“I want to achieve the number one spot in China, and be the number one in the world,” said Huawei’s Terminal BG CEO Richard Yu in a recent media interview.
In the smartphone market, Huawei is the undisputed star, leading the way for Chinese phones to achieve unparalleled growth. Whether in terms of market share or brand recognition, Huawei has made a qualitative leap and has become the first domestic phone brand that can rival Apple.
In the automotive field, a once-in-a-century industry change is also taking place. Electrification and intelligence have long been recognized by the industry as the development direction, and Huawei has joined forces with Cyrus to launch the AITO brand on the “eve of the industry revolution.” Data shows that since launching delivery in March, the cumulative sales of the AITO series has reached 66,037 vehicles, which is a very impressive performance compared to other new car brands.
In other words, in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, AITO has demonstrated a leading trend in the industry and become the leading brand in the market.
As a new brand, AITO was able to achieve such results in such a short period of time with the support of Huawei. Perhaps to many “outsiders,” AITO is just a “Huawei halo,” but in reality, Huawei has not only given AITO high brand attention but also supported AITO in process innovation and quality control. In this way, only products that meet the “Huawei quality” standards can quickly enter Huawei’s exhibition hall and meet consumers.
The story of the wiring harness is a good example of this.
From “Black Box” to “White Box”: The “Huawei-Style Upgrade” of New Energy Vehicle Wiring Harnesses
As the automotive industry moves towards intelligent electrification, traditional cars are also undergoing many changes. The most important of these is that the electronic and electrical architecture is shifting from the previous distributed architecture to the central integrated architecture. In this process of change, the importance of wiring harnesses is gradually being highlighted.
In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, low-voltage wiring harnesses carried many functions such as electric windows and electric seats. Due to the control logic limitations of distributed systems, the wiring harness layout of traditional fuel vehicles is generally chaotic, and the total length of a car’s wiring harness is close to 5 kilometers.“`
In the era of new energy vehicles, the electronic and electrical architecture is shifting towards centralization, resulting in a significant reduction in the use of wiring harnesses. However, the requirements for quality are increasing. Besides the low-voltage wiring harnesses that are traditionally used for functional control, high-voltage wiring harnesses related to the power system are also a key factor affecting the reliability of new energy vehicles.
This transformation means that the wiring harness testing standards of traditional fuel vehicles are no longer able to meet the needs of the new energy era, and upgrading is imperative.
In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, traditional component suppliers and host factories have clear division of labor. Component suppliers are responsible for the production of related accessories and are directly responsible for the quality of the parts. The host factories are responsible for assembly, sales, and generally do not disassemble and inspect the parts. If the vehicle has a problem due to a component, compensation is made according to the contract.
Compared to the relatively traditional “black box” development state, although the rights and responsibilities are clear, it is not conducive to the consumer’s experience, especially in the era of smart electric vehicles where companies are crazily competing on user experience. Lower product failure rates, rather than clearer maintenance/compensation standards, are more attractive.
Against this background, Huawei has introduced the operating mode of mobile phones into the automotive field, that is, gradually “white-boxing” the design of component suppliers. By inspecting key components such as internal connectors, terminals, and locks, problems can be discovered and solved, thereby improving the quality of parts to a new level.
For example, the locking device for the charging port cover. The exposed rubber ring design used in fuel vehicles has continued for more as than ten years, and even now, most models still use this design, but in new energy vehicles, the exposed rubber ring design is susceptible to water leakage around the interface, which can lead to corrosion of the charging port and cause problems such as overheating during charging and prolonged charging time. Huawei communicated with the supplier for the first time after discovering the problem and made corresponding improvements.
To ensure the manufacturing quality of components, Huawei and Cyrus use the industry-leading wiring harness electrical test bench to inspect all important wiring harnesses that are about to enter the production line to ensure that all parts with problems are intercepted before the entire vehicle is assembled.
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除了与零部件企业一起发现改善问题之外，华为还建立起了一套更科学、完善的检测机制，就拿线束而言，在以往线束检查的过程当中，工人会以看和触摸的方式进行检验，但在实际操作过程中，由于线束接插件数量大，会出现遗漏导致线束接插失效的情况。
在两江工厂，工人们往每辆新车上安装十几种线束，华为根据这个生产场景，以手机测试装备上积累的强大视觉算法为核心，发明了一种能检测线束接插状态好坏的轻量化 AI 质检工具，工人用手机对安装后的线束拍照，即可进行单点位、连续多点位的自动检测，系统接收到手机 APP 上传的图片后，以特殊算法进行 AI 推理，如果判断存在质量缺陷，则提醒工人。
AI 线束检测方案的识别准确率达到了 99.96%，异常拦截率更是达到 100%，这对于提升整车品质有极大的推动作用，目前这套 AI 线束检测方案已经在赛力斯的两大工厂进行了部署，对问界系列车型的生产过程中的 7 个关键点位 23 个连接器进行监测。
华为品控创造「问界速度」
由「黑盒」到「白盒」，在线束升级检测的过程中，华为将自身的优势融入到了汽车行业，以更快的速度和更高的品质，来保证产品的稳定性，只有这样，华为品质标签才能得以延续。
华为是一块响当当的招牌，华为二字的背后不单单有巨额的研发投入，也有对品控的严格要求，只有将更优质的产品带给更多的消费者，才能引发口碑效应，才能为品牌的发展积蓄力量。
从这样长远发展的角度来看，高品质依然是华为在汽车行业再获发展的金钥匙，而将手机领域品质领跑的成功经验，在汽车行业复制，便是华为为问界打造的超高起点。
Based on over 30 years of accumulation in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and the ultimate pursuit of user experience, Huawei has established an end-to-end quality management system for the whole process of R&D, manufacturing, and product validation, ranging from quality system planning, process construction, performance index formulation, to team empowerment, leading the industry in R&D quality management.
Huawei has empowered traditional manufacturing with big data and artificial intelligence, from the secondary verification of components entering the factory, to the quality verification of each process step by system-oriented approach, and then to the AI tool replacing manual reinspection. This is also the reason why Wängen has been able to quickly launch three high-quality vehicle models in less than a year.
From the birth of the AITO brand to the launch of the WANGËN M5, M7, and M5 EV versions, all within less than a year, it is worth mentioning that once these three models, shining with the halo of Huawei, were introduced, they quickly gained widespread recognition from many consumers. Month after month they topped the sales charts, even competing with brands that had been established for more than five years, WANGËN has matched the development record of Wēi Xiǎō Lǐ [a domestic car brand] within a short period of time and has broken the fastest development record in the industry.
However, in my opinion, speed is meaningless without quality. If there is no support for quality, it will be difficult to form a good reputation in the market, and it will be difficult to achieve a positive cycle of sales growth. In this regard, the prerequisite for the "WANGËN Speed" is the support of Huawei's high-quality standards.
In addition to introducing some concepts from the mobile phone industry during the trial production phase and importing NPS (Net Promoter Score) to comprehensively improve user experience, Huawei has also addressed the pain points in the manufacturing process by checking and correcting every step in the four major workshops of stamping, welding, painting, and assembly, and providing pioneering solutions.
This development approach, which upgrades the quality standard to optimize the production system, highlights Huawei's quality and lays the foundation for "Wängen Speed."
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the strict standards on the production side, during the vehicle testing stage, Huawei has introduced an industry-leading automatic "physical check-up" capability for each vehicle before it rolls off the line, using software to automate testing of high-frequency functions that simulate real-life user needs in advance. On the other hand, Huawei has also recruited many prospective car owners as "experience officers" to simulate consumer needs as much as possible.
AITO’s “Questionnaire Series” continues the large-scale beta testing (friendly user testing before official release) of Huawei’s phones, which includes months of beta user experience testing for each model. For example, the number of test vehicles for the M5 model reached 1,000, and the test mileage reached millions of kilometers.
During the testing process, digital methods were used to manage the beta vehicles in bulk. Each beta user can quickly submit feedback and suggestions for their experience anytime and anywhere via WeChat mini-program or car APP, and R&D can quickly respond, review and make corresponding improvements.
Yuchengdong himself is the heavyweight Beta king of the M5, providing hundreds of experience improvement suggestions.
This kind of large-scale testing with real car owners and real scenes is unprecedented in traditional car manufacturers. This pioneering move provides an important reference for optimizing the driving experience and greatly improves the possibility of a new car being highly sought after as soon as it is launched.
The Model of Cooperation That is Moving Towards a “New Era of Intelligent Electric Vehicles”
Unlike traditional cars, intelligent electric vehicles have new features of intelligence and electric power. This requires traditional car companies to actively embrace such changes. However, due to behavioral inertia, such changes are difficult to achieve. Traditional car companies are still lagging behind in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, which is the best proof.
In order to firmly establish itself in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, AITO has long started its layout in this field.
As a traditional car manufacturer, AITO has comprehensive strength from research and development to production and sales.
In the field of research and development, AITO has established leading R&D bases worldwide, with a technical R&D team of more than 3,000 people and over 1,000 core patents. It is one of the very few vehicle manufacturers in the industry that masters the core technology of three electric power systems, establishing a solid foundation for creating the “pure electric drive intelligent platform”.
In the field of production, AITO has advanced 4.0 intelligent factories that can achieve “flexibility, transparency, automation, interconnection and intelligence” in car making. All key processes are 100% automated, with 100% real-time online inspections, which not only improves production efficiency but also ensures product quality, providing a guarantee for mass production and delivery of the Questionnaire Series.
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Although SaiLiSi has outstanding strength, it is difficult to turn around. Seeing new brands like “Weilil” become the leader in the era of smart electric vehicles, SaiLiSi has also accelerated its own transformation and upgrading. Huawei is the one who helps SaiLiSi accelerate its transformation.
Not sticking to the present gains and losses, taking long-term future development as the goal of the enterprise, this common development idea is the foundation for Huawei and SaiLiSi to work together and the premise for WENJIE to face consumers in a more excellent posture.
Compared with many new brands starting from scratch, WENJIE has an unmatched advantage. In the field of production and manufacturing, SaiLiSi’s two rivers intelligent factory is at the leading level in the industry. In brand building and user experience, Huawei has a natural advantage. Huawei’s upgrading of the manufacturing system with the technical advantages of ICT has given WENJIE the strength to lead the development of intelligent electric vehicles.
If SaiLiSi provides WENJIE with a strong skeleton, then Huawei gives it a strong body. The development model of complementary advantages between Huawei and SaiLiSi provides a reliable development sample for the intelligent transformation of traditional automobile enterprises and adds strength to accelerating the arrival of the era of intelligent electric vehicles.
Along with the rise of the WENJIE brand, the smart electric vehicle market will usher in a new round of great development. Meanwhile, the intelligent transformation of SaiLiSi will also accelerate, and Huawei will bring digital technology into every car, realizing the dream of empowering the automobile industry.
With the rise of the Huawei and SaiLiSi model, more and more traditional automobile enterprises will join the team of intelligent transformation and upgrading faster. At that time, the Chinese automobile industry will surely achieve surpassing development in the fields of intelligence and electric power, and the dream of generations of automobile people overtaking in curves will also become a reality.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.