Strengthening Service Offering, Achieving Sustainable Development -- 2018 Forum on China’s Wind Power Supply Chain a Great Success

With China's increasing installed wind capacity, the associated service market will also continue to expand. The huge growth in wind power installations has also brought an important question to each link of the wind energy supply chain: how will service drive the future?

On October 26th, the “2018 Forum on China’s Wind Energy Supply Chain”, hosted by NGC Group, was held in Xiamen, Fujian Province. The forum focused on the theme of “service”, inviting nearly 150 suppliers from the world of wind energy developers, wind energy equipment, large-scale components and well-known experts from the domestic wind energy industry to attend. They discussed a number of issues concerning technical innovations, life-cycle services, and the industry's future development trends.

Transformation from Manufacturing to Service, and Redefining the Concept of “Service”

As a global leader in wind energy gearboxes, and since the establishment of its after-sales service team in 2013, NGC has been committed to its transformation from manufacturing to service. It has gradually increased its investment in services, aiming to create greater value for its customers with reliability-oriented solutions.

Product service tends to be intangible, but can sometimes be tangible. In this forum, NGC redefined the scope of “service”, by saying that service is not only limited to a simple after-sales offering. It exists in all the various stages of the product, from design, manufacturing, delivery, installation, training, spare parts, diagnostics, maintenance, repairs, optimized design and equipment upgrades.

“Strengthening our service functions, and deepening service capabilities in each link of the supply chain is crucial to the development of the wind energy industry. Service should become an integral part of the whole product life cycle. The purpose is to create greater value for customers, improve customer satisfaction, and create a sustainable future,” Mr. Hu Jichun, chairman and president of NGC Group, said in his opening address.

Focus On Customer Satisfaction, Provide Full Lifecycle Services

According to Mr. Xie Changjun, vice president of CEPC (China Electric Power Promotion Council), and president of the Renewable Energy Power Generation Council, wind turbines are now being quoted at less than 3,000 RMB/kW, requiring wind energy enterprises to explore new ways and effective means to reduce costs and increase benefits, ensure equipment quality, and improve service efficiency.

Mr. Wang Fudong, after-sales service manager for NGC Group's Quality Department, explained NGC’s wind energy gearbox maintenance technology in detail. He described how the company's on-tower maintenance technology can offer service support for the whole transmission chain, thus achieving higher efficiency, lower maintenance costs, fewer standby reserves and better allocation of resources. This is embodied particularly well by the company's wildly popular offshore wind power unit.

Service “to gain a user” is also an important approach which enterprises can use to enhance competitiveness. According to Mr. Li Dehui, manager of the NGC Group Quality Department, and quality manager for gearbox production at the Wind Energy Business Division, besides its full lifecycle services, NGC has specifically established a customer satisfaction system. This uses third party customer satisfaction evaluations to continuously improve service quality.

In addition, Ms. Deng Qixia, deputy director of the NGC Group Wind Energy Business Division's After-Sales Service Quality Department, and Mr. Liu Zhaohui, deputy director of the NGC Group Wind Energy Business Division's After-Sales Service Development Department, both delivered keynote speeches on “Service customers, improve myself” and “Full lifecycle services”, introducing NGC’s high quality service offering in detail.

Service reform for a new era; Helping the manufacturing industry to grow

Today, the development of wind energy services tends to include 360° all-round participation in operational and maintenance services. Wind energy gearbox manufacturing enterprises are transforming from manufacturers to manufacturers+service providers. While actively improving the wind energy industry's traditional service offering, businesses are always looking for new breakthroughs. In the age of "Internet +" and big data, 'intelligent wind energy' has become a new buzzword.

During the forum, Mr. Chen Lin, chief systems engineer at Envision Energy (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., shared his company's efforts and achievements in using smart technology to enhance the reliability of units and reduce operational costs. This was all valuable experience for the development of the wind energy industry.

Guided by market demands, NGC has constantly been innovating its service offering. The intelligent gearbox launched at the Beijing Wind Energy Exhibition included three important components: the Gear Sight (data platform, monitoring system, and data analysis), a fine filtration system, and a mobile APP. Thus the new service model could be fully integrated, helping customers to reduce costs through intelligent management of their data and by making services more efficient.

As Mr. Gu Xiaobin, COO of NGC Group and general manager of the Wind Energy Business Division pointed out, NGC will always adhere to its development strategy of “Quality ensures survival, technology promotes development, services win customers, and cost improves competitiveness”. In the future, NGC will offer even better services and more intelligent management. Together with its partners, NGC will endeavor to ensure our country’s transformation from a big wind power manufacturer to a strong one.