The Automotive Industry Shift Within a Single Plastic Component

Written by | Ding Dang

Editor| Zhang Nan

Designed by | Li Yue

Layout | Che Bian Xiao Ling Dang

▼

Featured Person This Issue

«We hope not to miss any plastic component on a vehicle.»

On the morning of July 18, 2026, at the factory of Suzhou Wanlong Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. located in Changzhou, Jiangsu, Yin Xiaolin and Li Chao took turns stepping onto the stage of the Xuan Yuan Class Sharing Session. Both are Vice General Managers of the company, and young generation managers who returned to this established manufacturing enterprise more than two years ago.

Joking with the students of the Xuan Yuan Class Julang-Lingxuan Joint 6th Session sitting under the stage, they said this introduction was a bit like «performing crosstalk»: one talked about products, and the other continued with craftsmanship.

In the showroom next to it, the dashboard, door panels, bumpers, air vents, front hood covers, and front trunks almost assembled the outer and inner contours of a car.

They look like just plastic parts. But a dashboard must simultaneously meet requirements for safety, quietness, appearance, and touch; behind a bumper are connected injection molding, materials, coatings, environmental protection, and cost control. The development of new energy vehicles and smart cockpits is causing these traditional parts to bear more and more functions.

Products are becoming more complex, but prices are becoming harder to negotiate.

In the procurement system of OEMs, interior and exterior trim are still often regarded as mature hardware. Materials, motors, and every process step are calculated separately, compressing the supplier's pricing space. Someone on site described that even for an electric air vent, the motor and parts must be calculated item by item, and in the end, it still feels like «weighed by the weight».

This constitutes the most direct contradiction in the automotive plastic parts industry: engineering complexity keeps increasing, but the value suppliers can obtain does not necessarily grow in sync.

►

Suzhou Wanlong Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. Vice General Manager Yin Xiaolin (left), Li Chao (right), giving a sharing session in the 3rd module class of the Julang-Lingxuan Joint 6th Session.

For Yin Xiaolin and Li Chao, the real question is no longer whether Wanlong can produce more plastic parts, but whether every plastic part can be given higher value.

This is both a realistic test after the two young successors returned to the factory, and the industrial change that Chinese traditional automotive parts enterprises are undergoing. Of course, it is also the reason they invited the Xuan Yuan Class Julang-Lingxuan Joint 6th Session 3rd Module course to hold classes at their factory.

Suzhou Wanlong Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. was founded in 1981, and its predecessor was a plastic products factory, initially producing plastic components in air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines.

In the 1990s, the enterprise began entering the automotive track, and early customers mainly included commercial vehicle enterprises such as JAC and JMC. Today, the automotive business share has exceeded 90%, and products cover dashboards, door panels, center consoles, bumpers, wheel arches, air vents, handles, front hood covers, and front trunks, etc.

The customer structure also expanded from traditional automakers to joint ventures and new energy brands, including FAW, Dongfeng, Nissan, Mazda, as well as Li Auto, Zeekr, Xpeng, etc.

In order to be closer to whole vehicle customers, Wanlong has successively built production bases in Suzhou, Changchun, Hefei, Mengcheng, Wuhan, Baoji, Chongqing, Nanchang, and Changzhou, and plans to continue layout in Qingdao.

►

To be closer to whole vehicle customers, Wanlong has laid out production parks in many places in China. The picture above is the Changzhou production base of Suzhou Wanlong Automotive Parts.

This development path has distinct characteristics of the Chinese automotive industry.

During the period of high-speed growth in the automotive market, whole vehicle plants constantly expanded production, and parts enterprises followed customers into different cities. Larger injection molding equipment, more complete product lines, and more production bases often meant more orders.

Wanlong's largest injection molding equipment reaches 3200 tons, and the process has extended from single-color, dual-color injection molding to slush molding, foaming, wrapping, welding, and spraying. The goal proposed by the enterprise is very direct: do not miss any plastic part on a vehicle.

But when the automotive market shifted from incremental competition to saturation competition, "doing more" no longer naturally means "earning more".

Yin Xiaolin and Li Chao, who returned to Wanlong two years ago, took over exactly such an enterprise with manufacturing accumulation but must find its value position anew.

The plastic interior and exterior trim industry has a long-standing contradiction: the engineering complexity of products is increasing, but the value suppliers can obtain does not necessarily grow in sync.

A dashboard does not end when taken out of the injection molding machine. It also needs to be fitted with beam tubes, air vents, air ducts, and sound insulation materials, surfaces undergo wrapping and sewing, and the airbag area undergoes laser weakening to ensure it opens at the designated location during a collision.

A range extender cover is not just covering the machine. In order to reduce noise entering the cabin, a foaming layer needs to be added inside to undertake NVH noise reduction functions.

Smart cockpits also make dashboards, door panels, and air vents undertake more and more interaction, lighting, and comfort functions. The requirements of new energy vehicles for quietness, lightweighting, and environmentally friendly materials are also constantly increasing.

But whole vehicle value is concentrating more on software, chips, data, and system control. Even if traditional hardware functions become more complex, it does not mean suppliers can obtain corresponding value increments.

Hardware value is compressed, but R&D investment cannot be reduced; product prices continue to go down, but equipment, molds, and environmental investment continue to go up.

If suppliers can only prove they can produce a plastic part, it is hard to escape processing prices. The solution Wanlong gave is to move towards the front end of product development.

The company owns its own mold enterprise, cumulatively completing about 10,000 sets of large molds; the technology center has about 120 developers. After project initiation, the company can send people into the whole vehicle plant office to jointly conduct product design, mold design, and mold flow analysis with customers. At least two people are stationed for regular projects, and emergency projects may reach more than six people.

The self-owned laboratory undertakes basic inspections such as mechanics, odor, and durability, making design, molds, trial production, and verification form a relatively complete closed loop.

This means Wanlong no longer waits for the customer to submit complete drawings before starting production, but participates in structure, material, process, and cost judgment in the early stage of product design.

Song Hanming summarized the changes in the automotive industry's OEM-supplier relationship in the sharing: the traditional supply system is more like a pyramid, the OEM defines the product, and the supplier delivers according to drawings; the new cooperation model requires the OEM and supplier to plan synchronously, develop synchronously, and control quality and cost synchronously.

For Wanlong, what truly needs to be fought for is no longer just more plastic parts on cars, but the position in the definition process of every plastic part.

From "production according to drawings" to "participating in definition", this may be the first step for traditional parts suppliers to break away from "priced by weight".

Automotive interior and exterior parts have another special attribute: large volume and light weight.

This makes them typical "bulky cargo". Long-distance transportation not only requires a large amount of packaging and protection, but also occupies expensive logistics space. Even if the product itself is not heavy, transporting from China to Europe or America makes it difficult to form a reasonable cost structure.

Therefore, Wanlong adopts the method of building production bases around customers in China. The main function of out-of-province subsidiaries is to be close to whole vehicle plants, producing, delivering, and handling quality issues within a shorter radius.

►

Xuan Yuan Class visits the Su Wanlong showroom.

But when Chinese automotive brands go overseas, this localization logic also pushes parts enterprises to a more difficult choice question.

Wanlong once discussed the Slovenia project with a certain European manufacturer. The other party proposed an expected scale of about 50,000 vehicles per year, and also hoped to purchase at prices close to the Chinese market.

Li Chao's judgment was very direct: such a price is unacceptable.

If produced in China and shipped to Europe, logistics costs are too high; if a factory is built directly in Europe, labor, land, environmental protection, and operating costs are completely different. A project scale of 50,000 vehicles may not be enough to support a new factory, while customers still hope to obtain purchase prices close to the Chinese supply chain.

Large interior and exterior suppliers fall into a paradox of going overseas: products are not suitable for long-distance export, only local production; but without enough stable orders, local investment cannot be supported.

Wanlong's current thinking is relatively cautious: not building factories first and then finding customers, but waiting for stable cooperative whole vehicle plants to propose clear requirements, and using sufficient project scale as an investment fulcrum.

Yin Xiaolin and Li Chao have already gone to Europe, Thailand, Vietnam, and other places for inspection. They agree that going overseas is a long-term direction, but where to build the first overseas factory, which customer to follow, and whether to use self-built or cooperative models, currently have no answers.

For parts enterprises, true global capability may not be how many overseas addresses they have, but whether they can copy the efficiency, quality, and response speed of Chinese factories to another cost, system, and cultural environment.

If external prices cannot be changed temporarily, profits can only be found from within first.

After returning to Wanlong, Yin Xiaolin and Li Chao entered different subsidiaries separately. The two did not immediately divide who is responsible for technology and who is responsible for the market, but started learning from the complete operation process of one subsidiary first.

A subsidiary chosen by Yin Xiaolin, initially even the warehouse was in a chaotic state. He described that when he went in for the first time, he even «could not step in».

►

Yin Xiaolin discusses practical thinking on enterprise flexible production line transformation and internal management reform.

The transformation started from warehouse locations, processes, and inventory order, then introduced WMS warehouse management system. After the pilot achieved results, this method was promoted to other subsidiaries.

Bigger changes happened on the production line.

Wanlong undertakes projects with many car models and varying batches, but rarely encounters super hits that can support special equipment long-term. If every dashboard and door panel is equipped with a non-standard production line, once the sales of the model do not meet expectations, a large amount of equipment will be idled.

The two young people redesigned the connection method of flexible production lines and quick-change tooling. Products of different sizes and structures only need to change tooling costing thousands of yuan to switch on the same production line.

Yin Xiaolin proposed that instead of buying ten special lines for different products, it is better to cover more projects with fewer flexible lines. By recalculating the stress of metal structures and reducing design redundancy, the cost of introducing the whole line can be reduced by more than 20%.

According to the enterprise on-site sharing, some workshops reduced expenses of over one million yuan or even two million yuan per year thereby.

These transformations did not create a single new product, but changed the way the factory bears market fluctuations.

In an era where super hits are unpredictable and model life cycles shorten, what manufacturing enterprises truly need is not necessarily larger fixed capacity, but lower model change costs and faster adjustment capabilities.

The value of flexible manufacturing lies not only in improving efficiency but also in reducing the cost of betting on the wrong model.

Beyond technical transformation, Wanlong is also trying to change the management language of the factory.

In the workshop, there are a few slogans that are not refined:

«Management talks about processes, not «I think».»

«The more careful the work, the less arguing after-sales.»

«Management level determines inventory volume.»

«The machine tool is your own bed.»

These words were not designed by professional agencies entrusted by management, but came from frontline employees, forklift operators, and workshop directors.

A forklift operator believed that inventory volume ultimately depends on management level. If the enterprise can grasp customer needs in advance, arrange production accurately, and deliver timely after product completion, inventory can be continuously suppressed.

A workshop director compared the machine tool to his own bed: «Seeing trash on the bed, can you sleep down?»

►

Large hopper type blow molding equipment in Su Wanlong workshop, used to produce large hollow automotive plastic components such as front hood covers and front trunks.

These languages with workshop emotions were later posted on-site.

They reflect another side of young managers promoting reform: not directly pressing concepts learned overseas to the factory, but trying to transform frontline employees' understanding of problems into mutually recognized rules.

Reform was initially also met with resistance. Facing employees who have worked for many years and methods that have been running for many years, young people relying only on identity and education find it hard to convince everyone.

Until the new warehouse and production line methods indeed saved time and reduced costs, the original opposing voices gradually turned into «doing this is really convenient».

For traditional manufacturing enterprises, digitalization is not just installing a system. What is more difficult is to let everyone give up «I feel» «I think», and start working according to processes that can be tracked, verified, and copied.

Traditional spraying is another realistic pressure faced by Wanlong.

Spraying business has high value-added, environmental protection investment is also high. Large spraying lines not only have high construction costs but also need to continuously bear environmental protection equipment, consumables, and operating expenses. Due to environmental requirements, Wanlong's spraying capacity is mainly concentrated in Suzhou and has not been replicated in every out-of-province base.

The enterprise is evaluating the replacement of some traditional spray painting with PUR surface coating: after plastic parts are injection molded, a layer of coating is formed and cured on the surface to reduce material waste and emission pressure.

Before this, Wanlong had already tried glossy injection molding and paint-free materials with metal effects. By adding materials with metal effects into plastic particles, the product directly obtains an appearance close to spraying after molding.

The longer-term direction is lightweighting, plant fiber, and recycled materials.

Peers proposed on site that new fiber materials and process integration can not only reduce weight but also reduce production steps and development costs. This pushes traditional interior and exterior enterprises to a sharper question: in the future, do we rely on producing original products at lower costs, or redefine products through material innovation?

Yin Xiaolin did not avoid the gap. He frankly stated that in plant fiber, environmental materials, and interior lightweighting, Wanlong still lags behind some peers.

A new material is not as simple as changing a batch of plastic particles. It means new molds, equipment, process windows, quality verification, and customer certification. Any link requires long-term investment.

For suppliers under profit pressure, the most difficult thing is not knowing that lightweighting will definitely come, but being willing to continue betting in the situation where the return cycle cannot be determined.

Changes in a plastic part will eventually fall on changes in people.

Yin Xiaolin and Li Chao are both Wanlong's younger generation managers. Both grew up in a factory environment, later went overseas to study, and also experienced external work, entrepreneurship, and the process of selling the company. More than two years ago, they returned to Wanlong.

Li Chao studied mechanical engineering and engineering management, closer to manufacturing, equipment, and investment judgment; Yin Xiaolin studied artificial intelligence and intelligent design, emphasizing the independent optimization of production lines, tooling, and management systems.

From this sharing, Li Chao discussed process routes, equipment capabilities, and economic accounts of overseas projects more, while Yin Xiaolin was more willing to talk about warehouses, employees, and production sites.

The previous generation has formed clear division of labor: one serves as chairman, one is responsible for sales. One is in the center of corporate governance and decision-making, one is long-term at the frontline of the market and customers.

But whether the next generation will follow this structure is currently unclear.

Will the two people respectively inherit the positions of their fathers? Or based on their respective professional abilities, redivide technology, manufacturing, operations, market, and overseas businesses?

When someone asked this question on site, Yin Xiaolin jokingly said that he wished the two people could «have a quarrel» one day.

Because currently the two people's experiences and judgments are too similar. Whenever one person proposes an idea, the other person often answers: «Yes, that's how it is.»

This tacit understanding is conducive to promoting current reform but cannot replace the future governance mechanism.

►

Li Chao analyzes the realistic challenges of automotive parts going overseas difficulties and equipment process selection.

Li Chao said that their father is still young and is still guiding the two. Therefore, what Wanlong is experiencing is not a sudden position handover, but a transition period of two generations operating together.

True succession is not just changing the names of two business cards «Chairman» and «Sales Manager» to young people's names, but establishing a new decision-making structure capable of handling technical investment, overseas expansion, and different opinions.

Whether Wanlong can complete the transformation depends not only on whether there are new materials and equipment but also on whether the younger generation can turn personal tacit understanding into organizational capabilities.

Wanlong summarized the corporate mission as «Studying every piece of plastic meticulously».

In the era of rapid automotive growth, this sentence can be understood as expanding the product line: from dashboard to door panel, from interior to exterior, from large parts to functional parts.

But today, it requires a completely different explanation.

«Studying meticulously» means studying how a plastic part reduces weight, reduces spraying, and lowers emissions; means participating in structure and mold development at the design stage; means using flexible production lines to cope with unpredictable model sales; and also means when customers go overseas, they can judge where a factory should be built.

A plastic part will not actively tell the grand narrative of the automotive industry, but industry changes will ultimately fall on it.

Fewer processes, reduce weight by one gram, shorten model change once, reduce a batch of inventory, all can become new profits; a miscalculation of material route, an overseas factory lacking order support, can also consume enterprise's years of accumulation.

From home appliance plastic parts to automotive interior and exterior trim, from production according to drawings to participating in joint development, from domestic location matching to inspecting overseas factories, Wanlong's change is a slice of Chinese parts enterprise transformation.

What it faces is not a single technical problem, but changes occurring simultaneously in manufacturing efficiency, material innovation, customer relations, global layout, and generational governance.

It seems Wanlong is still studying every plastic on cars.

In fact, it is re-studying how a traditional manufacturing enterprise should survive.