People's Transportation | Embracing Reform Together, Building a Model Automotive Aftermarket Service Market — Interview with Curie Chen, President of Fuyao ARG Group-Fuyao News-福耀 ARG英文站

Profile

Curie Chen is the President of Fuyao Group, in charge of Fuyao’s global Automotive Replacement Glass (ARG) business. He joined Fuyao Group in 1989 after graduating from Beihang University with a major in Computer Management Information System. Having served as Vice President of Fuyao Group since 1994, he has devoted most of his career to overseeing the sales of Fuyao’s automotive replacement glass. Under his leadership, Fuyao Group has become a leading supplier in the global automotive replacement glass market. He also boasts extensive experience in quality system management, supply chain management, overseas operation management in China, and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business.

China ranks as the world’s largest single new vehicle market. In 2023, China further became the world’s largest automobile exporter, marking a milestone achievement. As a genuine automotive powerhouse, China has brought its vehicle manufacturing technology and quality up to international standards.

China also has the world’s largest vehicle parc with an average vehicle age of approximately 6.5 years. In contrast, the average vehicle age in North America and the EU, the second and third largest markets, stands at 10 years. This makes China’s automotive aftermarket the most dynamic and valuable market with enormous development potential for industry participants. The auto parts industry, including automotive glass manufacturers, has achieved remarkable growth over the past two decades. Beyond OEM supporting business, the market scale of automotive glass maintenance, replacement and calibration in the aftermarket has exceeded 30 billion RMB.

The booming development of China’s automotive industry has driven technological innovation and continuous manufacturing upgrading among auto parts suppliers, delivering impressive progress in automation, intelligence, electrification and lightweight technology. Adhering to the mission of “setting a benchmark for professional automotive suppliers” and “producing domestic automotive glass for Chinese consumers”, Fuyao Group has grown into the world’s largest automotive glass supplier and a leader in technological innovation, making tremendous contributions to the development of the global automotive industry. Against this backdrop, China has rapidly formed a huge automotive aftermarket, yet faces mismatched industrial development. The automotive replacement glass market is flooded with substandard and counterfeit products, posing severe threats to consumer safety.

Automotive glass is a structural safety component of vehicles. Fuyao delivers high-quality automotive glass that completes 99% of the safety guarantee, while standardized and qualified installation serves as the final critical step to ensure the safety of vehicle owners and passengers. Although Fuyao is a well-known brand at home and abroad, consumers struggle to obtain genuine Fuyao glass in the chaotic aftermarket filled with counterfeits.

Most participants across the industrial chain, including top-tier insurance companies, legitimate automotive glass manufacturers represented by Fuyao, as well as downstream wholesalers and installation stores, are facing meager profits or even losses. Such market mismatch calls for an urgent industrial transformation, covering stricter product quality supervision, digitalized supply chain management, standardized installation procedures, and a fair and compliant competitive environment. Therefore, building a healthy and efficient automotive glass aftermarket is of great necessity.

At the 2nd 2023 CARG Automotive Glass Forum held on November 18, Curie Chen, President of Fuyao ARG Group, delivered a keynote speech themed "Digitalization, Product, Service and Responsibility". He comprehensively introduced the CARG (China Automotive Replacement Glass Standard Coding System) platform and its vision of establishing standardized operation modes for the automotive aftermarket. He stated that CARG aims to formulate unified industrial standards for the automotive replacement glass sector, improve operational efficiency and digital management capabilities, and support the construction of a digital China.

As an industry leader, Fuyao Group upholds craftsmanship spirit and builds its brand image with integrity, premium products, superior quality and high-standard taste. It continuously extends the industrial chain and expands the functional boundaries of automotive glass, striving to set a benchmark for professional automotive suppliers. To explore how Fuyao safeguards consumer quality in the aftermarket, promotes digital and standardized supply chain reform, facilitates insurance industry upgrading and improves automotive glass safety regulations, and leads the industrial development, our reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Curie Chen, President of Fuyao ARG Group.

Complete the Final Mile: Standardized Glass Installation Safeguards Consumer Safety

Reporter: Fuyao is a world-renowned automotive glass manufacturer, and the CARG event serves as a professional skills competition for automotive glass installation. As one of the organizers, what is your original intention for launching this event?

Curie Chen: Our original intention is to deliver genuine Fuyao automotive glass and ensure the safe travel of vehicle owners and passengers. To achieve this goal, we must complete the full industrial chain covering 99% of supply chain procedures and the final mile of standardized installation. Fuyao manufactures top-tier products, yet premium products cannot function properly without standardized installation. It is just like painting a wall with exquisite paint on an uneven base; the paint will eventually peel off. Improper installation will lead to severe safety risks.

Standardized installation has two core requirements. First, installation and replacement must be completed by qualified professional technicians in strict accordance with official procedures. Second, qualified automotive polyurethane adhesives and auxiliary materials must be adopted. Ordinary window adhesives and professional automotive adhesives differ greatly in price (nearly 20 times gap) and performance. As high-speed moving vehicles, automobiles impose extremely strict requirements on adhesive stability. Improper installation may seem fine visually, but it will lead to severe safety hazards in collisions, such as glass detachment, airbag failure and passenger forward impact, causing serious personal injury.

Therefore, in addition to providing qualified premium automotive glass for consumers, Fuyao cooperates with Yida Daka, a professional automotive glass aftermarket service provider, to formulate unified installation service standards and technician certification systems. This guarantees the quality of the final service procedure and fully protects consumer safety.

Reporter: Currently, counterfeit and substandard products flood the automotive glass market and harm consumer interests. What measures has Fuyao taken to optimize aftermarket services? What core guarantees can genuine Fuyao glass bring to consumers?

Curie Chen: Both Chinese national standards and international regulations require automotive glass logos and marks, including manufacturer trademarks, certification numbers, production dates and batches, to be permanently printed and non-removable. This enables manufacturer identification and permanent traceability for manufacturing defect accountability.

Unscrupulous manufacturers use low-temperature removable black ink to print fake logos to evade supervision during production, circulation and warehousing. Store technicians will wipe off these fake marks with alcohol before installation, counterfeiting Fuyao or original OEM glass to defraud consumers and insurance companies for illegal profits, with some 4S stores also involved in such irregular practices.

Fuyao equips every piece of aftermarket windshield glass sold in China with a unique permanent anti-counterfeiting traceability code. The code integrates full production data, wholesale and retail sales information. Once installation is completed, technicians will lock the code on Fuyao’s cloud digital platform, making the glass non-replicable. Any identical code appearing in the market afterwards is confirmed counterfeit. Furthermore, the traceability code is bound with certified store numbers and technician IDs, forming a fully closed-loop traceable system covering the entire industrial chain.

Consumers can simply scan the QR code via WeChat to verify the authenticity of Fuyao glass. Insurance companies can trace corresponding stores, technicians and suppliers through claim record codes to clarify product and service liabilities without omission. It is impractical for insurance companies to verify tens of thousands of auto parts across over 4,000 vehicle models manually. Fuyao Group provides lifelong quality accountability for any manufacturing defects of genuine Fuyao glass.

Due to insufficient professional knowledge of automotive glass, consumers tend to blindly rely on original OEM parts, creating opportunities for counterfeit manufacturers. By consistently delivering high-quality products, Fuyao aims to build reliable brand trust across the entire market.

With over 30 years of extensive OEM supporting experience and strong manufacturing capabilities, Fuyao provides aftermarket glass products with the same quality standards as original OEM parts. It adopts unified management systems for raw material procurement, production technology, manufacturing equipment, process control and quality inspection for both OEM and aftermarket supplies. Fuyao commits to manufacturing every piece of glass with rigorous standards. Cooperating with Yida Daka, it promotes standardized, normalized and digitalized installation and store management, ensuring travel safety for consumers and effective risk control for insurance companies.

Fuyao’s aftermarket automotive glass implements a one-item-one-code anti-counterfeiting traceability system, enabling permanent traceability throughout production, circulation and installation. Fuyao takes lifelong responsibility for product manufacturing defects, completely curbing counterfeit and substandard glass products.

Promote Supply Chain Digitalization & Standardization to Reduce Costs and Improve Efficiency

Reporter: What measures has Fuyao taken to promote the digitalization and standardization of the automotive glass supply chain?

Curie Chen: First of all, CARG serves as the unique identity system for China’s automotive replacement glass industry. Integrating Fuyao’s product and technology data accumulated over 30 years, the CARG system creates an exclusive digital ID for every piece of automotive glass covering all mainstream vehicle models in China. It realizes full closed-loop supply chain management from product development, BOM management, production tracking and inventory control to store distribution. As the foundation of digital management for China’s automotive glass industry, CARG also supports digital claim settlement for insurance companies. Unlike 4S stores with isolated manufacturer data barriers, CARG provides a one-stop comprehensive data platform for the entire industry.

Secondly, CARG acts as a global unified identity system for automotive glass. Fuyao has interconnected Chinese coding standards with U.S. and European coding systems, covering glass specifications for over 80% of vehicles in the global vehicle parc. As a one-of-a-kind platform in the global automotive aftermarket, CARG has become the core standard for global automotive glass supply chain and installation services. No platform or enterprise can claim global coverage without accessing the CARG system.

Thirdly, before installation, each CARG code simplifies supply chain circulation without requiring excessive manual verification, greatly improving operational efficiency. During installation, the system connects service stores, TPA call centers and vehicle information accurately. It stores comprehensive data including vehicle images, glass dimensions, colors, installation positions and functional accessories. Consumers only need to provide basic vehicle information to confirm the exact required glass with an accuracy rate exceeding 97%, shortening service waiting time and reducing implicit losses caused by misidentification, repeated delivery, reinstallation, recalibration and re-compensation. Fuyao is also advancing AI application, and vehicle and glass scanning identification will be realized in the near future.

Fourthly, accurate and efficient product identification reduces overall operational costs, especially for insurance companies. Previously, insurance companies had to maintain massive databases of tens of thousands of auto parts and deploy nationwide survey teams for repeated verification, which easily caused judgment errors, improper claim settlement and insurance fraud. Now, the full-brand and full-model CARG database enables intelligent and efficient product identification. Every aftermarket Fuyao glass is equipped with an exclusive CARG code to eliminate insurance fraud. With professional third-party TPA institutions undertaking survey, damage assessment, maintenance and claim settlement work, insurance companies’ operational costs are greatly reduced.

Finally, unified CARG coding and systematic digital platforms realize standardized, transparent and efficient product pricing. One code corresponds to one product and one standard price. In the past, stores needed to send texts and photos to distributors for quotation, leading to time-consuming communication and customer loss. Now, merchants can obtain standard prices instantly with only a CARG code. Previously, insurance companies had to inquire prices from tens of thousands of service providers nationwide due to inconsistent coding standards. Based on CARG system, our partner Yida Daka has formulated unified national service prices and realized instant systematic quotation. This mature model has been applied in North America for 70 years, and Fuyao is continuously promoting its popularization and upgrading in China.

In short, the CARG coding system serves as the fundamental infrastructure of the automotive glass supply chain. Fuyao promotes the popularization of CARG among industrial partners including insurance companies, distributors, service stores and peer enterprises, helping the entire industry improve digital management efficiency and achieve iterative progress.

Reporter: This year’s automotive glass skills competition has added ADAS calibration to official evaluation criteria for the first time, while most ordinary vehicle owners are unfamiliar with this procedure. What is the significance of this innovative competition rule?

Curie Chen: Over 70% of newly launched vehicles this year are equipped with front-facing cameras and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). It is estimated that almost all new vehicles will be equipped with ADAS functions in the next 5 to 10 years.

ADAS is the foundational technology for fully autonomous driving. Common functions such as forward collision warning, lane keeping assist and lane departure warning rely on front windshield cameras to collect external road information for vehicle computer analysis and risk alert. This requires the windshield to ensure zero signal attenuation and distortion, avoiding misjudgment by the vehicle control system.

This puts forward stricter requirements for glass manufacturers and installation technicians. On the one hand, manufacturers must have OEM-level manufacturing capabilities. The float glass formula, surface profile and optical performance must meet ADAS design standards, and factory-fitted camera brackets must ensure accurate installation. On the other hand, camera disassembly and reinstallation during glass replacement will change the original benchmark parameters. ADAS calibration is therefore mandatory, just like zeroing an electronic scale. Without calibration, the system may display a 50-meter obstacle distance while the actual distance is only 10 meters, leading to delayed braking and traffic accidents. Uncalibrated ADAS systems are a potential safety hazard for vehicle owners.

With the maturity of ADAS technology, supporting traffic regulations, insurance policies, as well as vehicle and parts manufacturing & maintenance standards require continuous revision and upgrading.

In mature European and American aftermarket markets, insurance companies fully mandate ADAS recalibration after windshield replacement with standardized compensation fees of 150 to 250 US dollars per time. Insurance liability covers not only product replacement, but also professional standardized services to restore vehicles to factory conditions. Insurance companies bear primary legal responsibility for vehicle post-maintenance safety.

After China’s 2020 auto insurance reform, glass insurance was incorporated into vehicle damage insurance, making insurance companies fully liable for glass-related claims. However, most domestic insurance companies have not recognized the critical correlation between glass replacement and ADAS calibration, nor the corresponding legal liabilities. ADAS calibration costs are not included in standard claim items, leaving hundreds of millions of vehicle owners facing potential safety risks. Through the national CARG skills competition, Fuyao calls for industrial attention to incorporate ADAS calibration into standard insurance claims, promote full equipment deployment and capability improvement among service stores, and consolidate the final safety barrier for consumers.

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Reporter: The CARG event includes not only glass installation, repair and ADAS calibration competitions, but also industrial forums and supply chain exhibitions. Participants cover glass dealers, service stores, insurance companies, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers. What core concept do you intend to convey to the market through this event?

Curie Chen: The industrial pain points we discussed require standardized and digitalized transformation, which is an irreversible industrial trend that greatly improves supply chain efficiency. Such transformation cannot be achieved by a single party, but requires joint efforts and social responsibility commitment from all industrial participants. The CARG event builds a high-quality communication and exhibition platform to showcase Fuyao’s long-term efforts and enhance mutual understanding among stakeholders. It also helps the public recognize that consumer safety relies on qualified glass manufacturers, professional installers, standardized auxiliary material and equipment suppliers, as well as proper guidance from insurance companies and vehicle manufacturers.

Held biennially, the CARG event has grown from exploratory attempts to mature operation, gaining wide recognition across the industry and terminal market. This year’s participants include thousands of national dealers and technicians, Fortune 500 material and equipment suppliers, overseas partners, international professional automotive glass service providers, as well as insurance companies covering over 80% of China’s auto insurance market and mainstream vehicle manufacturers. The event strengthens our confidence in industrial reform, promotes the exchange of advanced domestic and international concepts, models and technologies, and accelerates domestic industrial innovation and upgrading.

I firmly believe that the automotive glass industry will embrace a brighter future, and I am fully confident about its development!

Reprinted from People’s Transportation Network