Grey relation analysis of 4S service pilot in high-end equipment manufacturing industry

3.1 Postponement strategy mechanism

The diversification speed of commodity categories is promoted, and this trend also brings problems to the mass customization production of enterprises, such as increasing difficulty in manufacturing flexibility, extending delivery cycle, and increasing process cost. The strategy is to postponement the forms and characteristics of a product change backward delayed [23] as far as possible, but in the postponement, strategy between the stages of push and pull between the cut-off point is called decoupled points of customer requirements, namely the COPD (customer order decoupling point). It is based on the products produced by enterprises in the supply chain. It is a turning point (key point) from product prediction to meeting customers’ special needs [10], which directly affects the scale and change of customized production of enterprises. The specific postponement mechanism of manufacturing enterprises is shown in Fig. 1.

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The business starting point before processing comes from the stage of equipment manufacturing enterprises, which is called the pushing stage. After the assembly business, all comes from the customer order demand stage, known as the pull stage. The essence of postponement is to reset the product structure or process so that the COPD degree of the product is delayed backward, where the COPD degree refers to the relative position of COPD. As can be seen from Fig. 1, the specific mechanism process is as follows: If COPD is delayed to the upstream position and is in the stage of generalized production of parts, we need to try to keep it in a neutral state to reduce the structural differences of products. If the enterprise delays the prediction of production, corresponding economies of scale can be generated. On the contrary, if COPD is delayed to the downstream, the enterprise can take advantage of customers’ individual needs to process, assemble and ship, and finally complete differentiated customization.

Therefore, the postponement strategy can make the general production stage, form the general parts of scale production standard, and finally achieve the maximum profit. At the same time, when the enterprise has customer orders, it can complete the differentiated products and delivery process as soon as possible, thus shortening the delivery cycle of products and reducing the inventory accumulation generated in the process of product scale customization.

SYMG (Shenyang Machine Tool Co., Ltd) has set up product stores all over the world. This sales model that breaks the traditional equipment manufacturing enterprises is an organic combination of manufacturers and service providers. Given this mode, the 4S service pilot mode of the equipment manufacturing industry is proposed properly handling the position of COPD in the production supply chain is the key to obtain more value. Therefore, the theory combined with practice is more convincing. It is urgent to have a medium that can reflect the location of COPD and customer demand – 4S service pilot to conduct high-end equipment manufacturing products-customer interaction service experience. Among them, 4S service refers to the standard of 4 aspects, ranging from science and technology production, the satisfaction of customer demand, service of the brand and service-oriented manufacturing standard. Firstly, the 4S service pilot high-end product-customer interaction mode can provide decision-makers with a more comprehensive information program of competitive advantage in the exclusive equipment manufacturing industry. And it can timely feedback customers’ demand direction through product-customer interaction service experience, and improve the efficiency of optimizing resource allocation and technological innovation ability of enterprises. Secondly, 4S service pilot mode is a bridge of communication between manufacturers and customers, which facilitates customized cooperation and production with customers and broadens the realization space of enterprise value. Finally, the 4S service pilot mode increases the feasibility of green manufacturing large-scale production, realizes the sustainable development in the process of enterprise service transformation, and improves the environmental friendliness of the equipment manufacturing industry. The specific 4S service pilot model is shown in Fig. 2.

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From the perspective of the production supply chain, the 4S service pilot high-end equipment manufacturing product customer interaction experience production activity is divided into two stages of COPD upstream and downstream. The design of parts and raw materials and the standardized production of high-end products promoted the large-scale manufacturing activities of enterprises, which belonged to the upstream push stage of the 4S service pilot. According to customers’ differentiated demand for products, the order of customized high-end equipment manufacturing products is the downstream pull stage of 4S service pilot. In 4S service pilot upstream of high-end equipment manufacturing products – customer interactive experience stage, the intangible service elements, and tangible modular, standardized high-tech craft and the equipment manufacturing industry under postponement strategies increasing use in high-end service make the manufacturing enterprises based on the 4S service pilot provided by the market dynamic information, design a more feasible parts commonality and differential delay, generalize the production process can be shared parts and technology to maximize. Whenever there is a new customer order differentiation, 4S service pilot can aggregate demand information quickly and will send customized information feedback to the corresponding manufacturing companies. It reduces the uncertainty risk of equipment manufacturing enterprises in predicting production customer demand. At the same time, 4S service pilot experience can also promote manufacturing enterprises to mass production of modular, technological innovation, and other aspects, research, and development of collaborative rapid assembly module, the production of strong applicability of the general standard accessories, to reduce the complexity of products or processes. 4S service pilot strengthens the flexible manufacturing level of equipment manufacturing enterprises. It improves the product quality and efficiency of products, and reduces the production cost and transaction cost, and creates more value for enterprises. In Fig. 2, equipment manufacturing enterprises are divided into core layer and an additional layer. The core layer includes logistics capacity and production capacity. Additional layers include R&D, sales, information management, human resources, and modular production and intermediary services.

Under the participation of customers manufacturing enterprises will have a clear and quick understanding of market demand, this will drive a service-oriented development in manufacturing enterprises in the aspects of scientific and technological innovation, environmental and cultural and recreation. In 4S service pilot sales of high-end equipment manufacturing products – customer interactive experience mode, the evolution of service has three steps. From service attachment to product to integration of service and product, service is sold as a commodity eventually. From the principle of the smile curve, it can be found that if this state continues, the gap with international equipment manufacturing enterprises will become larger and larger. 4S service pilot under the postponement strategy can feedback information about order demand and service satisfaction, motivate manufacturing enterprises to improve product craft and improve the service level and this mode of customer participation and interactive experience encourages equipment manufacturing enterprises to carry out service-oriented customized production based on customers’ different needs. 4S service pilot high-end equipment manufacturing products-customer interactive platform improves the efficiency of the equipment manufacturing enterprise service and the accuracy of the postponement strategy, optimizes the allocation of resources to obtain more economic benefits, and makes new and exclusive competitive advantage in the high-end equipment manufacturing market, and eventually make the successful transition of service equipment manufacturing enterprises in China.

4.1 Selection of 4S service pilot cases

This paper takes Liaoning province as a case study. The main reasons are as follows: Liaoning is a heavy industry province based on equipment manufacturing industry, which based on the equipment manufacturing industry. Liaoning province has a number of exclusive equipment manufacturing industry advantages of enterprises. The equipment manufacturing industry is in urgent need of transformation. Secondly, Liaoning equipment manufacturing industry started earlier in service-oriented development.For example, Dalian Shipyard, Shenyang Aircraft and other equipment manufacturing enterprises have begun to try the service-oriented transformation. Finally, The high-end equipment manufacturing industry in Liaoning Province has a higher market share. For example, Fig. 3 shows the proportion of equipment manufacturing industries in Liaoning Province in the whole country in 2016, which is representative to a certain extent.

4.2 Selection of factors influencing servitization and data analysis

Market needs and customer needs is the key to promote the development of service-oriented equipment manufacturing industry. Therefore, this paper uses the experience of predecessors. The author suggests that Liaoning 4S service pilot equipment manufacturing products-customer interaction experience is mainly restricted by five factors: sales output value, inventory, total profit, main business cost, and management cost. In this paper, the relevant data of Liaoning in 2016 was searched, which is shown in Table 1.

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It can be found from Table 1 that general fabricated metal products in Liaoning ranks top than any other industry’s, and have lagged behind the other five power equipment manufacturing industry and compared with the 31 provinces in China, the equipment manufacturing industry in Liaoning is above average.

5.1 4S service pilot interactive experience scheme and structure model creation

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4S Service Pilot High-end Equipment Manufacturing Mathematical Products – Customer Interaction Experience Program. In this paper, in the Liaoning 4S service pilot project, the problem of assigning products from various equipment manufacturing industries to experience share was transformed into a mathematical problem, and the model was established for quantitative research, to make the 4S service pilot project more feasible. The mathematical problem described as 4S service pilot of Liaoning equipment manufacturing industry product-customer service experience will be carried out, and the products allow customers to experience early Liaoning equipment manufacturing product performance. Meanwhile, the service development of the Liaoning equipment manufacturing industry is also affected by many factors, such as sales value, total profit, inventory, administrative expenses, and main business costs. Then, to better promote the service-oriented development of Liaoning equipment manufacturing industry, how to allocate products of various equipment manufacturing industries to carry out 4S pilot experience service under the postponement strategy, so that they can not only meet customer needs but also provide effective production information for the transformation and upgrading of Liaoning manufacturing enterprises?

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Establishment of a hierarchical structure model.

The hierarchical model of product-customer interaction experience is mathematiccal problems for high-end equipment manufacturing products in Liaoning 4S service pilot project is specifically shown in Fig. 4.

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Figure 4.

Hierarchy chart of 4S service pilot of Liaoning equipment manufacturing industry.

5.2 Empirical analysis of grey correlation level

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Grey correlation determines the degree of factor correlation in the structure drawing [24]. Due to the qualitative features of simple chromatography, the decision making results obtained by it are not convincing. Therefore, the grey relational degree analysis on the factors of criterion layer A and scheme layer B in the AHP structure diagram in Table 1 has improved the credibility of AHP decision-making.

First of all, the five factors in the criteria layer A are calculated by a grey relational degree. The data in Table 1 was dimensionless processed through the mean value method, and the sales value reference sequence was used as the difference sequence, in which the maximum number and the minimum number of the two poles M = 0.972 and M = 0.016. And we use the formula ζ i ⁢ ( k ) = max i ( Δ i ⁢ ( min ) ) + ρ ⁢ max i ( Δ i ⁢ ( max ) ) | x i ⁢ ( k ) - x i ⁢ ( k ) | + ρ ⁢ max ( Δ i ⁢ ( max ) ) ⁢ γ i = 1 n ⁢ ∑ i = 1 N ζ i ⁢ ( k ) . At last, it was concluded that γ 01 = 0.767, γ 02 = 0.734, γ 03 = 0.730, γ 04 = 0.757, ranking the correlation degree as γ 01 $>\gamma$ 04 $>\gamma$ 02 $>\gamma$ 03. Similarly, the results obtained with the total profit amount as the reference sequence are γ 10 = 0.739, γ 12 = 0.724, γ 13 = 0.685, γ 14 = 0.781; γ 14 $>\gamma$ 10 $>\gamma$ 12 $>\gamma$ 13. The results obtained by taking inventory cost as the reference sequence are γ 20 = 0.720, γ 21 = 0.743, γ 23 = 0.718, γ 24 = 0.740; γ 24 $>\gamma$ 21 $>\gamma$ 20 $>\gamma$ 23. The results obtained with management cost as the reference sequence were: γ 30 = 0.746, γ 31 = 0.747, γ 32 = 0.749, γ 34 = 0.712; γ 32 $>\gamma$ 31 $>\gamma$ 30 $>\gamma$ 34. The results obtained by taking the main operating cost as the reference sequence are γ 40 = 0.629, γ 41 = 0.671, γ 42 = 0.622, γ 43 = 0.548; γ 41 $>\gamma$ 40 $>\gamma$ 42 $>\gamma$ 43.

Second, the grey relational degree of seven factors in plan B is calculated. The industry sequence data in Table 1 are processed in A standardized manner. The calculation process and method are similar to the criteria layer A, which is not repeated here. With the metal products industry as a reference sequence, the results are φ 01 = 0.558, φ 02 = 0.614, φ 03 = 0.544, φ 04 = 0.659, φ 05 = 0.774, φ 06 = 0.884; φ 06 $>\phi$ 05 $>\phi$ 04 $>\phi$ 02 $>\phi$ 01 $>\phi$ 03. With the general equipment manufacturing industry as a reference sequence, the results are φ 10 = 0.695, φ 12 = 0.683, φ 13 = 0.648, φ 14 = 0.706, φ 15 = 0.685, φ 16 = 0.742; φ 16 $>\phi$ 14 $>\phi$ 10 $>\phi$ 15 $>\phi$ 12 $>\phi$ 13. With the special-purpose equipment manufacturing industry as the reference sequence, the results were: φ 20 = 0.820, φ 21 = 0.761, φ 23 = 0.728, φ 24 = 0.726, φ 25 = 0.758, φ 26 = 0.792; φ 20 $>\phi$ 26 $>\phi$ 21 $>\phi$ 25 $>\phi$ 23 $>\phi$ 24. With the transportation equipment manufacturing industry as a reference sequence, the results are φ 30 = 0.685, φ 31 = 0.668, φ 32 = 0.673, φ 34 = 0.612, φ 35 = 0.602, φ 36 = 0.694; φ 36 $>\phi$ 30 $>\phi$ 32 $>\phi$ 31 $>\phi$ 34 $>\phi$ 35. With the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry as a reference sequence, the results are φ 40 = 0.740, φ 41 = 0.667, φ 42 = 0.610, φ 43 = 0.550, φ 45 = 0.666, φ 46 = 0.788; φ 46 $>\phi$ 40 $>\phi$ 41 $>\phi$ 45 $>\phi$ 42 $>\phi$ 43. With the communication equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry as a reference sequence, the results are φ 50 = 0.865, φ 51 = 0.664, φ 52 = 0.650, φ 53 = 0.545, φ 54 = 0.681, φ 56 = 0.847; φ 50 $>\phi$ 56 $>\phi$ 54 $>\phi$ 51 $>\phi$ 52 $>\phi$ 53. With instruments and instruments and cultural office machinery manufacturing industry as a reference sequence, the results are φ 60 = 0.904, φ 61 = 0.683, φ 62 = 0.650, φ 63 = 0.612, φ 64 = 0.769, φ 65 = 0.802; φ 60 $>\phi$ 65 $>\phi$ 64 $>\phi$ 61 $>\phi$ 62 $>\phi$ 63.

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AHP is used to analyze 4S pilot high-end equipment manufacturing products – customer interaction service experience ranking. To deeply analyze the actual distribution problem, the factors of the hierarchical structure diagram in Fig. 4 were decomposed from top to bottom according to their attributes and based on the results of grey correlation degree and Santyit’s 1–9 scale method, a discriminant matrix of the hierarchical structure diagram of 4S service pilot was established. The calculation steps were as follows.

Firstly, the discriminant matrix A from the criterion layer to the target layer is established according to the grey relational degree calculation results. The maximum eigenvalue lambda Max of matrix A and its corresponding Maximum eigenvalue ( λ max) is calculated. The specific results are shown below.

Random consistency index RI = 1.12 (refer to table), the consistency ratio R = 0.093/1.12 = 0.083 0.1, which passed the consistency test. For the second, the third layer of the same method steps, we need to calculate the scheme layer on the weight of the criteria layer. Five seven-dimensional comparison matrices were established, and the eigenvalue vector set was calculated as: λ max ( k ) = (7.076, 7.533, 7.774, 7.653, 7.679); then the corresponding weight vector-matrix was:

one-time index

𝐶𝐼 ( 3 ) = [ 0.118 0.889 0.129 0.109 0.113 ] T ,

random consistency index RI = 1.32 (refer to the table), and the CR (3) energy were calculated to be less than 0.1, all of which passed the consistency test. Evaluation weight score vector P is:

The AHP conclusion is calculated, which based on the ranking data in Table 1. The particularity of the ranking problem is taken into consideration. In other words, the smaller the ranking result is, the better the performance will be. Therefore, contrary to the conclusion of AHP under normal circumstances, the decision-making conclusion of AHP obtained in this paper is that the smaller the weight, the better the objective decision. And according to weight calculation results from the hierarchical analysis, fabricated metal products accounted for 30.3%, with 7.3% of general equipment manufacturing, 9.3% of special equipment manufacturing, 8.1% of transportation equipment manufacturing industry, 17.7% of electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, 19.9% of communications equipment, computers, and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry, 15% of instrumentation and machinery manufacturing for office. According to the above results, general equipment manufacturing is the best, transportation equipment manufacturing and special equipment manufacturing are the second, and the metal products industry is the worst. Then, when Liaoning 4S service pilot implements equipment manufacturing product-customer interaction experience under the guidance of postponement strategy, which manufacturing industry product experience should be focused on when 4S service pilot realizes high-end service of equipment manufacturing? Therefore, based on the above AHP results, the three-stage development plan of Liaoning 4S service pilot was obtained as follows: The first stage, the first is a priority to show the general equipment manufacturing high-end equipment products experience, followed by the showing of high-end products the transportation equipment manufacturing industry and special equipment manufacturing, and then under the action of delaying tactics to collect customer experience information feedback and orders demand in 4S pilot, postponement production forecast products, provide the basis for customized and large-scale of manufacturing enterprise, and other equipment manufacturing high-end products are trying to participate in the 4S service pilot and pushes forward the development of service-based equipment manufacturing enterprises. The second stage, the 4S service pilot maintain state of the first stage of the three services industry product experience, and under the postponement strategy we focus on such three industry experience of high-end product display, ranging from instrumentation and cultural office machinery manufacturing, electric machinery and equipment manufacturing and communications equipment, computers and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry. At this time, the 4S pilot involved more kinds of interactive products and attracted more orders from customers, which stimulated the technological research and development of equipment manufacturing enterprises. The manufacturing enterprises were able to postpone customized production and present a scale, which advanced the service-oriented transformation of Liaoning equipment manufacturing enterprises. The third stage, six equipment manufacturing development of service industry in the first two-phase drives the development velocity of fabricated metal products, and the 4S in Liaoning pilot focus on high-end product display and service experience of fabricated metal products should be taken at first place, which made seven of Liaoning equipment manufacturing industry to achieve international manufacturing standards and realized the brand benefit of “made in Liaoning province”. Only in this way can Liaoning 4S service pilot high-end equipment manufacturing product-customer interaction experience be maximized in a short period with limited resources and technical environment so that Liaoning equipment manufacturing enterprises can successfully realize high-end service transformation.

6. Research conclusions and prospects

4S service pilot experience of high-end equipment manufacturing products-customer interaction under postponement strategy is a kind of equipment manufacturing industry production and organization of high-end new development mode of service, the equipment manufacturing enterprise cooperation and communication with the customer’s production idea, mass customization production of high-end equipment manufacturing industry products, and then extended manufacturing enterprise production chain, service chain, value chain, to achieve green equipment manufacturing to improve the efficient allocation of resources, improve the competitive power of manufacturing enterprises. This paper focuses on the equipment manufacturing industry of high-end customer interactive mode with the bulk of the postponement of service customization production research, from the perspective of postponement strategy applied in commercial practice, analyzes the feasibility of the 4S service pilot high-end equipment manufacturing product – customer interactive model applied in the equipment manufacturing industry development around China, and get the conclusion of the following aspects.

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4S service pilot mode will become an important way for the service transformation of China’s equipment manufacturing industry. And it can not only help enterprises to achieve cooperation with customers to produce, can also inspire the innovation of science and technology development of the enterprise, reduce manufacturing enterprise high-end products production cycle and consumption, realize the scale of green manufacturing, at the same time, drive manufacturing enterprise in the smile curve of service value chain of low-end to carry out service-oriented production, create more product value, and improve the transformation of service-oriented equipment manufacturing enterprises.