Dongfeng Motor Embarks on a Digital Odyssey, Converging Management and Innovation to Forge New Productivity

In a time where the digital economy has become the new norm, the convergence of cutting-edge information technology and the real economy presents both unprecedented opportunities and formidable challenges to the automotive sector. In response, Dongfeng developed the strategy it called Riding the Wave of Technological Evolution, capitalizing on the transformative power of technological advancements and industrial metamorphosis.

By placing customers at the forefront of its digital transformation, Dongfeng aimed to overcome the complexities inherent in the process and prove itself as a world-class organization. To achieve its ambitious goal of building an excellent and world-class Dongfeng, the company diligently executed its digital strategy, which encompasses several key objectives: elevating value creation, fostering collaborative platforms, redefining corporate culture, and innovating business models. Through this transformative journey, Dongfeng sought to revamp its operational and commercial frameworks, while driving high-impact innovation throughout the process.

Start: Transcending fragmentation, unlocking intensive growth, and amplifying foundational capabilities

During its digital transformation odyssey, Dongfeng encountered numerous challenges. One of the primary hurdles was the construction of its infrastructure. With over 40 data centers dispersed across its lower-tier units, Dongfeng faced issues related to high energy consumption, cumbersome management, redundant construction, and subpar ROI. Furthermore, its service application systems operated under a siloed development paradigm, resulting in duplicated investments, delayed system iterations, and restricted data circulation and utilization. Lastly, the company's security system was vulnerable, posing significant security risks.

As a leading state-owned enterprise, Dongfeng embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation journey under the guidance of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council's 1+N+M cloud policy. To achieve its strategic goal, Dongfeng developed a framework dubbed one platform, two journeys, and three streams. At the core of this initiative was Dongfeng's cloud platform (one platform), which leverages a unified data middle-end to deliver an array of cloud services spanning seven distinct service domains. As part of its digital transformation efforts, Dongfeng concurrently transformed the customer experience of purchasing vehicles and its own product research and development processes (two journeys). These parallel endeavors aimed to harmonize the application, data, and system streams (three streams), ultimately driving business success.

At the beginning of 2023, Dongfeng unveiled Dongfeng Cloud 2.0, a cutting-edge solution built upon Huawei Cloud Stack. This innovative platform enables the company's primary data centers to operate within a robust two-site, three-center model, situated in Wuhan and Shiyan cities. By establishing a solid cloud foundation, Dongfeng has initiated a transformative journey marked by continuous innovation and improvement. At the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) level, the company has fortified its capabilities in ICT infrastructure, including computing, storage, and networking. Moreover, Dongfeng has created resource pools with tailored specifications to cater to diverse tenant requirements. At the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) layer, Dongfeng has enriched its service offerings, developing over 30 services like databases, toolchains, and middleware. This expansion has enhanced the company's cloud-based products and services, thereby bolstering its competitive edge.

Through centralized procurement, unified resource management, and optimized capacity allocation, Dongfeng has achieved significant reductions in costs and improvements in operational efficiency. Furthermore, Dongfeng's adoption of on-demand rolling investments has enabled precision-driven development aligned with business needs, resulting in substantial gains in investment efficiency. This strategic approach unequivocally demonstrates Dongfeng's commitment to sustainable development through digital transformation.

Grow: Unleashing the full potential of cloud migration, where innovation and efficiency converge to deliver unparalleled value

Full-scale cloud implementation has brought tangible benefits to Dongfeng, manifesting the value of cloud migration in a most pronounced manner. During this period, Dongfeng's level-2 units successfully migrated their service applications to the cloud, thereby enabling on-demand resource utilization. This strategic move significantly accelerated the service procurement process and substantially reduced resource usage costs. Furthermore, diversified cloud services have proven effective in addressing different service scenarios, providing a robust foundation for future service innovation and development.

To ensure the safety and reliability of cloud applications, Dongfeng established remote disaster recovery (DR) centers for the cloud base. This triple-layered security architecture guarantees the integrity and dependability of cloud applications. In 2023, Dongfeng unveiled its cloud migration plan, which provided all necessary resources and services for the application migration and convergence of Dongfeng's proprietary passenger vehicle business and organizational transformation.

For instance, Lantu, a rising star in Dongfeng's new energy vehicle strategy, has been able to focus on researching new technologies, implementing innovative business models, and enhancing overall business performance thanks to the cloud base. Dongfeng collaborated with Huawei to develop a cloud operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) system, establishing comprehensive cloud-based OAM processes and standards that can serve as a benchmark for other state-owned enterprises.

The system enables lifecycle closed-loop management of investment, development, product release, resource usage metering and charging, and financial settlement, creating a viable and reliable business model for the healthy and sustainable operations of the cloud base. Moreover, Dongfeng has developed a series of processes for products, resources, capacity, and customer services on the cloud platform, ensuring efficient and orderly service migration. These processes enable Dongfeng to deliver 'five-star' services, enhance customer satisfaction, and implement flexible policies to achieve a win-win situation between the group and its subsidiary units.

Explore: Upgrading applications to drive value-based integration

As a pioneer in exploring digital transformation, Dongfeng is dedicated to charting a course that maximizes business value across diverse scenarios. Guided by meticulous research into industry best practices and peer experiences, Dongfeng's executives emphasize that "digitalization must be grounded in business value, or it risks failure." With this vision in mind, the company is poised to enter a new development phase, requiring a robust corporate architecture that seamlessly integrates businesses, applications, data, and technology.

Drawing inspiration from Huawei's cutting-edge enterprise architecture, management processes, and regulatory frameworks, Dongfeng has leveraged Huawei Cloud's CodeArts tool chain platform to establish a solid foundation for its core domains, including manufacturing, marketing, and R&D. This strategic move enables Dongfeng to streamline its applications, data, and systems, aligning with its overarching goal of achieving operational efficiency.

Recognizing data as its most valuable asset, Dongfeng has developed a comprehensive data management system that encompasses digital resource management, data standard formulation, data middle-end development, and data convergence. To date, the company has successfully integrated over 200,000 data tables, established a data resource baseline, and created a data resource catalog tailored to its specific service requirements. The data middle-end boasts 3 large platforms and 14 modules, offering 51 capabilities across 15 categories. Furthermore, it provides industry-leading lifecycle data management, spanning integration, development, administration, application, and services.

In terms of data standards, Dongfeng has developed a comprehensive indicator system that encompasses 800 metrics across 14 core areas, including marketing, finance, and human resources. This unified framework ensures consistent data definitions and rules, facilitating cross-departmental data convergence throughout the organization. By promoting the review of data standards and specifications, Dongfeng has successfully integrated data related to vehicle models, organizations, banks, and suppliers. Ultimately, this synergy between applications and data serves as the foundation for Dongfeng to explore new productivity in the digital economy era.

Lead: Focusing on the horizon and pushing the boundaries of innovation through AI

As a trailblazer in the automotive industry, Dongfeng is committed to harnessing the potential of AI to drive transformative change. With a decade-long focus on automobile intelligence, Dongfeng has developed a comprehensive end-to-end solution that encompasses research & development, production, manufacturing, testing, user experience, and the commercialization of intelligent driving products. Recognizing the popularity and utility of AI foundation models, Dongfeng is proactively exploring intelligent computing capabilities, AI foundation model applications, and relevant business scenarios. In the realm of commercial vehicles, Dongfeng collaborates with multiple logistics companies and ports within and beyond China to deploy intelligent driving showcases. Its 'Infinite Star' 5G unmanned container truck logistics solution has already been successfully commercialized.

To enhance its research and development, Dongfeng has established a unified high-performance computing (HPC) simulation design platform. It enables unified management and dynamic scheduling of HPC resources, resulting in a 100% improvement in HPC efficiency and over 40% increase in resource utilization. Driven by the demands of intelligent automobiles, the intelligent automobile cloud is accelerating the development of intelligent automobile services and integrating data from various vehicle models to create a corporate-level intelligent automobile service middle-end. This middle-end, consisting of the vehicle, platform, service, and ecosystem layers, enables Dongfeng to provide customers with sustainable, secure, efficient, and delightful intelligent travel experiences across all scenarios. Within the intelligent automobile cloud, Dongfeng has deployed the connected automobile platform, which supports autonomous operations and has already covered over 400,000 vehicles.

Summary

Since the launch of Dongfeng Cloud 2.0, Dongfeng has undertaken its digital transformation at a rapid pace. It has been driven by the comprehensive promotion of application modernization across various sectors, including research and development, manufacturing, and marketing. Guided by its strategic vision of Riding the Wave of Technological Evolution, Dongfeng remains committed to its business-driven approach, embracing industry best practices as benchmarks for success. By leveraging its unique business context, Dongfeng continues to modernize its service applications, while proactively exploring innovative opportunities in the realm of AI. Through its collaboration with Huawei, Dongfeng is navigating its digital transformation with confidence, ultimately unlocking new productivity in the digital age.