Back to work, are the masks ready?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Tech Planet” (ID: tech618) , author Ma Wei ice.
“Do you want love or a mask?”
Valentine’s Day, which was supposed to be full of wasteful atmosphere, was disrupted by the sudden outbreak this year. Scarce masks have also been ridiculed as the “most luxurious” of Valentine’s gifts.
“I thought I still had dozens of masks, enough to last a month, but according to the current situation, I don’t have much‘ remaining food ’,” Yang Jie told Tech Planet.
The outbreak of the epidemic has made masks across the country instantly robbed. Regardless of model, color, and price, 1.4 billion people are looking for channels to buy masks, but they are still “difficult to find.” The massive demand of hundreds of millions of people cannot be met, and the mask market is chaotic.
Yang Jie was relatively optimistic. Before that, she had stored a lot of masks because of the smog. She still hung out a box of N95 on the idle platform. Hundreds of news came overnight, and Yang Jie hurriedly removed the sales link. Already. Yang Jie said distressedly, “Now I share some with my parents, and I do n’t have much left. I found several purchasing channels, and it rose to more than 20 yuan, but I still did n’t receive the goods.”
Yang Jie, who works for an Internet company, will return to work next week. As the isolation period approaches, more and more people returning to work need masks for protection, and self-control and recycling have become the last magic weapon for many people.
But recently, many companies that had nothing to do with masks announced that they would join the mask production team. Foxconn, BYD, GAC, Wuling, OPPO, vivo, and Daddy Baby. Among them, there are car manufacturers that manufacture cars, technology companies that produce digital products, and manufacturers that process underwear and maternal and child products. At the critical moment, everyone mobilizes their own productivity to fight the “epidemic” together.
Cross-border mask “Fashion”
Enterprises are top-down and masks are bottom-up.
According to a World Health Organization report on February 10, the demand for personal protective equipment such as masks and gas masks is 100 times the normal level, but the current price has soared to about 20 times the usual price. “The backlog is running out of stock for four to six months,” said WHO Director-General Tesro at the conference.
As masks with simple workmanship have been slow to achieve mass production, a mask is hard to find, and some companies have acted. On the evening of February 6, Foxconn announced that it would be on the mask production line, taking the lead in influencing many enterprises.
As a labor-intensive company, Foxconn said that this move is not only to protect and protect the health of the entire group of millions of employees, but also to contribute to society in its own way at the critical moment of the epidemic. setThe industrial Fulian Group under the regiment introduced a mask production line and successfully achieved trial production on February 5.
Foxconn, which manufactures communications equipment and components, is now expanding its production of masks. “It is not difficult for companies producing precision mobile phones to produce masks. The assembly line and processes of mobile phones are much more complicated than masks, as long as they have qualified qualifications,” a person in the mobile phone industry told Tech Planet.
Coincidentally, after Foxconn, followed by mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO and vivo, it was also revealed that the machine that has begun to produce masks has been prepared. Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) verified with OPPO and was confirmed that “we did dispatch a group of technicians and workers to support the production of masks by related enterprises”, but the specific situation is still being understood.
The epidemic has affected the sales of the mobile phone industry. It is a wise move to shift productivity in new industries, as well as the automotive industry.
On February 9th, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced that the first batch of masks produced by joint suppliers had been successfully rolled off the line, and the box marked “What the people need, Wuling will make what”. According to media reports, Wuling took only three days from the idea to the first batch of products to go offline.
“Wuling Mask” production line site Source: SGMW SAIC-GM-Wuling WeChat public account
Later, GAC’s first protective mask production equipment started research on February 7, and was successfully assembled and commissioned on February 10. According to information from GAC, it is expected that 12 units will be manufactured on February 22 and 30 units will be completed by the end of this month. After BYD also announced the production of masks and disinfectants, the sales manager’s phone number had been exploded.
Driven by large-scale cross-border companies, many companies including underwear brand Sangun, mother and baby brand Daddy Baby, Sinopec, and even food company Qingmei Food have added masks, disinfectants, and protective clothing. In production.
Traditional masks, driven by many advanced enterprises, will definitely increase their output exponentially.
Medical protection market welcomes blue ocean
“Everyone needs masks now, and after the epidemic has passed, people’s personal protection awareness is driven, and mask reserves still need a lot.” Han Wu told Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618).
Han Wu is the owner of a carton processing plant in Shandong. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the express delivery of major platforms has been suspended, and the order volume has decreased a lot. Han Wu’s factory has also been closed for a long time. Recently, a friend suggested that Han Wu should switch to the medical industry together after the year. Han Wu is still considering it.
Before the outbreak, there were few manufacturers of medical product processing and production, and most of them were directly supplied to exclusive places such as hospitals. Even when smog was mentioned in previous years, only some people were conscious of wearing masks. Because the epidemic occurred at the Spring Festival, most of the manufacturers did not resume work, workers were isolated at home, and production capacity dropped significantly.
The medical and health protection industry is moving from a niche to the general public. The blue ocean behind it is also seen by many as a new business opportunity.
On February 11th, Shenzhen Yuzhan Precision Technology Co., Ltd., a high-tech enterprise of Foxconn Industrial Full Union, changed its industry and commerce. The business scope was increased by the production and sales of disposable medical masks and N95 masks. Related technical service output. Originally only used as a temporary replacement mask production, now also from the sideline industry to the main industry.
In addition, according to the company’s investigation data, from January 1, 2020 to February 10, 2020, the business scope of companies involved in medical devices, disinfection products and other protective products has grown tremendously, and medical devices nationwide The number of newly added enterprises exceeded 20,000, followed by disinfection products. From January 1 to February 7, 2020, more than 3,953 companies across the country have added new services such as “masks, protective clothing, disinfectants, thermometers, and medical equipment.”
In terms of industry, among the new medical device companies and new disinfection products companies, the wholesale and retail companies are leading. Shandong ranks first among the nation’s new medical device companies, followed by Guangdong.
During the Spring Festival this year, everyone rushed to buy masks, disinfectants, goggles, medicines on major platforms. Taobao, Tmall, Jingdong and other platforms were out of stock. Many platforms had limited supply due to limited supply. Way so that more people can buy masks.
On February 1st, Weimeng urgently customized a small mask appointment program for Taonan Town, Baoshan District, Shanghai, and launched online mask appointment registration. Online registration only half an hour after being put into useThe number of people reached 3942, which is five times the number of on-site registrations. The epidemic is not over, and the demand for masks is still huge.
From the scene of the outbreak of SARS in 2003, companies with R & D and production capabilities followed one after another, and colleges and universities also opened relevant majors. In a short period of time, industries related to epidemic prevention and control emerged instantly.
Industry analysts believe that in the long run, the medical and health protection market is still in the blue ocean state, and it may be a new direction in the future.
A new turn for the mask industry
From the initial “hard to find”, to now it can be “brought”.
In addition to the large demand, which affects the delay of the masks from reaching users, there are other reasons. The entire industrial chain of procurement, processing, logistics and transportation has almost stopped, and most of the companies on the chain have not yet been operating normally.
Due to the epidemic, most of the workers are trapped in their homes, the normal movement of people and vehicles is restricted, and the transportation of raw materials and equipment is also difficult. Many manufacturers need to consume huge costs.
According to regulations, after the masks are produced, they must be sterilized with ethylene oxide before they go on the market. They must undergo a process of analysis and disinfection, which usually takes 7 to 15 days.
“Even if the company starts production from the first day of the new year, and all kinds of efficiency are delayed, it will be possible to get a mask in these two days.” A medical industry related person told Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) .
According to official data released by enterprises, cross-border enterprises have a daily production capacity of one million masks. They have just started production and are mainly used for self-use and government deployment. In the future, after increasing production capacity and the epidemic subsides, the supply of masks will increase exponentially.
Many high-tech companies joining the mask production industry can not only ease the contradiction between supply and demand of masks in a short time, but also use their own research and development technology to promote the digital transformation of the mask production industry chain. For example, “Mask can be traced digitally” Become a hot topic recently.
Under the epidemic, all industries have been impacted. This time, many companies are thinking about the direction of change. According to industry analysts, the mask manufacturing industry that relies on traditional manufacturing processes will inevitably be eliminated after the epidemic has dispersed. Usher in a big change.