Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 216: Achieving million mobile phone sales

Entering the second half of 11, the global smartphone market has been stirred up by two press conferences held by Zhiyun Technology.

In particular, the series of new technologies and innovations adopted by the S11 series of mobile phones have driven the development of the entire smartphone trend.

The seven-millimeter-thick body is the ultimate in craftsmanship.

4.7-inch/4.3-inch large-size reticle screen.

There is also artificial intelligence 'Xiaoyun'.

It also has a 2-megapixel main camera and an exaggerated GB of RAM.

In addition, there is something not new, but it is still Zhiyun’s exclusive fingerprint recognition.

Any one of these things can create a hot market trend if taken separately, but the Zhiyun S11 series combines all of them into one, creating a killer phone.

Ji Chenghe described the craze of this phone in an internal meeting: "Although our S11 phone was launched at the end of June, it took another two months in July and August. In the last two months and a few days, our S11 series phones sold million units worldwide."

"That's 11 million units. And in the entire series, the sales of Pro accounted for a very high proportion, far exceeding our previous estimate of 64%, reaching % overall, of which the top-end Pro accounted for %. For every S series sold, eight were the top-end GB Pro version, which further raised the average sales price of our entire series!"

At this point, Ji Chenghe couldn't help but sigh: "Those people are simply crazy, this is the top-of-the-line Pro version, more than 7,000!"

"Sometimes I feel that what we sell are not mobile phones, but luxury goods... The unit price is high, and the profit is even higher!"

"Our marketing department estimates that the sales of our S11 series is expected to reach million units during its life cycle, million units higher than the initial estimate!"

"Although the current sales enthusiasm has declined, we plan to conduct a small-scale price reduction promotion on a global scale in September and October, strive to boost sales again and maintain the monthly sales target of 8 million units. Taking advantage of the popularity in the past six months, we will harvest as much sales as possible!"

At this time, Xu Shenxue looked at Gu Zhiming and said, "The S11 series is selling well, and your supply chain has a lot of work to do. I heard there were some minor problems a few days ago. How is it going? Have you solved it?"

Gu Zhiming, the supply chain manager, said with a tired face: "Our entire supply chain has been running at full speed for three months. Despite such high-intensity operation, some problems still occurred. A production base of Wanjin Technology that produces core components for fingerprint recognition was hit by severe weather, causing major problems in the nearby power supply network, and the backup generator set in the supplier's factory also malfunctioned."

"This batch of key parts is directly related to the mass production of fingerprint core modules. In order to avoid problems with the supply chain, I urgently contacted multiple parties and finally coordinated a batch of large emergency generators locally to ensure emergency production. The local power supply also sent technical backbones to repair overnight, and the power supply line has been repaired this afternoon."
"Finally there were no problems!"

"Otherwise, the factory might have to shut down, causing a series of chain reactions!"

Xu Shenxue said, "We have to thank the local authorities for this. You can make some arrangements later. The emergency generator set in this subsidiary has problems, which shows that there are problems with the company's management. Send an audit team to find out what the problem is. Those who should be fired should be fired. We at Zhiyun are not afraid of keeping idle people, but we are afraid of keeping criminals."

"This kind of thing should arouse our vigilance. Power supply should be given top priority. Whether it is coordinating with local governments to stabilize power supply or emergency power generation equipment, we must ensure that everything is foolproof. We cannot afford the losses of a long-term power outage!"

Gu Zhiming said: "Don't worry, President Xu. Our directly affiliated supply chain companies and cooperative supply chain companies all put power supply issues first. This time the local area encountered very rare bad weather, and the emergency generators continued to malfunction."

"However, a problem has occurred. I will review my mistake and I promise that this will never happen again."

Xu Shenxue nodded and said, "Well, the supply chain issue must be taken seriously."

Such large-scale sales of the S11 series not only tests Zhiyun’s marketing capabilities, but also tests Zhiyun Technology’s entire supply chain system.

Zhiyun Technology's supply chain is actually very complex, and it is also one of the most efficient supply chains in contemporary times.

Of course, the supply chains of multinational giants such as Fruit, Six Star, and Nouya are also not bad.

The supply chain management of multinational giants such as Zhiyun, Sixing and Fruit is often very different from that of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The most obvious thing is that the tolerance for inventory is very low!
When making products, many small and medium-sized enterprises like to place orders a month or even longer in advance, and then the supply chain manufacturers arrange production on their own... Anyway, the company is not large and the inventory cost is limited.

But for global multinational giants, it’s different. Their supply chains are spread all over the world, and the variable speed characteristics of smartphones require the supply chain to respond quickly. It is impossible for you to be slow... Once you are slow, multinational companies like Zhiyun will have to pay extremely exaggerated supply chain inventory costs.

Zhiyun Technology’s control over the entire supply chain is very strong and also very strict.

Through the supply chain system, Zhiyun Technology's supply chain coordination department can clearly understand the production efficiency of its many subordinate supply chain companies, and then place orders in batches accurately based on this production efficiency.

This order is not an order for a month or a year, but often a frequent order of small batches, and will not be received early or harvested late.

For example, if an order for 1 parts is placed on the 12st and delivery is required on the 12th, then Zhiyun Technology will definitely require the supplier to deliver the parts on the th.

Moreover, it is not possible to deliver early or late, the supplier can only deliver at this time...because many of them are directly transported by air, and the cargo planes have not arrived yet, so you cannot deliver early even if you want to.

Moreover, if supply chain companies want to produce, they also need corresponding spare parts or raw materials...and these spare parts or raw materials are also directly controlled by Zhiyun.

Zhiyun hasn't delivered the spare parts or raw materials yet, so you can't produce them in advance.

Even if there are too many unconventional losses in your production process, it will cause a lot of problems... because the spare parts and raw materials are provided by Zhiyun in a fixed quantity, you can't find these spare parts and raw materials separately.

These parts are then transported by road or air to the assembly factory for production at the scheduled time, and the assembly factory then assembles the mobile phones and delivers them within the specified time.

The entire supply chain operates on this very strict time node.

This is to avoid large inventories of spare parts and raw materials. Otherwise, given the huge size of Zhiyun Technology, if the inventory is slightly larger and lasts longer, it means spare parts worth one or two billion US dollars will be circulating in the entire supply chain.

If there is any disturbance, it will cause heavy losses, and the cost of spare parts inventory is tens of billions of dollars... This is too much capital occupation, and the capital cost is extremely high. Capital itself has a cost... Ten billion US dollars can earn a lot of interest every year if you do nothing with it in the bank.

Therefore, Zhiyun Technology's supply chain has always been committed to reducing inventory...Zero inventory is impossible to achieve, we can only try to reduce inventory quantity and turnover time.

However, such an efficient supply chain also has very strict requirements on supply chain manufacturers and transportation chains... Supply chain manufacturers must have sufficient strength to withstand numerous risks.

For example, in the case of power supply problems, Zhiyun Technology Supply Chain requires all supply chain companies not to have any production stoppages due to unplanned or force majeure factors.

For example, the emergency generator failure is an unacceptable reason for Zhiyun Technology.

Why didn’t you do it earlier? Why didn’t you carry out regular maintenance to solve the problem in advance? Why did you have to wait until a problem occurred to find out that the emergency generator was not working?
The reason why an emergency generator is called an emergency generator is to be used at such critical moments, but you can't use it yet.

It can be seen that there are major problems in corporate management.

Therefore, if there is an unexpected production suspension, there will be a warning and a fine; if there is a second production suspension, the order will be cancelled. As for the third time... Zhiyun Technology will not give you a third chance.

Therefore, Zhiyun Technology's supply chain companies will be equipped with emergency power generation equipment, so they can continue production through emergency power generation even in the event of a temporary power outage.

For routine power outages, it is often necessary to negotiate with the power supply department and coordinate many days or even half a month in advance.

Manufacturers that don’t have the strength and can’t even handle local power supply cannot enter the Zhiyun supply chain... But then again, companies that can enter the Zhiyun supply chain are often core high-tech companies in the local area and basically will not encounter such accidents.

Even if a company is very ordinary before entering the supply chain, as long as it enters the Zhiyun supply chain, the local people will be able to immediately raise the importance of this company to several levels!

It is very difficult to enter Zhiyun Supply Chain, but as long as you pass the assessment and get in... then you will be able to take off immediately.

The technical and financial support from Zhiyun will rapidly enhance the factory's technical strength and significantly expand its production capacity.

Immediately afterwards, the huge orders from Zhiyun, a global giant in the smart terminal industry, will instantly overwhelm the production line of this new supplier, making you feel what it means to have too many orders and be unable to complete them!

Zhiyun will quickly become a super customer of the supply chain company, with revenue accounting for more than 50%, or even 80% or 90%.

In addition, Zhiyun Technology will not default on any payment for goods. As long as there are no problems with the contract, we will be very happy to pay you. We will strictly follow the contract and pay you when we say we will.

Because Zhiyun Technology really has no shortage of money!
On the other hand, Zhiyun Technology is a typical global multinational company with its own set of operating standards and will not do the messy things that ordinary small and medium-sized enterprises do.

The entire supply chain of Zhiyun Technology is a ruthless and efficient machine.

It is precisely such efficient machines that have driven Zhiyun Technology to sell 25 million mobile phones in just over two months.

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Various news about the S11 mobile phone has dominated various news reports around the world, becoming the undisputed traffic king in the technology field in the past two months.

Even in July and August, when other mobile phone manufacturers released mobile phones one after another, even Zhiyun's own A series and C series could not shake the S11 series' dominant position in public opinion.

Of course, the A11 and C4 released by Zhiyun Technology in August, as well as a small-screen four-inch S11X phone to clear inventory, are also selling well.

It is worth noting that in order to maintain the high-end attributes of the S series and to make way for the S11X, Zhiyun Technology decisively stopped production of the S10 series of mobile phones while the sales of the S11 series phones were still at to units per month, and transferred the corresponding production capacity and other resources to the SX.

After its official release in August, the A11 series of mobile phones sold more than one million units within a month, while the C4 series of mobile phones continued to be the best-selling models, selling more than three million units within a month.

The S11X series sold nearly one million units.

This resulted in some very scary data. The marketing department predicted that one month after the autumn conference, during this peak sales cycle, Zhiyun Technology's three major series of mobile phones, plus the C3 series and C2 series of old models, would sell a total of more than million mobile phones.

Although this is the peak sales period after the two press conferences, it is impossible to last long. For example, the sales of the S11 series began to decline at the end of August.

After the initial shock when the A11 mobile phone was launched, its actual sales volume also fell back quite quickly.

The S11X is a phone used to clear inventory and satisfy the sentimental needs of some consumers, and its sales volume fell faster.

The C4 phone is quite special. As a mid-range model, it didn't become very popular at the beginning, but its sales have been rising steadily, basically continuing the stability of the previous generation C3... It doesn't look amazing, but its sales have been rising steadily.

The peak sales volume of 15 million units per month cannot be maintained for too long. At least it is difficult to maintain such high sales volume before price reduction promotions are adopted.

But this is still very shocking data.

Even within Zhiyun Technology, when a group of senior executives were in a meeting, they were amazed when they heard Ji Chenghe report this crazy data.

Xu Shenxue said: "We need to keep up the good work in the coming months, see how things go in the next few months, and organize some promotional activities to maintain sales as much as possible!"

"In the coming year, we are aiming to achieve sales of 150 million mobile phones!"

While Zhiyun Technology was rejoicing over the astonishing sales volume, Apple also held its 4S press conference in the faraway United States.

This press conference also attracted a lot of attention. People were very curious about what Apple could come up with to compete with Zhiyun's S series.

(End of this chapter)