launched a full line of products to replace ours. product, what’s your explanation for this?”

How could Short not remember this incident? When he heard Wardenberg's attack, he said calmly: "Mr. Wardenberg, we did have such an agreement with the Chinese, but the term of the agreement was five years. I remember that was eight years ago."

"You mean, the Chinese only started developing these machine tools three years ago? It took them three years to surpass us?" Wardenberg asked coldly.

Short said: "I don't know much about technical matters. However, when we signed this agreement with China, the company assessed the risks. At that time, Mr. Lauther did not raise any objection to the agreement. According to In Mr. Rauser's opinion, even if the Chinese are conducting research in secret, as long as they abide by the agreement and do not openly sell such machine tools, they will not be able to obtain enough application data to guide the improvement of machine tools. Mr. Rauser, I Is that correct?"

"I did say so." Lauther said bravely. He said these words in front of all the company's executives back then, and now it's too late to deny them. He said: "As a general rule, machine tool design is a process of continuous improvement. If the Chinese do not have large enough sales, they will not be able to accumulate application data and thus will not be able to understand the problems in machine tool design. This is important for them to improve machine tools. A big hurdle.”

"So, how did they break through this obstacle? Or, they didn't have such an obstacle from the beginning?" Paulin caught the idea again and continued to press Lauther.

Lauther pointed at Short and said: "Should Mr. Short be asked to answer this question? In the past eight years, have the Chinese complied with the agreement with us and have they sold on the open market? This kind of machine tool?”

"They started selling similar machine tools three years ago. At that time, the technical performance of their machine tools was much worse than ours. The machine tools they exhibited at this exhibition have made great progress compared to three years ago. ." Short explained.

Short's explanation was to justify the reciprocal agreement he signed with China eight years ago. That agreement stipulates that Premier Tech will persuade the EU to agree to open export licenses for certain types of precision machine tools to Chinese military industrial companies, provided that Chinese machine tool companies give up the research and development of these precision machine tools within five years and recognize Premier Tech's market monopoly on these machine tools. .

At that time, the consensus within the company was that as long as Premier Tech provided these machine tools to China, Chinese companies would have no incentive to develop these machine tools. To take a step back, even if the Chinese secretly carry out research and development of these machine tools out of the need to master technology, as long as they are not sold openly on the market, they will not be able to obtain large enough sales and thus cannot recover funds for subsequent development. PATEO will be able to maintain its Technology leadership in these machine tools.

What happened next made Short feel surprised and annoyed. From some secret channels, Short learned that the Chinese have not given up on the research and development of these machine tools. Although several Chinese machine tool companies undertaking research and development tasks have not received profits from the market, they are supported by special national funds. Research and development work doesn’t stop for a day.

Later, Short heard that the Russian military industry department had purchased a batch of Chinese machine tools, including precision milling machines and boring machines secretly developed by China to replace PATEO products. These equipment were restricted by the EU from being exported to Russia.

At the same time, the Chinese military industry department's orders from PATEO were quietly shrinking. Short had no way of knowing the real reason, but based on his years of experience in sales, he could guess that the Chinese military industry department must have obtained other substitutes. .

All these things happened three years ago, within the five-year scope of the agreement signed between PATEO and the Chinese. But Scholte could not take the agreement to the Chinese for comment, because Chinese companies did not openly sell such machine tools on the market. As for what machine tools are used within the military industry department, this is beyond the control of PATEO.

The situation is the same in all countries in the world. The military industry and the market are two different systems. The rules of the market do not need to be considered in the military industry system. For example, regarding the issue of patent rights, ordinary companies cannot sell infringing products on the market, but the military industry department will not care about this and will do it behind closed doors. Who cares whether it infringes on other people's intellectual property rights?

For example, for the atomic bomb, it is impossible for the United States to apply for patent protection and prevent other countries from developing it. Of course, if you want to sell atomic bombs on a certain treasure, it is another matter.

Short did not report the incident to the company because if he were to be held responsible, it would be Short's fault. Since no one else knew about this situation, why did he need to take the blame himself?

Scholte was not lying when he said that the Chinese only started to openly sell similar machine tools three years ago, and the performance of the machines they sold at that time was much lower than that of Premier Machine Tools. However, the real reason is that Tang Zifeng did not want to expose his strength prematurely, so he asked various machine tool companies that have mastered the technology to launch simplified versions of their products. It was not until this Chicago exhibition that the lid was completely lifted.

The executives naturally didn't know the mystery. After hearing what Short said, Paulin pointed the finger at Lauther and asked:

"Mr. Rauser, can you tell us what your technical department has done in the past eight years? Regardless of whether the Chinese have complied with the agreement signed with us, at least eight years ago their technology was equivalent to ours. gap, and now, as you said, they have even surpassed us in some aspects.

"Does this mean that we have completely stopped making progress in these eight years? This has given our competitors the opportunity to surpass us."

"We have been working hard," Rauser said. "We have chosen more than ten directions to optimize the original technology. However, since the financial crisis, the company's R\u0026D funding for us has been reduced again and again. Our R\u0026D We had to stop in all directions. I think this may be why the Chinese were able to run ahead of us."

In a word, the blame was thrown back to Wardenberg, because the chairman had the final say on allocating funds. It is well known that technology research and development is very expensive. Paulin couldn't stand the technology department, and he also felt that this department spent too much money and took away the company's profits.

In previous executive meetings, Paulin has always criticized the company for paying too much attention to technology. Since the company is already the most technologically advanced company in the market, why is it necessary to continue to spend so much money on research and development? Wouldn’t it be nice to give this money to executives as salaries?