340: Chapter 340 Overseas Resurgence

"To the person above, are you saying: He doesn't listen to Shen Fei's words? It seems the Transsion Africa HR manager needs to be replaced [doge]"

While netizens were discussing, Shen Fei went to inspect the smart speaker production line.

This production line was next to the Transsion panel factory, on a floor covering about 1,000 square meters.

A dozen or so automated machines were lined up, with workers adjusting the parameters.

The person in charge of the production line was Wang Hai, in his early 30s. He had worked at Foxconn for 8 years before being poached by Transsion to oversee the manufacturing of smart speakers.

"Boss, the design capacity of this production line is 2 million units per year. At full capacity, one unit rolls off the line every 40 seconds."

Wang Hai looked a bit proud; after all, before he took over, that figure was 1 minute and 30 seconds. Now, it had more than doubled.

Shen Fei nodded with satisfaction. As expected of an experienced veteran, he was reliable.

"The current yield rate is 98.5%, with a target of 99.8%. We are still in the ramp-up phase."

Shen Fei walked to the middle of the production line and picked up a smart speaker that had just come off the line. The white cylinder had a ring of LED lights on top.

It weighed 700g; it felt substantial in his hand, and the quality was excellent.

He turned it over to look at the label on the bottom: "Transsion Dan. Smart Voice Assistant."

"xiao chuan." Shen Fei called out.

The light ring on top of the speaker flashed: "I'm here."

"Play music."

A piece of soothing music flowed from the speaker. The sound quality was very clean; the bass didn't have that muffled feeling, and the treble wasn't shrill.

Shen Fei tested a few more functions: asked about the weather, set an alarm, and checked an encyclopedia. The response speed was very fast.

"How is the wake-up rate?"

"99.5% in a quiet environment, 95% in a noisy environment, and the false wake-up rate is less than one in ten thousand."

Just as Shen Fei was holding it and looking it over, Wang Hai leaned in and whispered a reminder:

"This data is 10 percentage points higher than the Xiaomi engineering prototype."

Shen Fei glanced at him. Xiaomi's AI assistant was currently still just a PowerPoint presentation, yet Wang Hai had already managed to get a sample.

"You've tested it?"

Wang Hai smiled: "We definitely have to get our hands on competitors' products to study them."

As for how he got it, Wang Hai didn't say. After all, Xiaomi used contract manufacturing, while Transsion produced its own, so the security levels were definitely different.

"According to our analysis, Xiaomi's AI assistant uses a Qualcomm chip, and the wake-up latency is about 1.2 seconds.

Our Transsion Dan uses a self-developed voice chip, and the latency is about 0.4 seconds, which is three times faster than theirs."

Shen Fei put the speaker back on the production line: "Keep optimizing. Improve the wake-up rate a bit more before the launch.

After the product hits the market, I'll give everyone a bonus."

Everyone present's eyes lit up. If the pay was good, then there were no problems.

After coming out of the production line, it was already afternoon.

The secretary checked the schedule and confirmed that the next stop was the air conditioning R&D center.

The air conditioning R&D center was in another technology park, not far from Transsion headquarters.

The car drove back from Guangming and happened to hit rush hour, so the road was slightly congested.

Shen Fei took advantage of the traffic jam to scroll through his phone and saw a video of Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu of Gree just finishing an interview.

This interview was filmed in a new Gree factory. Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu was wearing a light blue dress, looking just like her usual self.

This time, the reporter asked her: "Chairwoman Dong, what is your view on the industry entering the smart home field, and your evaluation of Transsion's livestream yesterday?"

A smile instantly appeared on Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu's face, but it was more of a slight twitch.

"The technology Shen Fei displayed yesterday was indeed quite good, but I must emphasize that making air conditioners and making mobile phones are not the same thing.

The core of an air conditioner is the compressor; it is refrigeration technology.

This technology was previously monopolized by foreign giants, but with the breakthroughs of domestic brands like Gree, we have gradually mastered the core technology. It is also very difficult for foreign giants to bypass our patents.

So what I want to express is that an air conditioner cannot be called a 'smart air conditioner' just by sticking a screen on it and installing a voice module.

Some companies think that if they have money, they can make good air conditioners, but they lack reverence for manufacturing."

Shen Fei finished watching the video and put his phone back in his pocket.

He didn't say anything, and no one else in the car said anything either.

Upon arriving at the air conditioning R&D center, this was Chen Wei's base.

This was also the base Shen Fei was most at ease with; after all, industry insiders had a consistent evaluation of him: he understood air conditioners, and understood refrigerators even better.

"Welcome, Mr. Shen."

Chen Wei led Shen Fei into the lobby of the R&D center.

The lobby displayed dozens of air conditioners: wall-mounted units, floor-standing units, and central air conditioning. Some were products from competitors, and some were Transsion's smart products.

Each unit was marked with its model and specifications.

Shen Fei walked and looked, stopping from time to time to ask a few questions, and Chen Wei gave detailed introductions.

From compressors to condensers, from evaporators to throttle valves, he answered every question about parameters and suppliers fluently.

"Boss, this is our first-generation air conditioner, with the R&D codename 'Polar Cold'."

Chen Wei pointed to a white wall-mounted unit.

"Currently, its energy efficiency ratio is even higher than the new national standard Level 1. The compressor is self-developed and uses variable-frequency dual-rotor technology, with a minimum frequency reaching 10Hz.

The mainstream products on the market have a minimum of 15Hz.

The lower the frequency, the lower the energy consumption and the lower the noise."

Chen Wei naturally saw Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu's comments. Gree did indeed have technology, but their technology depended on who it was compared with.

Ordinary second-tier companies or other first-tier companies were indeed good, but compared to Transsion, this technological prodigy, they just didn't measure up.

Shen Fei just smiled knowingly, then stood in front of the air conditioner, feeling the coolness from the vent.

"What about the cooling speed?"

Chen Wei took out his phone from his pocket, opened an app, and tapped it a few times.

"According to laboratory data, from startup to the vent, it takes only 35 seconds for the temperature to drop to 16 degrees.

Gree's fastest model takes 42 seconds; we are 7 seconds faster than them."

Shen Fei glanced at the design on the phone screen. "I'll help you a bit with this."

"The competitor said we don't understand air conditioners."

Chen Wei smiled.

"Whether we understand air conditioners or not isn't decided by words, but by the product."

"What is the situation with Gree now?"

Shen Fei knew the previous answer but didn't know the current one, so he wanted to ask.

"There hasn't been any progress recently. It's still the same as the last time; they refused, saying Gree wouldn't do contract manufacturing and that they had their own technology."

Shen Fei smiled: "Since they don't want to cooperate, then there's no need to cooperate, and we won't in the future either.

What we make ourselves will definitely be better than theirs.

We will crush them technically and steamroll them on price. After the product hits the market, the market will provide the answer."

He walked away from the large air conditioner and continued to look forward. In the showroom, there was another engineering sample, with the casing not yet painted, revealing the color of the metal.

This was another flagship model, which would use a dual-compressor solution, and the cooling and heating speeds were quite fast in the industry.

This was the Aurora series.

But just at this moment, Li Qing answered a phone call and suddenly ran to his side: "Boss, something happened abroad again!"

...

Today I collected 8, still a few short. Brothers, keep working hard!

I went out today and am still rushing to finish the draft~