Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the list of group standard application demonstration projects in 2022. Among them, the Ningbo Stationery Industry Association declared the “watercolor pen” group standard became the only selected project of the stationery industry in the province. Based on group standards, Ningbo as China’s stationery capital is gradually coming out of a new way to integrate the industry chain and create new industrial advantages.
Both to first and first trial
Borrow group standards
Create a new industrial advantage
This is not the first time the stationery industry in Ningbo to develop group standards. Since 2018, the Ningbo Stationery Industry Association has worked with Ningbo enterprises to develop four group standards, including “neutral pens”, “oil-based markers” and “notebooks”, and the current group standard for “desktop cleaners” is also being developed.
Group standards are not mandatory, so why is Ningbo keen to develop group standards in recent years?
“To enhance the competitiveness of the industry, expand the influence of the brand and create new advantages in the industry.” Ningbo Stationery Industry Association Secretary General Yu Yongfeng gave his answer.
In his opinion, the stationery industry has a relatively low threshold of entry compared to other industries. An innovative product is often launched soon after a large number of imitators. This leads to stationery companies are reluctant to innovate, afraid to innovate, the lack of industrial innovation has become a short board to limit the quality development of the stationery industry.
Ningbo is China’s stationery capital, the annual output value of about a fifth of the country, the annual export delivery value of about a quarter of the country, the category is covered by the stationery industry 11 categories, more than 10,000 varieties, is a veritable industrial development of the highlands. Take watercolor pens for example, Ningbo not only has leading watercolor pen enterprises such as Deli and Beifa, but also dozens of supporting enterprises upstream and downstream of the industry chain.
“Although the group standard is not a compulsory standard, it is more of a commitment to product quality assurance, brand image building self-restraint within the industry and a commitment to consumers.” Yu Yongfeng said, first-class enterprises to do standards, second-rate enterprises to do brand, third-rate enterprises to do products, we need to develop group standards, solidify their own development advantages, to higher standards to enhance the competitiveness of products, and then expand the influence of the brand to create a new industrial advantage.
“China stationery capital of this ‘golden signboard’ can not fall into dust, need to continue to polish it through the group standard of the first pilot.” Yu Yongfeng said.
Supply chain synergy
big with small
Group comprehensive development
How to create a new industrial advantage through the development of group standards? By helping the leading enterprises to take advantage of the chain to lead the small, strengthen the industry chain synergy, and guide small and medium-sized enterprises to throw off their low-end manufacturing hats.
Take watercolour pencil as an example, as a new generation of “Netflix” in the painting world after pencil and crayon, the application scenario of watercolour pencil continues to expand and the market volume keeps increasing. Due to the low threshold of entry, the products on the market are mixed, with varying quality and price differences.
“In order to further increase the core competitiveness of our products, we have put forward more stringent requirements on indicators such as phthalate ester limits and writing performance, as well as new indicators such as end cap safety and PAH limits, after discussions with the association, in conjunction with Beifa, Guangbo and 13 other companies.” Yang Yeling, manager of the standard law department of Deli Group, told reporters that, for example, the phthalate limit, the mandatory national standard has three phthalate requirements, and the new group standard has six phthalate requirements.
Although it may seem like a small change, for Deli Group, the development of group standards not only enhances the competitiveness of products, but also further strengthens Deli’s quality control of the industry chain.
According to preliminary statistics, through the development of group standards, Ningbo has guided more than 60 small and medium-sized stationery enterprises such as Huafeng, Wuyun and Xubizhuang through the promotion and implementation of group standards to achieve standard compliance and quality improvement, providing a model case for the city’s stationery enterprises, especially small and medium-sized stationery enterprises to develop with high quality.
Ningbo stationery industry chain synergy is not limited to the creation of group standards, through the strengthening of resource integration, collaborative innovation, a number of large and small enterprises are stepping up the group, condensing into a synergy.
Through its strong supply chain integration capabilities, Deli invested 202 million yuan to build its own “office supplies supply chain e-commerce platform” to provide one-stop office supplies online transaction aggregation services for enterprises and customers. This has effectively facilitated communication and cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain and significantly reduced transaction costs for both upstream and downstream enterprises.
No unique. Beifa build “China stationery supply chain operation service platform” also allows many small and medium stationery enterprises to share the existing brand, technology, management and channels and other resources of Beifa Group.
“Traditional industries such as a breakthrough in traditional development ideas, leveraging domestic and foreign high-quality innovative resources, the integration of the advantages of all parties upstream and downstream of the industry chain, with large and small group development, will be able to enhance the strength of industrial innovation and achieve breakthrough development.” The relevant person in charge of the Municipal Economic and Information Bureau told reporters that, as a traditional advantageous industry in Ningbo, Ningbo will vigorously support the construction of the innovation service complex of cultural and creative industries, relying on the global industrial ecological supply chain of the leading enterprises to coordinate cultural and creative innovation, technological innovation, product innovation, industry innovation, organizational innovation and business model innovation, from the source of the industrial chain to the end of sales, from the initial creative design, business incubation to the final From the source of the industry chain to the end of the sales, from the initial creative design, business incubation to the final marketing and brand management, a complete service chain is created on the public platform.
Reprinted from Ningbo Daily, reporter Yin Cong, correspondent Yuan Shuning