The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 374: A Breakthrough in the Aftermarket
Mercedes-Benz cars are beginning to gain momentum in the Chinese car market and even the global car market, and employees of the entire BMW Group are full of enthusiasm.

As a core parts company, Nanshan Technology was unwilling to lag behind and soon achieved a historic breakthrough.

"Director, Pep Boys in the United States has placed an order with us for aftermarket parts for more than 3 bellows of three models. The first batch of parts will be shipped and delivered next week."

"We made a special business trip to the United States to visit them and provided them with samples, which achieved very good test results."

"As long as the market feedback is good, the other party said that the monthly orders will not be less than 3 in the future."

Chen Chenxing came to Jiang Hui's office early in the morning in a happy mood.

Bellows and fixed calipers are special parts that Jiang Hui arranged for Nanshan Technology to attack the American aftermarket.

In particular, the design of the bellows was at least ten years ahead of its time, and while performance was greatly improved, both weight and cost were greatly reduced.

It is particularly suitable for various vehicles with modified exhaust systems.

The modified car market has basically no presence in China.

Even after a few decades, there won't be much difference.

But in mature automobile markets such as the United States, the situation is completely different.

Whether now or in the future, this is an existence that many companies cannot ignore.

As long as they do it well, they can rely on the modified car market to allow parts manufacturers to live a comfortable life.

"Have the patents for the bellows been registered internationally?"

Jiang Hui expected that American after-sales chain companies would take a fancy to Nanshan Technology's corrugated tubes.

After all, the performance is there, and a professional organization can do a little testing to know the result.

The test of bellows is relatively simple and the results are available quickly.

"Patents in major countries have been registered, and BMW Technology has spent a lot of money on this."

"It was also the first time for me to learn that registering so many international patents is actually very expensive. No wonder some domestic companies, even though they have begun to understand the usefulness of patents, are reluctant to register them internationally."

Chen Chenxing complained with emotion.

He just couldn't understand why those patent agencies charged so much.

Could it be that the expenditures of these institutions do not rely on funding from relevant departments, but rather they generate their own income?
"This patented bellows technology will definitely allow Nanshan Technology to make a comfortable living for the next 20 years. If any company dares to infringe on the patent, we should not be afraid of suing them."

"Then when General Motors cooperated with us, it also said that it would give priority to Nanshan Technology."

"You can arrange for someone to push it forward as quickly as possible and try to get the bellows included in GM's mass production."

Time waits for no one, and Jiang Hui can't wait to make Nanshan Technology bigger and stronger.

Now that the situation of bellows in the American aftermarket has begun to open up, it is not impossible to take this opportunity to let General Motors consider using them.

"In the first week after we signed the cooperation contract for Mercedes-Benz cars with GM, someone from the sales department brought samples of bellows to visit the GM purchasing center and design center."

"They are also interested in adopting our bellows technology, but they are a bit slow in doing things, and they need to consider using it on new models, so it will take some time."

When Jiang Hui was discussing cooperation with General Motors, he specifically mentioned the matter of Nanshan Technology, so Chen Chenxing naturally attached great importance to it.

In the workplace, many times, the things that leaders value are the most important things, and everything else has to take a back seat.

If you don't understand the rules of survival in the workplace, even if you have good personal abilities, you may not get good rewards.

There is always a reward for your hard work, and sometimes that reward is a bowl of chicken soup.

"We don't have a branch in the United States. If we want to supply parts to General Motors, we have to go through various trade procedures."

"You can consider talking to someone who has a say in GM's purchasing field and ask him to recommend a trading company, or even set up a new trading company that specializes in importing corrugated pipes from Nanshan Technology."

When a company drags its feet when bringing in new suppliers, nine times out of ten it’s because the relationships are not in place.

Look at those new suppliers that the company boss personally arranges to introduce. Which department dares to procrastinate?
The people at GM Purchasing Center have had no special connection with Nanshan Technology in the past, so naturally they won't give you any special face.

But if the people doing business are your own people, the situation is different.

If Nanshan Technology wants to make a lot of money from General Motors, it naturally has to give up some things.

Jiang Hui saw this very clearly.

Anyway, the cost of Nanshan Technology's corrugated pipes is much lower than that of its competitors, leaving enough profit margin for everyone to maneuver.

By then, it would be completely acceptable for Nanshan Technology to make money while allowing people in General Motors Purchasing Center and even some other key departments to make money as well.

The worst that could happen is that the price of a part originally intended to be sold for $10 would be raised to $15.

Anyway, as long as the business is successful, the wool comes from the sheep.

"Well, I will fly to America in person and have a good communication with the other party."

Jiang Hui had already said it so bluntly, so Chen Chenxing naturally knew what he should do.

……

"Brick, when will the batch of bellows imported from China arrive?"

"I have received feedback from several dealers that they are waiting for this new bellows to modify the exhaust system for consumers."

“It would be a shame to lose a big conversion order because of a small part.”

As general manager of Pep Boys, Roberts certainly doesn't have time to pay attention to the order of a small parts.

But this time the bellows is special.

On the one hand, this is the first time that their company has purchased parts from China, and these parts are very cost-effective and of high technical level.

If this is a good start, Roberts plans to expand this practice to make the company's financial reports look even better.

"The goods have already been loaded onto the ship from Huaxia. It is estimated that they will arrive at our port in half a month. After customs clearance and other formalities, they can be sent to our distribution center and distributed to various stores."

This deal was negotiated personally by Brick, the purchasing director, so he was naturally aware of the specific situation.

"It's too slow, and we can't keep consumers waiting."

"You can just ask China to airfreight a batch of spare parts over here first to meet the needs of the waiting consumers." If air transport is used, the transportation fee will definitely be very high.

But compared with the overall profit brought by modified vehicles, this transportation fee is nothing.

After all, the bellows are not particularly large parts, and shipping one or two square boxes of products can meet Pep Boys' urgent needs.

Other needs can be met gradually after the parts shipped by sea arrive.

"That's fine. The bellows produced by that Chinese company are really special. When combined with some of our exhaust system modification solutions, they can have unexpected effects."

"We can even make the modification larger without causing adverse effects such as vibration."

Since the boss had spoken, Brick naturally had no objection.

Pep Boys is not the only after-sales store chain in the United States. Now that they have grasped a product with blockbuster properties, it would be a shame if they don’t market it well.

By the time other chain stores react, Pep Boys' advantage will no longer be obvious.

And with Pep Boys' various actions, the American aftermarket naturally responded quickly.

Among some car modification groups, the bellows launched by Pep Boys have become a hot-selling part.

Whenever the exhaust pipe is touched during modification, people will basically consider replacing the bellows at the same time.

Seeing this momentum taking shape, Pep Boys quickly increased its orders for bellows.

Faced with this situation, the original bellows manufacturer naturally responded immediately.

"Freeman, we must let the people in the R&D center develop lightweight, high-performance bellows as soon as possible, otherwise the aftermarket will not use our bellows."

“Sales of some of our aftermarket exhaust system parts will also be affected.”

"The most troublesome thing is that I am worried that this matter will affect our acquisition of new project orders from OEMs such as General Motors."

Tenneco is the largest exhaust system manufacturer in the United States.

As a supplier to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, they also supply parts such as exhaust pipes and bellows to aftermarket chains such as Pep Boys.

At the beginning, Pep Boys purchased bellows from China, and Tenneco did not have any special reaction.

But when people from GM's purchasing center also asked Tenneco whether it could produce that kind of lightweight, high-performance bellows, Chris began to feel something was wrong.

After some investigation, he immediately went to CEO Freeman's office to report the situation.

"The exhaust gas comes out of the engine exhaust manifold and passes through the catalyst housing, A-row, middle muffler and rear muffler package. There are so many parts, and the bellows is just an insignificant component. Does it really have such a big impact?"

Freeman thought Chris was making a big fuss.

For Tenneco, even if it loses the order for bellows, the impact will be limited.

Besides, there are not many manufacturers that can compete with Tenneco in the American auto parts market.

Faurecia, the global exhaust system giant known to many people in later generations, has not yet become independent from Peugeot.

There are several exhaust system manufacturers in Japan, but they have just entered the American market and mainly supply Toyota, Honda and Nissan's factories in the United States. They have not yet entered the supply system of American automakers such as General Motors.

It can be said that Tenneco has lived a relatively comfortable life in recent years.

The only thing that is a bit sad is that the sales of several OEMs such as General Motors are declining, which has caused Tenneco's turnover to decline as well.

But they actually made quite a bit of money.

Many times, the OEM may not make money, but the parts suppliers of large divisions are making money.

"The technical department purchased a batch of lightweight bellows from the market for testing. After using this type of bellows, the design of our exhaust system parts can be simpler."

"In particular, the material thickness of the parts in row A can be appropriately reduced, which can not only achieve lightweighting but also reduce costs."

"The noise reduction performance of the entire vehicle can also be improved synchronously, with the noise level reduced by more than 3 decibels under the same conditions."

"If all exhaust pipe manufacturers don't care about these effects, then the impact on our orders from OEMs will be relatively small. However, once other competitors start using them, the impact will be relatively large."

Chris put the situation rather bluntly.

Even though Tenneco is doing well now, it is not without any competitors.

Exhaust system parts are not parts with particularly high technological monopoly.

"The bellows are used as the lower part of the exhaust pipe in most OEMs. It takes a lot of time to design and produce a new lightweight bellows by ourselves, and the final production cost may also be relatively high."

"You can communicate with the people in the purchasing department first to see if you can cooperate directly with the manufacturers in China, purchase bellows from them, install them on the A row, and then send them to the OEM."

"In this way, the impact on us can be controlled to a minimum."

Freeman quickly came up with a solution of his own.

In his opinion, the value of the bellows part is relatively low compared to the entire exhaust system.

Since you can buy cheap parts, there is no need to produce them yourself.

"That's a good idea. I heard from GM's purchasing center that the newly emerged lightweight bellows has been patented worldwide."

"It may not be that easy for us to circumvent this patent."

"It's a good idea to cooperate directly with the other party."

For Kleeman, it is enough as long as the products sold by Tenneco can be equipped with lightweight bellows at any time to meet the needs of the OEMs.

As for whether the part is produced by the company itself or purchased from outside, it doesn’t matter anymore.

"If GM is very interested in actively promoting the adoption of lightweight bellows, we can propose a VA/VE proposal and switch between them during mass production."

"This part of the price reduction effect can be used to offset their annual price reduction requirements, achieving a win-win situation."

After Freeman said this, Chris felt that his whole mind was opened up.

This path is totally feasible.

Then we can kill two birds with one stone and everyone will benefit.

(End of this chapter)