Smes Are In The "Cost Crisis".

The survival situation of small and medium-sized enterprises once again attracted the attention of all parties, mainly because of the continuous rise of labor and raw materials and other costs, coupled with exchange rate fluctuations and uncertainty in domestic and foreign markets, so that SMEs feel a new wave of "cost crisis" after the financial crisis. Some of the manufacturing enterprises are also trapped in the "zero profit" dilemma, and they hope to get more support and guidance in order to survive.

[stress situation]

The cost of raw materials for a lamp has increased by 30%.

When it comes to the recent business situation of the company, the executives who are responsible for the production of the aus lighting company call him "the cost of raw materials is too high." This enterprise is regarded as a large scale enterprise with a larger market share in the domestic energy saving lamp industry. It has far more ways to cope with the cost pressure than more SMEs. However, the executives of this enterprise predict: "energy saving lamp enterprises are already shuffling, and many small and medium-sized enterprises have already failed to live up to it."

The main raw materials for energy-saving lamps are fluorescent powder and glass tube. The latest data from reporters in the enterprise is that the silver powder has risen from 300 yuan / kg to 1000 yuan / kg, and the glass tube has risen from 4100 yuan / ton to 4900 yuan / ton, and the price is still fluctuating.

"What is this concept? It is equivalent to increasing the cost per lamp tube by a few cents, and some lamps even cost more than 1 yuan." The executives revealed that aus shipped 10-15 million energy-saving lamps a day, which costs about two yuan a day more than 100 thousand yuan.

A small and medium-sized small and medium-sized lighting business executives said, since the first half of this year, the cost of raw materials of a lamp has increased by 30% at least. Their products are mainly domestic sales, which are slightly less stressful than those on the export side, but he is still suffering from insomnia for a long time in recent months. "Pressure is great and price increases are unlikely. These are all non replacement materials."

Not only is the lighting industry feeling the signs of industry shuffling under the pressure of cost pressure, but traditional manufacturing industries such as clothing, shoes, home appliances, furniture and so on are generally feeling another round of industry adjustment after the financial crisis. "The cost of a chair has increased by 10% at least." Yang Sheng, chairman of a furniture enterprise in port town, told reporters that the cost of raw material cost faced by the furniture industry is relatively large. The fabric has risen by 8%-10%, and lumber has increased by more than 10%. He said that almost all kinds of materials are in a state of rising prices, and the space for enterprises to raise prices is very small. Enterprises with relatively strong strength are facing great pressure, and those small businesses with little liquidity and small profits can be said to be struggling.

Employees' pay is generally raised by more than 20%.

Another major pressure on enterprises is the rising staff salaries over the past two years. It is an indisputable fact that China's manufacturing industry has entered the "high cost era" from the "cheap era". Some companies even described that before last year. Labour costs It is called "pressure", and now it has evolved to "crisis".

Why is it a "crisis"? The traditional manufacturing enterprises in many industries reflect that over the past two years, the salaries of employees have generally been raised by more than 20%. The problem is that wages have not risen, and there has been no solution to the increasingly difficult recruitment problem.

Zhang Ruizheng, manager of the Kai Kai company of a shoemaking enterprise, said that there are basically four kinds of pressure on the enterprises at present, that is, the annual wage increase of workers, the appreciation of RMB, the rising of raw materials and the increase of administrative departments' expenses. He said that the factories that used to be cheap labor were thin in profits, and now the pay rise is basically close to no profit.

"Now there is a single dare not answer. No one did it. Zhang Ruizheng introduced the changes brought by foreign markets. Order "Short" phenomenon, enterprises are also willing to choose short list, which can reduce the risk of exchange rate fluctuations, but there will also be a new problem, that is, when the order suddenly came, no workers did, but when there was no order, enterprises could not afford idlers, so many enterprises could only choose to give up some orders.

According to some other shoemaking enterprises, after the outbreak of the financial crisis, some small and medium-sized enterprises have been turned off because they can not bear the pressure of order reduction, and enterprises that have survived the financial crisis are facing a high cost crisis. It is estimated that some "weak" SMEs will not be able to survive and be forced to switch or close.

But they also believe that there are opportunities when there are crises. This is good for some large scale enterprises or dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises. The order resources will be more concentrated, and there will be a new batch of new scale enterprises. {page_break}

Improving internal marketing to improve management and marketing costs

Two years of business Transformation and upgrading The investment is also gradually increasing. Since the financial crisis in 2008, most SMEs have sought to raise their living space by improving management and expanding domestic sales, which requires more manpower and material resources. Many enterprises have indeed achieved a successful response to the crisis and transformation and development, but the cost of enterprises is growing correspondingly.

Dongfeng, a small household appliance company, said that although the European and American orders had been restored, enterprises still felt the market variable. This year, the domestic sales department was set up to expand the domestic market. Due to the current development stage, the cost of investment and human resources and marketing outlets is large.

There are also some enterprises to build their own laboratories or technology centers. There are tens of thousands of equipment and millions of dollars. "But without investment, there is no way out. Technology upgrading, product quality improvement and the way of private brand are all the way that enterprises have realized." Zhang Ruizheng said.

Small and medium-sized enterprises with tight capital chain are also hard to obtain loans from financial institutions. Since the beginning of this year, the central bank has raised the deposit reserve rate several times, resulting in tighter bank purse. The "spring report on China's industrial economic operation" issued in 2011 by the Ministry of industry and Commerce pointed out that, in the first 4 months of this year, China's financial environment is generally tight, and the financing difficulties of SMEs are more prominent. According to the report, the central bank's monetary policy is also effective in restraining excess liquidity, which has also increased the pressure on enterprise funds. This year, the central bank raised interest rates two times to raise the financing costs of enterprises. At present, the overall cost of acquiring bank loans for small businesses has risen by at least 13%.

[enterprise strategy]

"Static braking" waiting for a turnaround.

The manager of Wu Yuan Ling Clothing Co., Ltd., Wu Han, also complained about the high cost. Because the company mainly produces pure cotton jeans, the amount of cotton used is relatively large. Cotton prices have gone all the way this year. The profits of Yuan Ling company have been compressed repeatedly, almost no profit. But customers do not accept other raw materials to replace, and the space for the company to raise prices is also very limited. This makes Wu Han feel that this year is almost "the worst time", as hard as the financial turmoil.

"We are going to survive this year mainly by static braking. Now that some small businesses have gone bankrupt, there will be more opportunities for the enterprises to carry them down, and we believe that the crisis will soon be over."

He said that at present, mainly to improve the efficiency of employees, the company installed RFID system, employees daily workload and pay at a glance, improve the enthusiasm of employees. "Headquarters has already set up an office in the city to prepare for three trademarks and develop the domestic market, so we will take root and wait for a turn."

Production process reengineering, cost control

Cost pressure is a common problem encountered by all traditional manufacturing industries. Wang Shimin, chairman of the overseas light group, introduced the idea of "process reengineering", which made the company lower its cost while improving its operational efficiency. Wang Shimin said that the traditional industry has a long operation time. In the early years, there were many problems in the process of the development of the industry. But the method that enterprises think of is to increase one resource to solve problems, such as recruiting more people and adding more equipment. This is a temporary solution.

"This method is often effective in the development of enterprises and ample profit margins, but now the situation is different. Enterprises should solve problems from the source, think about how to reduce personnel and simplify the process. Only when meeting the three requirements of improving efficiency, reducing costs and solving existing problems is a good way. Now, we have introduced the idea of process reengineering to promote the optimization of the whole production process and improve efficiency.

Wang Shimin said, "process reengineering" is to examine the entire operation process of enterprises at the macro level, including the convergence and scheduling between enterprises and people, people and objects, departments and departments. For example, from the reasonableness of logistics, we should minimize errors in terms of raw material procurement, production process, moving and linking of workers and components.

"International data show that logistics costs account for 30% of product cost, and logistics cost control can well expand the cost space. If these links are straightened out, the cost of production is saved, the operation speed is faster, and the efficiency of enterprises is enhanced naturally.

Wang Shimin has his own ideas about the rising cost of human resources. He argues that improving staff efficiency is not to find redundant personnel, but to make the division of labor clearer, and the functions of civilian staff and technicians can be optimized through regrouping. "Any department needs to be internally redeployed, and promoted to internal staff." He said that the increase in wages does not mean that people can be recruited. The lack of general practitioners will be a long-standing problem. Promotion of internal staff can enhance staff's enthusiasm and sense of belonging. In addition, the production line automation equipment, management information and so on are all cost saving methods. {page_break}

We need to develop new products and keep a firm foothold.

For the cost crisis, the impression of Yuan Guilin, general manager of Guangyi impression and lighting appliances, is not so obvious. In Yuan Guilin's words, "the product is unique and not afraid of no market". The impression of light art is not obvious in thousands of lighting enterprises in ancient towns, but the output of enterprises has maintained rapid growth in recent years. On the one hand, it has benefited from the company's innovative sales channels to enter the e-commerce channel in large scale, on the other hand, it benefits from the new design and new concept embodied in the products.

"Enterprises can work hard in the new channel of e-commerce, and avoid confrontation with many large enterprises in traditional channels. Of course, the most important thing is the product itself. The products sold by enterprises are not only products, but also the concept of product delivery. Therefore, we strive to develop products with unique characteristics in our efforts in new materials and new designs."

In the company of brilliance impression, every office has no door number. These factions are responsible for design, production, packaging, sales and other businesses. For such a door sign, Yuan Guilin admitted that he had something to do with his martial arts dream. Of course, this kind of corporate culture has also condensed a group of young people who have dreams and are willing to innovate to some extent.

Nowadays, there are more than 1000 kinds of products, which basically meet the needs of all kinds of consumers. The new product is launched once a month, more than 20 times a month. Many lamps and lanterns have become star products on the Internet. For example, a parabolic modeling lamp designed and produced by Yuan Guilin has sold more than 3000 pieces.

[viewpoint]

@ Fu Wenzhong (founder of Bank Joint Information Center): from the first quarter of this year, the operating conditions of small and medium-sized enterprises showed signs of deterioration. Data showed that the national economic growth in the first quarter was 9.6%, but the deficit of small and medium-sized enterprises above Designated Size in the first two months was 15.8%, an increase of 0.3% over the same period last year, and the deficit of loss making enterprises increased by 22.3% over the previous year.

@ Ba Shu song (deputy director of the Financial Research Institute of the State Council Development Research Center): the tightening of the real economy has been close to 2007.

@ Guo Shengxiang (honorary director of the Credit Research Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Australia): China's manufacturing industry must rely on external demand. China's SMEs need to rely solely on the domestic market to complete the transformation from big to strong. The first is that domestic intellectual property protection is lagging behind foreign countries. Two, the few rich people who have just grown up prefer to consume foreign brands and are unwilling to consume the habits and stubborn psychology of domestic brands. Three, capital outflow is inevitable under the condition that China's social construction is not yet complete.

@ Xu Xiao - an economist: not tight money, inflation is out of control, tight money is closed down, and unemployment is rising. Macro policy can not create wealth. After coping with the most difficult 2009 and the most complicated 2010, the macro policy has entered the most tangled 2011. Back to reform and opening up, deregulation, opening up small and medium enterprises financing, and opening up monopoly industries.

@ Dong Fang (Phoenix Satellite TV): the current round of SME crisis is completely different from that of 2008. There was no order in 2008. The current round is cost driven. The cost is greatly increased, resulting in a single dare not receive, then lose. Lack of electricity, lack of funds, and rising raw materials. If money is relaxed, the problem will only be more serious. Small and medium-sized enterprises should learn to use financial instruments to cover insurance.