LiuGong vice president David Beatenbough explains the firm’s research and development drive
LiuGong has been investing heavily in manufacturing and product development, as well as building international distribution – vice president David Beatenbough spoke with Mike Woof
One of Chinese leading producers of wheeled loaders,US national David Beatenbough is LiuGong’s vice president and has been one of the firm’s leading figures in this regard. He has helped push forward the firm’s engineering quality and new product development. One of the key developments is the new research and development facility, which will be sited in Liuzhou. This represents an enormous step forward for LiuGong’s design engineering capabilities. Beatenbough said, “It’s going to be our core R&D facility and in it we’ll carry out all our research.”
The R&D facility will see notable product developments and he commented, “We’re putting together an innovations lab. We’ll have a virtual reality cave and an industrial design facility.”
This facility will focus on development of advanced machines as well as materials technology. Beatenbough said, “We will also have a few of our product groups in there; wheeled loader engineering and grader engineering.”
He explained, “The main function for the R&D facility is to be the home for all the advanced things we’re doing to leapfrog our competition. We’re not just picking up what our suppliers offer and assembling this into our machines. We adjust the specifications of components or make parts ourselves in our new components facility. We’re making more and more of our own hydraulics. It all comes down to a better integration of the components.”
LiuGong has been developing its excavator range, with production of the E series machines underway. The firm is extending this line up also and is now offering a 50tonne class excavator in the shape of its 950E model, which features a 3.2m3 bucket and is powered by a 298 kW
LiuGong’s excavator facility in Liuzhou is one of the firm’s newer plants and has two assembly lines, one building larger machines from 15-50tonnes and the other building smaller units weighing from 6-14tonnes. Of note in the plant is the suggestions board for its factory staff, which has helped deliver notable cost savings in production of just over $327,000 (RMB2 million), with the company paying out around $6,500 (RMB40,000) in bonuses to employees who have made beneficial suggestions. Although this system is fairly common in North American, Japanese or European companies, it is still unusual in China. Beatenbough said, “It’s a measure of how things are changing in China.”
Meanwhile the new LiuGong wheeled loader factory located close to LiuGong’s main Liuzhou campus will benefit production capacity and quality and Beatenbough said, “It’s a factory designed to bring modern assembly methods to our wheeled loaders. It’s specifically geared to high specification machines and engines and provides more specific production testing. It’ll be for European and North American products.”
All the firm’s factories operate on the SAP production platform and use the Six Sigma quality programme. However, while the company has invested in its Chinese production facilities it has been more cautious than some of its rivals. Beatenbough added, “We’re pretty conservative with our spending. We’ll use a robotrobots where it’s neededtheir use on welding improves quality for example, but we’ll not put in 200 more robots just so we can say we’ve got 200 more robots.”
The Cummins and LiuGong (GCIC) joint venture facility produces the L9.3 diesel, an engine specially configured for use in wheeled loaders. Although LiuGong uses a considerable slice of the production run, this engine is also supplied to a number of competing manufacturers. The engine is available in multiple versions to meet various off-road emissions standards.
The road machinery segment is one LiuGong has yet to develop further though. He explained that the Chinese market is focussed on just a few sizes of pavers and mills and that the firm’s range will need to be developed further. “The rollers are sold globally but the other road machines are only sold in China. We need more pavers and more machines before we can take the road machines globally.”
In the mid-long term, Beatenbough said he believes the Chinese market will recover and grow at a more moderate rate, with the potential for excavator sales in the country being particularly positive. Exports have become more important and some markets, like Indonesia, remain healthy. In the longer term, the company is also considering whether it should build a manufacturing facility in Brazil. “We’ve had lots of success in Latin America and we’ve got our feet on the ground in North America now, while Russia is a very strong market for us and we’re doing quite a bit in Africa and the Middle East. “Scandinavia is our foothold into the Northern European market for excavators and wheeled loaders.”
The company has placed heavy emphasis on developing good distribution and after-sales service, with more than 400 dealers in over 130 countries. Beatenbough added, “We were the first to understand the need for good distribution. That is still the most important thing and we’re now starting to reap those rewards.”
