English
"Robot autonomous elevators, non-contact voice call elevators, human body perception elevators that reduce invalid parking floors..." In the elevator manufacturing base of KONE Kunshan Industrial Park, the staff introduced a series of digital intelligence of KONE Elevator to reporters. solution.
A few days ago, the Finnish elevator leader KONE announced that its equipment shipments in China exceeded 1.5 million units, and at the same time announced the establishment of a new digital software center in China. Henrik Ehrnrooth, President and CEO of KONE Group, said in an interview with The Paper and other media that KONE has seen that many local Chinese companies are increasing their investment in digitalization. China has a good digital foundation and is also the best investment market. Including policy support, talent level and market environment.
Since Elisha Graves Otis invented the first elevator with safety protection device in the middle of the 19th century, the elevator has gradually developed into an important special equipment in the field of supporting real estate and public transportation, and has been widely used , among which the real estate industry is the most important downstream industry of the elevator industry, accounting for about 98%.
With the development of domestic urbanization, China has gradually become the world's largest new elevator and escalator market, accounting for nearly 60% of the global market share. In recent years, affected by factors such as the slowdown of macroeconomic growth, the growth of the new elevator market has slowed down.
Han Ruilong said that in response to the slowdown in the growth of the new elevator business, KONE will continue to increase investment in innovation, including the development of digital products, increasing investment in the Internet of Things, and reducing energy consumption in the entire life cycle of elevators.
Bao Jiafeng, executive vice president of KONE Group and president of KONE Greater China, said that China's urbanization process is still accelerating. Under the demands of the new era such as smart cities and green cities, digital transformation is the focus of KONE's future business in China.
According to Bao Jiafeng, KONE will rely on the two platforms of KONE DX Elevator and KONE Cloud Butler Service to create solutions with customers and partners. DX elevator has a built-in intelligent linkage API, which can realize digital functions without external plug-in expansion, such as connecting intelligent robots, connecting access control systems, and realizing contactless elevator rides. KONE Cloud Manager service can realize real-time detection and intelligent analysis, realize predictive maintenance, and more intelligent, efficient and convenient management.
The Paper learned that Bao Jiafeng had worked for Microsoft for 18 years before joining KONE in October last year as the president of Microsoft China.
Regarding the chemical reaction brought about by this cross-border, he said, "Every industry is going through digital transformation. At Microsoft, I experienced the transformation from product software to cloud services. After joining KONE China, I also caught up with the industry. Digital transformation is not just a digital transformation from products to services. At present, KONE has 600,000 elevators in service. How to explore more efficient and convenient service methods, better employee training platforms and better tools, To make the service process safer, this is the direction we want to develop."
"The digital transformation of the elevator industry includes user experience. Now the elevator experience is still more traditional. For better customer experience, we need to carry out digital transformation." Bao Jiafeng emphasized that the above-mentioned newly established digital software center is also based on this goal .
In addition to the digital intelligence of the elevator solution, in terms of production, the Paper reporter also saw a large number of automation equipment such as AGV handling robots and smart forklifts running in an orderly manner at the motor factory in KONE Kunshan Industrial Park.
At present, about 75% of KONE's sales in China come from the new elevator business, 20% from the maintenance business, and 5% from the renovation business.
"Although the real estate industry is currently facing challenges, we still see many opportunities for the development of the Chinese market. The demand for modernization and renovation of elevators in China will grow exponentially, and will increase by 4 times by 2030." Han Ruilong said, "We will also pay attention to maintenance and renovation, putting more resources in this fast-growing market.”
KONE Group was established in Helsinki, Finland in 1910, listed in 1967, increased investment in China in 1996, and registered KONE Elevator Co., Ltd. in Kunshan with a total investment of 1.38 billion yuan. At present, KONE Kunshan production base has become the most important production base of KONE Group in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2022, KONE Group's net sales will be approximately 10.9 billion euros.
