/PRZWT/When the "last mile" of takeaway express delivery has become the norm of life, the "last mile" in the industrial field still hides the rigid production needs and industry problems of countless enterprises - in a large park of tens of millions of square meters, multiple approvals are required to complete material distribution; in a remote mining area 30 kilometers away from the town, end-to-end transportation of tens of kilometers tests the efficiency of every delivery; enterprises are often caught in the dilemma of "easy to place an order and difficult to manage" in the face of a variety of non-productive materials... This is the true portrayal of the MRO (non-productive material procurement) industry, a large-scale but long-term scattered track.
It is urgent for game-breakers to reshape the landscape with innovative power.
As the "capillary" of the industrial supply chain, the MRO industry bears the key support for the production and operation of enterprises - from a bolt and a pair of labor insurance gloves to workshop equipment consumables. Although it only accounts for 20% of the enterprise's procurement amount, it covers more than 80% of the SKU. For a long time, the pain points of the industry's "scattered participants, low delivery efficiency and weak customization ability" have not only caused enterprises to face the problem of "inventory backlog and high cost", but also restricted the overall efficiency of the industrial supply chain.
Zheng Huan, a professor at Antai School of E****mics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, once pointed out: "MRO is a market with huge potential, but there is no absolute leader. Whoever can break the balance of'efficiency and service 'can lead the development of the industry."
In this industry disruption war, Zhenkunxing Industrial Supermarket Kunhe Supply Chain is becoming the core force to promote the upgrading of the MRO industry with the two-wheel drive of "digital intelligence + full-link service".
The three-dimensional warehouse network system builds a solid foundation for supply chain efficiency
The core pain point of the MRO industry is the "difficulty of delivery". Traditional suppliers are difficult to meet the needs of enterprises for delivery timeliness and accuracy due to scattered categories and small order volumes. In this regard, the solution given by Zhenkunxing is to build a nationwide "three-dimensional warehouse network" and a digital intelligence operation system.
Into the Shanghai warehouse of Zhenkun, 35,000 square meters of space, 150,000 kinds of SPU (Standard Product Unit) orderly storage, fully automatic storage and sorting equipment put into use in 2023 is particularly eye-catching - only 4300 square meters of land, it realizes the efficient use of 42,000 storage space, 32 automatic picking robots in the mode of "goods to people do not move", a single pick 7 SKU, completely replace the traditional manual picking process, greatly reduce the handling cost and sorting error.
So far, Zhenkunxing has deployed 32 general warehouses and 105 service center warehouses across the country, supporting more than 200 self-operated transporters and about 30 on-site delivery teams. It has also deployed more than 6,000 EVM smart warehouses next to customer production lines, making material supply "at your fingertips".
"Our goal is to enable customers to'call for materials at any time and supply immediately '," said Ma Yujun, general manager of Zhenkunxing Kunhe Supply Chain. Take a large state-owned electrical appliance company as an example. It once faced the problem of "30-minute approval for receipt and low inventory accuracy" due to scattered material management of MRO. After Zhenkunxing deployed EVM smart cabinets for it, employees could receive materials such as fasteners and labor protection supplies within 30 seconds with their work cards or face swipes. The back-end system monitors the inventory level in real time and automatically triggers the replenishment mechanism.
One-year tracking data shows that the company's comprehensive cost of ownership of materials has been reduced by 31%, and the inventory accuracy rate has been improved by 50%, truly achieving "cost reduction and efficiency increase".
Create differentiation barriers with "customized services"
Unlike the C-end consumption scenario, the "last mile" delivery in the industrial sector is often accompanied by complex scenario challenges: large parks need to be certified in advance, vehicle approval, and electronic products are strictly prohibited from entering; remote mining areas are not only far from towns, but also the internal distribution distance is tens of kilometers... These "high fixed cost, low single product profit" scenarios have deterred many traditional suppliers.
"The moment of delivery is the'decision-making moment 'that determines the customer's perception," Ma Yujun emphasized in the conversation. In order to overcome this problem, Zhenkunxing adopted the "on-site delivery manager" model - a dedicated delivery team was set up in core scenarios such as large parks and mining areas, and the on-site personnel familiar with customer needs were connected to the whole process of receiving, counting and distributing materials. The delivery was completed in strict accordance with the time, place and document standards specified by the enterprise, and the secondary handling problem of "materials arriving in the park but difficult to reach the production line" was completely solved.
The case of a coal company is quite representative: the company's mining area is 30km away from the nearest town, and the internal distribution distance is over 50km. Traditional suppliers are unwilling to serve due to "small single-shipment volume and high cost". Zhenkunxing relies on the ability to cover the company's full range of MRO needs. With its own operating capacity and on-site team, it has achieved "same-day delivery and next-day delivery".
This "customer-centric" customized service is supported by the full-link system of Zhenkunxing - in order management, warehousing management, and distribution management systems, hundreds of customized fields such as packaging requirements, document stamping, and inventory standards are preset, and occasional needs can be quickly responded through natural language description; at the same time, through the "self-operated + three-party" differentiated logistics strategy, self-operated transportation capacity is used to ensure quality in difficult scenarios, and three-party transportation capacity is used to control costs in standardized scenarios (such as downtown office buildings and small and micro enterprises), to achieve the optimal balance of "efficiency and service".
Empowering SMEs + Cultivating Compound Talents
The development of the MRO industry not only needs to serve large enterprises, but also needs to pay attention to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises are more dependent on the industrial belt of large enterprises, and Zhenkun has targeted the layout of "service center warehouses" in the core area of the industrial belt to set up warehouses, stock a small amount of high-frequency emergency materials, and achieve "2-hour emergency replenishment"; for low-frequency demand, it relies on the deployment of the main warehouse to help small and medium-sized enterprises reduce inventory pressure and procurement costs by "making their own operational efficiency".
In the long-term development of the industry, the shortage of talent has become a key bottleneck. As Professor Zheng Huan said: "The MRO industry needs'five forces' talents who understand technology, market, supply chain, law and management." Ma Yujun, an alumnus of Jiaotong University Antai, also called for more university talents to join: "The growth of the MRO industry requires enterprises and universities to work together to build a solid foundation for development with talent strength."
From solving the "last mile" delivery problem, to reconstructing the supply chain efficiency with digital intelligence, to empowering small and medium-sized enterprises and cultivating industry talents, Zhenkunxing is promoting the MRO industry from "decentralized disorder" to "efficient collaboration" with hard work and innovation. In the future, with the deepening of industrial digital transformation, the MRO industry will usher in greater development opportunities, and the leaders represented by Zhenkunxing will continue to be customer-oriented and technological innovation as the engine to inject more momentum into the high-quality development of China's industrial supply chain.
