Abstract: With the rapid development of Internet technology, wire harnesses have also developed more important functions of analog and digital signal transmission and system module control with the development of Internet technology, multimedia technology and various intelligent systems. It plays the functional role of "blood vessels" and "nerves". At present, there are many wire harness manufacturers in China, and the industrial scale accounts for nearly one-third of the global total. However, it seems that it is still unable to make a big but not strong situation. How to improve the competitiveness of China's wire harness cable industry is the focus of this paper. ......

Connection and separation of power signals or data signals are generally required between various types of electrical equipment and equipment and between functional modules within the equipment. Between the connector and the device, between the connector and the connector, it is often connected by a cable. The wire harness (also referred to as a cable assembly, a cable harness) refers to a certain end of the connector and the cable. The connection method and the protection method are directly integrated as a detachable connection device. Its function is to directly realize the connection and separation of current and data signals between the device and the device and between the functional modules inside the device.

At present, the main application areas of wire harness products include: automotive, industrial automation equipment, medical equipment such as medical finance, rail transit, communication equipment, consumer electronics, household appliances and military. According to industry statistics in 2016, automotive wiring harnesses are still the largest use. In the field, the proportion accounted for 25.6%; the second was consumer wire harnesses, accounting for 17.3%; the wiring harness for communication equipment accounted for 15.2%; the wire harness for commercial equipment such as medical finance accounted for 5.3%.

I. Analysis of the development of the global wire harness cable industry

The wire harness industry has developed for nearly 100 years. The products were first applied in the field of military products and industrial equipment. Through continuous technological advancement and continuous market expansion, the current industry applications have extended to various fields of the national economy, such as automobiles, consumer electronics, and industry. The market is at a relatively mature stage, such as automation equipment and medical equipment such as medical finance. At present, the global market is divided into three camps. Europe, the United States and the Korean manufacturers are in the first echelon. They are the leaders in the global market. The European, American and Japanese and Korean companies have the right to formulate the standards for the wire harness industry. The technical strength is huge and the scale is huge. Dividing the application market with a large market share, such as aerospace, military, automotive, industrial automation and other fields have strong advantages; followed by Taiwanese manufacturers in the second camp, Taiwan enterprises have advanced management experience, technology The level is higher and the brand management ability is stronger; once again, it is the third echelon represented by Chinese mainland manufacturers. Although the mainland manufacturers started late, they still have the advantages that other countries can't match. First, they rely on the mainland market. China's wire harness industry has rapidly become the world's largest wire harness market with the rapid development of markets such as automobiles, consumer electronics, and industrial automation. Second, it has the advantage of labor cost and has ample labor force. The per capita wage is superior to that of developed countries. The supporting industry is perfect, and the domestic resources necessary for the development of the industry, whether it is Materials, intermediate products required for various manufacturing or production equipment, technical support. It is precisely because of the above factors that the major wire harness manufacturers in the world are setting up factories in mainland China to carry out nearby supporting and localization services. In the future, with the improvement of China's wire harness manufacturers in terms of technology research and development capabilities, management capabilities, etc., it is foreseeable that the voice of the global market will be further increased, thereby gradually improving competitiveness. According to statistics, the global wire harness market in 2016 was approximately US$120.8 billion, up 4.2% year-on-year. According to forecasts, the global wire harness market reached US$143.3 billion in 2021, with an average annual compound growth rate of 3.32%. In 2016, China's wire harness market reached 265.3 billion yuan, accounting for 33,80% of the world. It is the world's largest wire harness production base, as shown in Figure 1.

Second, the development of China's wire harness cable industry

Analysis of the development of China's wire harness industry can be traced back to the 1940s, mainly used in the military and aerospace fields. The development of the industry has benefited from the transfer of the world's wire harness cable manufacturing and manufacturing center. Since the reform and opening up, thanks to the domestic labor cost and resource advantages, China has rapidly become the new wire harness production base in the world, and the wire harness manufacturers in Europe, America and Japan have been The establishment of the factory has promoted the rapid development of the domestic wire harness industry. From the perspective of the overall market demand, China's market demand for wire harnesses and demand categories are also increasing year by year. On the one hand, it is the growth of high-end equipment manufacturing industries such as downstream industrial automation and automobile industry. On the other hand, China is increasingly becoming the world. The manufacturing base, wire harnesses as the upstream supporting products of many industries such as consumer electronics, automobiles, rail transit and military machinery and equipment, the market demand has grown steadily. The scale and variety of China's wire harness product market demand is also increasing year by year. The technologies of communication equipment, consumer electronics, automotive, industrial automation and medical care are constantly upgrading and the scale is growing rapidly, thus continuously promoting the development of the wire harness market. According to statistics, the size of China's wire harness market reached 265.3 billion yuan in 2016, an increase of 7.73% compared with 2015. The compound wire growth rate of China's wire harness market in the five years from 2012 to 2016 reached 6.52%, exceeding the global market by 3.90%. Growth level. According to forecasts, the size of China's wire harness market will reach 387.8 billion yuan in 2021, accounting for 39.81% of the global market share, and the compound annual growth rate will reach 6.24%, as shown in Figure 2.

1 The global market is weak in competitiveness, and technological advancement still needs to work hard.

China's wire harness industry is still in the development stage. Only a few wire harness varieties can reach the level that the international market can accept and participate in competition. Most wire harness varieties are in urgent need of development, improvement level and grade. At present, there are thousands of wire harness manufacturers in China, which are completely competitive markets. There are no monopoly enterprises in China, and the manufacturing level and scale of wire harness manufacturers in China are quite different. There is a lack of internationally renowned brands and competitiveness in the global market. Weak, there is a big gap between technology development and foreign countries.

2 Insufficient investment in the industry's overall R&D

China has formed a refined wire harness industry chain, which can provide a complete industrial supporting service. The production of general-purpose products with low added value requires only a small amount of investment, which greatly reduces the industry threshold. At the same time, the low-end, low-end and low-end features of the low-end and mid-range products have driven SMEs to be more willing to follow the imitation of product development. Less investment in R&D and lack of core technology make most companies less competitive in the market, resulting in overcapacity of hot-selling products in the low-end market and homogenization competition among enterprises, hindering the pace of innovation and healthy development of the industry. With the continuous increase of new entrants, the competition in the low-end market is more intense, leading to a decline in the profit level of the low-end wire harness market.

3 The rising labor costs and the level of automation need to be improved

The wire harness industry is labor-intensive. Many processes in the production process rely on manual operation, and the degree of production automation is low. In recent years, domestic product lines have been upgraded slowly. Most wire harness products are concentrated in the low-end and the added value of products cannot be effectively improved. Under the circumstances, the per capita annual increase in per capita wages has had a greater impact on the profits of enterprises, which has caused a large number of small enterprises to be in trouble. To resolve this contradiction, it is necessary to increase investment in research and development, increase product technical content, increase product value, or The introduction of automation equipment, to achieve "machine substitution", reduce production costs, improve production efficiency, in order to enhance the market competitiveness of the company's products.