三一重工：数字化“翻身仗”

This case depicts the digital transformation of SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "SANY"). It details how SANY responded to internal and external challenges (such as poor financial performance and the industry downturn) by embracing digitalization to reduce costs and improve efficiency, with a particular focus on its preparations for digitalization (informatization), comprehensive organizational transformation, and rapid progress in building lighthouse factories. Given the industry's vulnerability to cyclical fluctuations, SANY proposed a digital strategy in 2016. Over the next four-plus years, SANY made implementing digital projects a top priority, spending over ￥20 billion building lighthouse factories. By the end of 2022, it had established 31 digital factories across China. At 7:30 am on May 30, 2023, Xiang Wenbo, SANY's newly appointed rotating chairman who presided over the weekly Tuesday morning meeting, sparked a discussion on how SANY should implement its digital strategy in the future: Should SANY uphold the SANY spirit of "racing against time in pursuit of excellence" and step up investments in digitalization, or slow down its digitalization efforts and seek new ways to weather the industry downturn? It remained to be seen which path SANY would take to make a "digital breakthrough" …