Hongma Lock: Micro-innovation makes the small lock "light"

After more than 20 years of development, Xiaolan Town's hardware products industry has formed a group of 10 hardware industry groups with locks and gas appliances as the leading, upstream and downstream products and various types of accessories. However, once the huge industry cannot break through the bottleneck of transformation and upgrading, it will eventually lag behind the times.

Xiaolan Town, which has more than 300 lock companies, has been deeply affected by the transformation and upgrading since the financial crisis in 2008. Hongma Locks Co., Ltd., located in Jiuzhouji Village, Xiaolan Town, is one of the hundreds of lock companies in Southern Locks. Its transformation process can reflect the difficult turn of China's manufacturing industry.

Smart lock that will glow

“I just came over from Shenzhen and talked to a large hotel about the installation of our LED smart locks. Their responsible person expressed interest in our products, but then there are some improvements in the design of the panels.” Hongma Liang Yazhou, the partner of the lock, told the reporter of China Business News.

Liang Yazhou's office is like a museum with locks, which display different shapes and sizes of door locks. One of the door locks caught the attention of the reporter. There are several round holes in the handle of the door lock. When the person is close, the round hole will emit red or green light.

“This is our patented LED smart lock, mainly used in high-end hotels. When people are close to the door lock, the LED light on the handle shines. If it is red light, the guest inside is resting, please don’t bother. It is green light that means you can knock on the door." Liang Yazhou said.

In Liang Yazhou's view, this is actually equivalent to integrating the "Do Not Disturb" sign or indicator light in the hotel onto a door lock. When the guest locks the door lock, the door lock will display a red light.

How helpful is this small humanized initiative to the hotel? A hotel manager told reporters that although this is only a small improvement, it has greatly improved the hotel service. “In the past, when guests were resting, they generally did not expect to hang the do not disturb sign. The 'Do Not Disturb' sign in our hotel was almost a display. Once the guest was at rest, the waiter cleaned the room because of knocking on the door. Let the extremely tired guest thunder. This small improvement has made a huge difference in improving service and reducing the unnecessary work of the waiters." The hotel management told reporters.

According to Liang Yazhou, the LED smart lock has obtained national patents. "For small and medium-sized lock manufacturers, the patent is to protect the umbrella, otherwise the large-scale enterprise will follow the example, there is no room for us to survive." Liang Yazhou said.

The reporter learned that the core of the LED smart lock is to embed a smart chip that can be sensed into the middle of the door lock. This small technological breakthrough comes from the needs of a Japanese customer.

“On one occasion, one of our Japanese customers found me and said that we could produce a door handle that can produce an LED halo. When someone approaches, the door handle will shine.” Liang Yazhou told reporters, “This kind of LED that can emit light The door handles are mainly used in dark places such as KTVs and nightclubs to guide the path and prevent consumers from hitting the door."

After repeated experiments, Liang Yazhou developed the first generation of products, which is the LED door handle, which was recognized by Japanese guests. On one occasion, Liang Yazhou made a move, why not implant this technology into the door lock? After trying and experimenting, the LED smart lock was finally developed.

"With our own core technology, we have opened up our own transformation path, from a company that originally helped others to become a manufacturing company with its own brand." Liang Yazhou said.

Transforming independent brands face pain

If it is not the development of this LED smart door lock, Hongma Lock may be just one of the many unknown foundries in Xiaolan Town, Zhongshan City.

Liang Yazhou’s earliest occupation was the lighting industry. Unlike the manufacture of locks, the challenge of luminaire manufacturing is that the replacement is very fast. Like clothing, you may have to change several styles a year.

“The styles of the lamps vary widely. For example, we have produced lamps for a large foreign supermarket. In the spring, we developed a series of molds, and in the autumn we have to develop new molds. This change in style means expensive costs for SMEs. Expenditure. In this context, in 2011, we began to transform the production of locks.” Liang Yazhou said, “The locks are different, and they have changed into several styles.” After entering the lock industry, Liang Yazhou and his Hongma locks have been Help others make OEM products. “The top ten well-known lock brands in China are looking for us to do OEM work,” said Liang Yazhou.

However, doing OEM for others means that the high value-added part of the value chain is taken away by others, and their profits are meager, and they often have to “really breathe and look at people’s faces”. Liang Yazhou admits: "With its own brand, the gross profit margin of lock manufacturing companies is around 50%, and to help others do OEM, the gross profit margin is no more than 30%."

Another factor that has forced the transformation of Hongma locks is China’s rising labor costs. At present, Hongma locks a worker with an average monthly salary of 5,000-6,000 yuan. When Liang Yazhou was engaged in the manufacture of locks, the salary of the staff was only 3,000 yuan/month, which doubled in just a few years.

Despite its own patented products, Hongma Locks still faces the pain of the transition period. “When we are selling our new products to the hotel, the customers are always asking me, which hotels have your products been in? In fact, we used to do OEM work, and our OEM products cooperate with many well-known hotel chains. But we can't prove that the door locks they use are made by us." Liang Yazhou said with regret.

Expert Reviews

Locks are a highly competitive industry, where survival is difficult and development is more difficult. Hongma locks survived through micro-innovation, but whether it can continue to live is still a problem. Relatively speaking, a single product micro-innovation can easily be replaced and covered, and whether it can be multi-dimensional and iterative and combined through these micro-innovations, establish a certain obstacle system competitiveness and brand competitiveness of certain market segments. This is the key, and the core of it needs to outline a rhythmic and sequential brand strategy map.