Today, as China"s economic and social development enters a new historical stage, industry associations are also facing new development opportunities and challenges. The work functions of industry associations are no longer limited to providing good membership services, strengthening industry management, and enhancing team building, but also need to play a role at a higher level, that is, creating an environment conducive to industry development.
At the third session of the ninth council of the China Sewing Industry Association this year, the association deployed its work for 2013, including quality and technology work, extending its service reach downstream, CISMA2013 exhibition work, home machine promotion, and even the construction of its secretariat and branch offices. Its fundamental purpose is to guide and promote the industry to build a new environment that is more conducive to the development of industry enterprises in the new era, and to demonstrate the concept and goal of building a service-oriented association.
In response to the seven key tasks identified by the China Sewing Industry Association within the year, Yang Xiaojing, Secretary General of the China Sewing Industry Association, interpreted the specific work from the perspective of implementing work arrangements and elaborated on the implementation plans for each task.
Q: This year, the China Sewing Industry Association will prioritize "deepening industry quality research and development, conducting acceptance and exchange of quality improvement achievements". Why elevate quality work to such a high level?
Yang Xiaojing: Elevating "quality" as the top priority of the association is not only a summary of the three-year product quality improvement achievements in the industry, but also a mobilization and promotion for the next step of work, in order to guide and promote enterprises to independently, continuously, and deeply carry out product quality improvement work.
In 2010, the China Sewing Association launched the "Quality Improvement and Catch up Project" with the aim of using about three years to promote the product quality of domestic brand conventional models: computer-controlled high-speed flat sewing machines and high-speed overlock sewing machines to reach or approach the quality level of international advanced products of the same kind. Over the past three years, through the leadership, organization, and promotion of the association, especially the efforts of the enterprise itself, the quality improvement project has been deeply promoted and implemented. This year, a phased achievement acceptance of the "quality improvement project" will be carried out.
It is gratifying that based on the current physical quality testing of the products of the seven pilot enterprises, it can be said that the product quality of each enterprise has significantly improved compared to three years ago, and the product quality of some first tier brands is close to the advanced level of similar international products. But we also see that some product quality issues are still exposed during the testing process, reflecting that there are still certain gaps in the quality of components, product reliability design, assembly process level, on-site quality control and management of enterprises.
The implementation of quality engineering has achieved the expected improvement in the quality of domestic products, especially those from pilot enterprises. Next, how to further consolidate and extend the phased achievements in quality has become the focus of the association"s work. According to the work deployment of the council this year, we will continue to deepen the project of improving product quality through several special activities. Firstly, there are 7 pilot enterprises, and the expert group needs to have detailed face-to-face communication with each enterprise on the quality assessment results of each product. Based on summarizing the results and analyzing the gaps, they will promote the pilot enterprises to widely extend the quality improvement project to other industrial sewing machine product fields; Secondly, we will hold industry quality improvement seminars and exchange conferences to enable more capable backbone enterprises to understand and actively participate in the implementation of quality improvement projects, forming a comprehensive industry quality improvement atmosphere that leads by example; Finally, it is necessary to comprehensively summarize the achievements of the three-year quality improvement and catch-up project in the industry, and propose more comprehensive, scientific, and operable guidance documents for the improvement and catch-up of industry product quality, in order to provide direction for the development of quality work for industry enterprises.
Of course, the overall improvement of product quality in the industry not only relies on catching up with quality improvement projects, but also on instilling the concept of "quality as life" in the long term, creating an atmosphere of valuing quality and constantly striving for excellence throughout the industry. Next, we need to carry out long-term work in product standard formulation, product quality testing, and product quality promotion in accordance with the requirements of the council.
Q: CISMA2013 will be held within the year. Could you please introduce the current progress of the exhibition work and what innovations and improvements have been made by the Secretariat in various details of the exhibition?
Yang Xiaojing: Doing CISMA2013 well is the top priority of this year"s work and requires the full effort of the Secretariat. This exhibition is held against the backdrop of the industry"s downturn caused by economic fluctuations for a year and further deepening of industrial restructuring. At present, more than 1300 companies have registered to participate in the exhibition, with a net area of over 83000 square meters, far exceeding the capacity of the nine pavilions. In addition, the exhibition scale of the group units will reach a historical high, with the application area of Taiwan, Guangdong, Shenzhen, and Dongyang International alone exceeding 12000 square meters.
This reflects from another perspective the confidence of enterprises in the industry and the CISMA exhibition. Enterprises value the brand effect and display platform of CISMA, and we need to do a good job in organizing exhibitions. Therefore, although there is a great pressure on the allocation of exhibition area this year, we still adhere to the exhibition principle of "not prioritizing interests, not seeking too much or too much, making CISMA more refined and strong, and creating a high-quality exhibition platform". We actively advocate the concept of environmental protection and conservation, compress the declared area of enterprises through negotiation, reasonably divide booths, and reduce the two-way waste of enterprise investment and exhibition area. At the same time, in order to maximize the benefits for enterprises, the association will continue to maintain the unchanged booth prices since 2007, against the backdrop of the increasing costs of various exhibition halls year by year, and provide greater discounts to member units at this year"s exhibition.
In order to embody the purpose of service, we strive to deepen and refine all aspects of the exhibition work, increase efforts in investment attraction, and are expected to achieve a new breakthrough in the number of professional visitors at this year"s exhibition; Increase investment in exhibition promotion, significantly increase the number of collaborations with downstream industry media at home and abroad, as well as overseas media, and increase the intensity of news and feature article editing and promotion; In terms of exhibition services, we will further allocate industry resources and strive to move towards the goal of "building an international first-class exhibition". For example, we have re tendered the CISMA2013 home transportation unit to bring greater benefits to exhibitors; Install automatic login machines in the registration hall to provide convenience for exhibitors and visitors; Encourage enterprises to act within their capabilities in booth application, exhibition promotion, booth construction, and promote thrift. During the exhibition, we will also carry out the selection of excellent booth designs.
Q: How will the China Sewing Industry Association promote technological innovation this year, and what measures and new highlights will it have?
Yang Xiaojing: Unlike the previous decade of rapid development, the industry is now facing challenges such as market saturation, relative overcapacity, and increasingly fierce competition. The fundamentals of the industry have undergone fundamental changes. At the same time, from the perspective of the development of the international sewing machine industry, German and Japanese sewing machine enterprises are gradually shrinking, and scientific research and innovation are under multiple pressures. The number of new products and technologies has sharply decreased, which requires domestic enterprises to upgrade from a imitative development model to independent research and development. Therefore, the association assesses the situation, further deepens industry scientific and technological work, promotes scientific and technological innovation, effectively mobilizes the enthusiasm of enterprises for innovation and research and development, and makes innovation a spontaneous and conscious initiative of enterprises.
It must be emphasized that the China Sewing Industry Association encourages enterprises to conduct independent research and development by effectively respecting and protecting intellectual property rights, creating an industry environment conducive to enterprise technology research and development, and thus mobilizing the enthusiasm of enterprises. The China Sewing Industry Association has established a leading group for intellectual property work, which regards intellectual property as a key and normalized task of the Secretariat"s Science and Technology Training Department. Through measures such as real-time release of industry intellectual property information, it provides services to industry enterprises.
Another highlight of this year"s technological innovation work is the excellent new product selection activity to be held at CISMA2013. Using the CISMA platform, innovative products from enterprises will be showcased in a centralized manner, competing with international advanced products on the international stage. For excellent new products, the China Sewing Industry Association will award more than 1.5 million yuan in prizes to create a technological innovation environment in the industry, allowing enterprises to truly feel the association"s support for independent research and development.
The completion and acceptance of the high-efficiency and energy-saving sewing equipment project are also the focus of China Sewing Association"s scientific and technological work this year. The association will actively participate in and cooperate with the main reporting unit"s work, and continue to hold special project seminars based on the actual progress and needs of the project.