To many bus companies, 2007 is a year of big harvest. The sales volume of many first-line and second-line bus companies increased by 20%~30%, and Yutong was always the highlight among all of them. In 2007, when some bus companies were cheering a sales volume of ten thousand, the overall sales volume of Yutong had already reached 25,522, still the biggest winner in bus market. Behind the great achievements, Yutong always retained value concept, strictly controlled the whole production and management process including parts production, welding, painting and assembly, kept improving in details and then built the reliable and durable quality of products. Therefore, it created much bigger profit capacity for clients and obtained market acceptance.

Parts production: first pass to quality control

The first working procedure in bus production line is parts production, which is to provide corresponding semi-finished products for other workshops. Quality inspectors have the greatest right in parts production workshop, and the fineness degree of quality is the tangible capability of an employee.

As early as before the Yutong Operation Efficiency Intercity Activity, the parts production workshop had set up production target: to strengthen fineness of products and to create higher value for clients with fine production. In order to complete the target, the workshop started with the routine work habit of employees, standardized production process, and made strict system to supervise production process, including complete record of the proportion and frequency of daily and weekly examination. The measures intensified the routine production of employees and raised standards for product quality in a short time. It is introduced by the workshop director that the management of workshop focuses on two aspects: results and process. The quality check and employee inspection are also carried out based on the two aspects, i.e., whether the production process is standardized and whether the end-products are qualified.

It is known that there are not many companies that have their own parts production workshops as Yutong in the industry. With the realization of spare parts self-production, Yutong is able to shorten the production cycle of whole vehicle when clients put forward purchase demands. On one hand, Yutong can timely adjusts or strengthens whole vehicle matching according to requirements of clients and guarantees the use of spare parts and vehicle models. On the other hand, via spare parts self-production, the company increases production efficiency and reduces cost of spare parts, and thus bus purchasers are benefited due to the decrease of whole bus cost.

Welding: to prolong the service life of buses

The welding of the body is an important link in the manufacture of motorbus, and its quality is one of the core elements to directly influence the quality of whole bus. The welding workshop of Yutong is famous in the industry, and its products have nice appearance and strong corrosion resistance performance.

In order to strengthen welding technology, the welding workshop introduced internationally advanced coating external parts rolling production line equipment in 2006. Domestic companies in the industry seldom adopt this kind of production line. However, it has absolute advantages. For example, roughness of 2mm was permitted in each meter of the bus body in the past. But now only roughness of 1.2mm is permitted in every three meters. It is said that the exact technology makes bus body more handsome and natural.

In order to enhance the corrosion resistance performance of bus body, Yutong adopts a process flow different from the traditional motorbus welding by reforming it with introduced technique. The process flow can remarkably enhance the corrosion resistance performance and the adhesive force of surface paint by smearing the priming paint destroyed in framework welding process and removing blots carelessly daubed by workers during welding. Therefore, the reformation of welding process flow further prolongs the service life of Yutong buses.

Painting: to enhance product value

As the biggest domestic bus manufacturer, Yutong has leading production line and techniques in the industry, especially the phosphorization technology for the whole bus body in painting process. The main performance of the technology is to enhance the corrosion resistance performance of the bus body and to improve the decoration of coating of bus body, which make the handsome buses more durable and reliable and greatly prolong the service life. However, the technology only secures the production capacity of workshop. What behinds a handsome and bright bus is the hard-work of painting workers.

Leaders and employees of the painting workshop have carried out researches over hundred times among the users. They went deep into clients to collect suggestions, and proactively improved technology level, which made the technology innovation highly praised by clients. In the past, employees hardly understood the excelsior painting requirements of the company. But now, they have understood afresh the painting technology after doing researches in clients and companies. Once in a Guangdong passenger transport company, there were two brands of buses for a same route. Passengers chose to get on Yutong rather than the other one, though the new bus of another brand set out a quarter earlier. Attendant researchers saw this and deeply realized that painting was of great importance. Nice appearance as well as high quality of buses can bring value for clients.

In addition, the principle of Yutong painting workshop also emphasizes that the projects of technology are numerous because quality is regarded as the life of painting workshop. Regarding the low gloss of surface paint and low overall effect of painting, the painting workshop set up a surface paint gloss improvement project group and achieved expectant effect. Up to now, there are more and more clients who are benefited from the reformation. It is just as the consensus of Yutong painting workshop: exquisite technology is the guaranty to heighten product value and to satisfy clients.

Assembly: to take the satisfaction of clients as the core

“To create more value for you” is understood plainly as to make clients more satisfied in the assembly workshop of Yutong.

At one night in Sep. 2007, the workshop received a feedback of the previous process that a client needed to pick up vehicles in advance. However, at that time, the air-conditioner of the batch of vehicles had not been fixed. The ceilings have no sizing block, and six pieces of sizing blocks were needed to be welded in each vehicle. Though the client apologized that there were special reasons, the current 12^th flow of the process meant that the assemble workers shall weld them all at night, or the air-conditioners can not be installed and the vehicles could not be delivered to the client on time. Analyzing the interest of the client, the assembly workshop notified workers to work overtime. Though having just finished the restructuring of Beijing buses, workers reached posts soon after receiving the notice and accomplished the work both in quality and quantity till early in the morning.

In another case, Hebei Baoding Bus Company brought forward special requirements on the floor material of buses. In the past, floor materials were processed to special forms, which can satisfy with the normal production speed of assembly workshop. However, the client demanded to adopt birch floor for the contracted buses. The carpenter team of materials preparation section of the workshop shall carry out special processing in order to meet the demands of the client. Employees worked hard for three days under the guidance of technique group and finally delivered the products successfully, which were highly praised by the client.

In assemble workshop, all those trivial matters happen every day. In the eyes of employees, delivery and floor processing are all means to make client satisfied with Yutong products and to make clients achieve profit with buses. The value of clients are embodies well due to attention of employees to these details and trivial things.

Quality Assurance: safety guard of the quality of buses

Manufacture is not the only thing needed for building a bus with high quality, but more testing procedures are needed to appraise its quality. QC Department is the final testing guard in Yutong to decide whether a bus is qualified for leaving the company. In each workshop of Yutong production line, there are working staff of Quality Assurance Department to supervise the production. Besides, strict inspection and test are carried out for off-line buses. This structure assures that relevant professionals supervise the manufacture of buses in each production link from spare parts purchase to leaving-factory of whole buses. Thus, both the quality and leaving-factory cycle can be controlled.

In QC Department, the transport test group is responsible for the road test of all vehicle products and new models off line. Dynamic problems related to engine, chassis, driving, smoke limit, sideslip, brake and lighting can be found in road test, which is an important link for quality control in the company. All employees of road test should have superior driving skills and abundant judging experiences of vehicle faults and should be patient and careful. One year of road test work is equal to ten years of driving experiences.

When 50 ZK6128HG Hangzhou buses were put into production, the time for delivery is pressing because that was the first mass production of new model and the client had high demands on specification. In order to deliver buses on time, the transport test group arranged testers with rich experiences to test in advance. The testers found problems in manufacture, cooperated with workshop in rectification, and tracked & carried out the rectification. In this way, the product quality was strengthened and the buses were delivered in time. In 2006, Yutong sent several technical experts in succession to to provide technical support for the quality supervision of CKD project, which was highly praised by party after the accomplishment of the task.

It is well known that clients all want to obtain more profit and returns from bus as an investment product. In 2007, Yutong Bus formally brought forward its value concept, i.e., to create higher value for clients and to achieve win-win based on the value spiral combining product, service, brand and strategic cooperation. Due to the hard-work and excelsior attitude of employees of workshops and the QC Department, Yutong Bus has manufactured superior products with nice appearance and durable quality. And product --- the basis for value spiral --- is the source of higher profit value that Yutong brings to clients.