Become the world’s strongest robotics company?
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Phoenix WEEKLY Finance” (ID: fhzkzk) , Author: Phoenix WEEKLY real estate.
In the timetable of Country Garden’s “boss” Yang Guoqiang, 2020 is a key node for the large-scale use of construction robots. In the past 2019, as expected, pre-production trial operations should have been completed.
Unfulfilled wishes often happen, and being the founder of the first real estate company in the universe is no exception.
With more than a month left in 2020, Country Garden did not release a large number of news about the use of construction robots. Instead, it heard many criticisms from the market, “dilemma” and “chicken ribs”, and even radical voices said that Country Garden’s robots “died.
“According to the size of Country Garden and the attention of public opinion, if there is progress, it should be easy for the outside world to see it. However, there is no, indicating that the situation may not be as smooth as expected.” IPG China Chief Economist, Bo Wenxi, vice chairman of China Enterprise Capital Alliance, said frankly.
There are many people who hold similar views. Hengda, the leading real estate company that started diversified businesses at almost the same time, has already pushed cars to IPO. The intensively updated listing news makes it easier for the outside world to think of Country Garden, which is “next door” as a robot.
The relevant person in charge of Country Garden said in an interview with “Phoenix WEEKLY Real Estate”, “Half a month ago, Bozhilin’s first batch of 9 construction robots with a total of 43 units has been handed over in the Shunde Country Garden Fengtong Garden project. The human-machine collaborative construction system with construction robots as the core was officially put into use in the first line.”
“Are we likely to become the world’s largest robotics company?”
“What is Country Garden?”
At the beginning of each financial report, Country Garden will start with a short self-introduction.
In 2017, it was still a “large enterprise group listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange of China”. By the 2018 annual report, it became a “high-tech comprehensive enterprise”.
Even if the positioning changes, in the introduction of the 2018 annual report, “good house, good community” still appears in the first place, but in the 2019 annual report, the “troika” ranks Has changed.
Before “actively participating in the robotics industry” jumped to “good house, good community”, it was placed in the most conspicuous position at the beginning.
Country Garden, which is the top real estate company, every move will be interpreted as a signal meaning. This is especially true for the robotics business that was launched with a high profile two years ago.
There is a saying that the construction safety accidents that occurred one after another in 2018 that caused multiple casualties are an important reason for Yang Guoqiang’s determination to vigorously develop the robotics industry.
Reducing the number of workers by 50% and replacing them with robots will greatly reduce the casualties on construction sites, which is the basis for the above speculation.
July 2018Bozhilin Robot was established, Yang Guoqiang announced plans to be in the field of robotics within 5 years The investment is at least RMB 80 billion.
Subsequently, Country Garden’s robotics business began a drastic advancement. In September, the Robot Valley was established in Shunde, Guangdong, and in December, the Joint Robotics Research Institute was established in cooperation with Tsinghua…The game was fast and lively.
Especially last year, from almost every level of Country Garden’s Human Resources is responsible for the population, hear The news of recruiting highly educated talents is a clue to the rapid advancement of its robotics business.
A doctor of the University of Hong Kong who went to the provincial capital to participate in high-level talent introduction activities received a call from Country Garden staff during the meeting asking if he would like to join Country Garden. At the time, the doctor had question marks on his face, but he politely refused Up. He didn’t understand that something so inexplicable in his opinion had happened on more than one occasion.
“I heard that out of ten people, seven are PhDs or Masters.” A netizen posted a short video of the Bozhilin Robot Office Building on social media.
The statistics at the beginning of 2019 are that the size of the talent team of Bozhilin Robotics Company is close to 900 people, among which, more than 49% of the talents with a master’s degree or above, and more than 41% of R&D personnel with doctoral degrees.
After the official release of data, since May 1, 2019, a total of 234 R&D personnel have been introduced, an increase of 51% over the end of April, and more than 80% of them are senior R&D engineers in the industry.
On May 24, 2019, Bo Zhilin publicly announced that it would strive to become “the world’s leading service provider for the entire robot industry chain” and continue to introduce talents.
It is said that the name “Bozhilin” is to gather the wisdom of doctors into the forest, and take the path driven by talents.
This way, we must start from the beginning.
Speaking of the beginning of Country Garden as a robot, a key figure must be mentioned. This person has been studying in Japan for many years. After that, he went to Shanghai from the research and development personnel of intelligent robots and robotics software at FANUC, a Japanese robot giant company. Fanuc Robotics Co., Ltd. Director and Executive Deputy General Manager, Shen Gang, responsible for the development and marketing of China’s robot market.
In an interview, Shen Gang once said that the first sentence Yang Guoqiang asked on the first night of his visit to Country Garden was not what his surname was or what he did, but “Is it possible for us to become a global The strongest robotics company?”
The outside world has read out Yang Guoqiang’s ambition and urgency in the robotics business, but Shen Gang read out his big goals and feelings. He said that this is what he has always wanted to do.
From then on, Shen Gang became the trader of Country Garden’s Robot Kingdom.
Not as expected?
Yang Guoqiang’s enthusiasm for robots can be seen everywhere in the following time. For example, in December 2018, Country Garden announced its speech, which contained one-third of the content about robots. In more than an hour, “robots” appeared nearly 40 times. .
However, at this time, there is no Shen Gang in the robot world of Country Garden. This ambitious trader did not accomplish what he had always wanted to do in Country Garden. In May 2019, less than a year after joining Country Garden, news from various sources confirmed that Shen Gang had resigned.
As for the reasons for resignation, there are many rumors in the market. Some people say that they cannot make a direct decision on the project. Others say that at the beginning of 2019, two group vice presidents Zhang Zhiyuan and Zhu Jianmin, who had not engaged in robotics-related business, “airborne” Bo Zhilin’s role as executive president is related to vice president.
Country Garden subsequently confirmed to the media that Shen Gang’s resignation was mainly due to personal and family reasons and was not a regular job-hopping behavior and had nothing to do with the internal reform of Country Garden Group.
Bo Zhilin’s specific business was quickly handed over to Zhou Xiaotian, who declared to abandon the Siemens tenure executive position to join Bo Zhilin. He had previously worked in Germany Guo Bo worked in the World Siemens Group, and then joined ST Kelon, mainly responsible for the product production and research and development of its refrigerator company. He was the president of Hisense Kelon when he left.
When Zhou Xiaotian appeared, he also mentioned that he joined Bo Zhilin to “realize his dream”, but a few months later, news of his departure was also spread.
For quite a while after the news that Zhang Zhiyuan, who was “airborne”, was transferred away, Country Garden Bozhilin was considered to be in a state of no leader.
The doubts from outside did not seem to affect Country Garden’s determination.
In March 2020, Country Garden President Mo Bin revealed at the 2019 performance conference: “The research and development expenses of the robotics business in 2019 are approximately RMB 1.97 billion. We will invest in the future based on actual conditions. We are confident in the robotics business. “
The relevant person in charge of Country Garden revealed the latest progress in the robotics business: Half a month ago, Bo Zhilin’s first batch of construction robots was handed over in the Shunde Country Garden Fengtong Garden project.The 43 construction robots are “served in line”, marking that the human-machine collaborative construction system with construction robots as the core is officially put into use on the front line, opening the actual combat mode.
As of October 2020, Qianxi Group has 10 robotic restaurant physical stores officially open to the public, independently developed more than 80 types of robotic equipment and software, of which 61 models have been put into use, covering hot pot, Chinese food, fast food, Claypot rice and many other formats.
Previously released 2020 mid-year report shows that Country Garden’s assets, including robotic manufacturing, robotic catering, modern agriculture, and hotel operations, will achieve revenue of 1.789 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, compared to 1.869 billion in the same period in 2019. Yuan, down 4.3%.
“No breakthrough has been achieved.” Someone commented on this achievement.
The mid-year report stated that of 50 construction robots under development, 35 of which have been put into site testing. Since this year, some robots have been used in projects in Shunde and Yangjiang.
“Although I have said a lot, I have not seen the effect of real investment on the construction site in the past two years. This shows that the situation may not be as good as expected.” Bo Wenxi analyzed, “Either the product was not made. After a few samples are made, it is found that the effect is not very satisfactory during the use process, and there is no way to promote it on a large scale.”
Some insiders have analyzed that from the current investment direction, Country Garden has begun to make innovative investments in the real estate industry chain, including agriculture, which may reflect the reduction in the weight of robots from the side.
Not long ago, Li Changjiang, Executive Director and President of Country Garden Services, stated in public that at the end of this year, there will be 20,000 robots combined with robots to serve the real estate under Country Garden Services.
But this sentence didn’t cause much disturbance in public opinion.
Can capital beat time?
Recently, Evergrande, another leading real estate company that started diversified businesses at almost the same time, pushed its auto business to the listing channel.
Prior to this, real estate companies built cars, which were also called “dreams” by the outside world, and there were many doubts. However, as soon as the news of Evergrande Motor’s launch of the listing came out, everyone knew that this dream of capital in exchange for time would not wake up at least in the short term.
More people are starting to care about Country Garden’s robot dream. Is it possible to follow the same path?
At least from the perspective of insiders, it is difficult to realize the fact that capital outperforms time.
“We are not a company that makes quick money. Now, what Country Garden lacks most is intelligent manufacturing technology. It is a long process to develop. I hope that everyone will not use the real estate model to look at Robot Valley. We hope that Look at real estate separately, and explore growth in accordance with scientific laws.” This is just joining Country GardenDuring the robot plan, Shen Gang’s answer to the media’s question about the balance between Country Garden’s high turnover and the long return period of robot investment may also be regarded as one of the reasons for his departure, and Country Garden’s robotics business has since encountered outsiders. The foreshadowing of “no small resistance”.
Previously, two construction robots of Country Garden Bozhilin Robot, “PC Interior Wall Panel Handling Robot” and “Indoor Spraying Robot”, appeared on CCTV. The relevant person in charge said that the company has formed a product line of construction robots, medical and health robots, and intelligent construction equipment, and has a number of independent core technologies in key areas.
But for an industry with a high technical threshold and a long cycle, it is obviously not easy to break into the track quickly and see the results.
During the two sessions in 2019, Yang Guoqiang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, submitted a “Proposal on Promoting the Deep Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Construction Robots.”
Yang Guoqiang said that, compared with industrial robots, the market for construction robots is huge, but the challenges of building unstructured environments are also great, which urgently need to be solved by artificial intelligence.
It is reported that the “Proposal” shows that in practice, the use of robots is not simple. Due to the complex construction site environment, construction robots will encounter a series of problems such as positioning and navigation.
From it, it is possible to read the many problems that Country Garden has encountered on the robot track.
He also suggested in the proposal of the CPPCC members to study and formulate a full-process policy support system for construction robot R&D and manufacturing, establish a sound construction robot industry supervision mechanism, and guide construction robots to quickly pilot trials.
At the beginning of last year, Yang Guoqiang said that he hoped that robots could be used for construction in many places in 10 months. At that time, it was only more than a year after Bozhilin was established.
Someone said at the time, such as Successful work will create the robot speed of Country Garden.
It now appears that the real estate industry has broken through the impossible first real estate companies. At least so far, it seems that the same miracle has not been achieved in the robot kingdom.