In October 2025, Dazhong.com, in collaboration with Qingzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology and Qingzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration, launched the column "Government-Enterprise Synergy: A Tour of Qingzhou’s SME Development". This column highlights the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as the "capillaries" of urban economy — and Qingzhou Jianfu Gear Co., Ltd. stands out as one of the most representative cases. Today, this national "Little Giant" enterprise (specializing in specialized, refined, characteristic, and innovative sectors) covers 200 mu (about 13.33 hectares) and serves leading automakers like Sinotruk, FAW, and Dongfeng Motor. However, three decades ago, it was just a small gear workshop of less than 100 square meters in rural Qingzhou in 1996. Zhang Jianfu, the leader who led its transformation, has written a growth legend in China’s gear manufacturing industry with the philosophy of "people-oriented, technology-driven development".​

Stepping into Jianfu Gear’s factory in Qingzhou Economic Development Zone, the neat industrial scene is composed of light gray workshops and blue glass curtain walls: the main roads are free of debris, and the green belt vegetation is neatly trimmed. Inside the production workshop, steel billets and semi-finished products are stacked by category, with clear signs marking their specifications — even the driving tracks of forklifts are perfectly regular. On the roaring production lines, steel billets are precisely processed into spiral bevel gears for automobile axles. These core components, known as "industrial teeth", not only support the competitiveness of China’s heavy-duty truck transmission systems but also become "strategic supplier" products for leading automakers such as Sinotruk, FAW, and Dongfeng Motor.​

Zhang Jianfu’s "craftsmanship" genes were planted in his youth. "My biggest dream as a child was to be a carpenter," he recalled his days in rural Qingzhou. "Back then, every family in the village would invite carpenters to make furniture for weddings. The tables and chairs they made could be passed down for three generations. My master said, ‘Mortise and tenon joints must fit perfectly, and you must choose durable wood’ — I’ve remembered these words all my life." To realize his carpenter dream, he specially enrolled in a carpentry class, and never gave up even when his fingers were calloused from planing wood and chiseling mortises. At the age of 18, an opportunity to work in a township enterprise changed his path: "The monthly salary was over 20 yuan, which was more stable than being a carpenter, so I went." Having never been exposed to machinery before, he studied machine tool operation with the "earnestness" of a carpenter — while others processed 10 parts a day, he could process 15 with higher precision by adjusting the tool angle and optimizing steps. Later, his elder brother invited him to teach apprentices in an auto repair shop with a monthly salary of 500 yuan (equivalent to half a year’s income of an ordinary worker at that time). During these three years, he not only taught skills but also traveled around the market to understand the gear industry: "At that time, the quality of domestic heavy-duty truck gears was uneven. I thought, only by making gears as durable as the furniture made by old carpenters could the business last." In 1996, he rented a storefront with his savings, and the prototype of Jianfu Gear was born.​

The real "breakthrough" for the enterprise came from his inspection tour in Germany in 2015. At that time, Jianfu Gear had a certain scale but still used the traditional "five-operation method" for production — five sets of equipment were needed to process one set of gears, resulting in low efficiency and poor precision. The only way to compete was to lower prices. "Domestic peers were all pursuing ‘low-margin, high-volume’; the more we competed, the thinner the profits became. It would be hard to survive even ten years, let alone a century." To find a breakthrough, Zhang led a team to visit Krebold GmbH, a world-leading gear equipment manufacturer in Germany: "A set of their CNC equipment cost 10 million yuan, and we had to wait 18 months for delivery; domestic similar equipment only cost 1 million yuan, and we could even buy it on credit." However, the scene in the German factory shocked him: one six-axis CNC machine tool was as efficient as five sets of domestic equipment, the gear precision reached the micron level (with global exemption from inspection), and this enterprise had been in existence for nearly a century — even the old equipment from the last century was still operating efficiently. "I couldn’t sleep that night in the hotel; my mind was full of ‘the gap’ — German enterprises can last a century not because of low prices, but because of high-quality products."​

After returning to China, he made a "all-in" decision: mortgage the factory, take out a loan of 80 million yuan, introduce world-class equipment from Oerlikon, Gleason, etc., and eliminate all outdated production lines. Shareholders opposed it, and employees questioned: "Are you crazy? What if we fail?" But he was firm: "To build a century-old enterprise, we must have the courage to ‘slow down’ and focus on high-quality products." He personally supervised the equipment installation and lived in the workshop for half a month. When the first set of CNC-processed gears rolled off the production line — with double precision and three times higher efficiency — everyone was convinced. Since then, the slogan "low-margin, high-volume" at the factory gate was replaced with "Jianfu Quality, Driving the World" — this became the original aspiration of the enterprise.​

After the transformation, Jianfu Gear ushered in explosive growth: its revenue exceeded 100 million yuan in 2016 and reached 720 million yuan in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of over 50%. Its market share in China’s medium-duty truck gear market exceeded 60%. What supports the enterprise to go further is the warmth of its "people-oriented" philosophy. In the workshop, there are nearly 30 "father-son" or "father-daughter" pairs working together, and even "three-generation Jianfu people" — Lao Wang, who joined in 2000, is the technical team leader of the metalworking workshop; last year, he brought his newly graduated son to learn CNC technology. Some employees worked from the establishment of the factory until retirement, and then sent their grandchildren to learn skills here. This trust comes from "family-like care": drinking water and first-aid kits are always available in the workshop; heat treatment workshops are equipped with cooling systems; in summer, employees receive Huoxiang Zhengqi Water (a traditional Chinese medicine for heatstroke) and iced watermelons. The core technical team has been stable for more than 20 years, with an employee turnover rate of less than 5%. Last year, when the new energy project was in a rush to meet the deadline, workers volunteered to work overtime without mentioning overtime pay: "Mr. Zhang wants to build a century-old enterprise, and we also want to work here until retirement." He is equally sincere to customers and suppliers: emergency orders are delivered 24/7 through shift work, and suppliers’ payments are settled within the month without delay.​

Today, Zhang Jianfu’s focus has turned to the new energy track — on the west side of the factory, the "annual output of 1 million sets of new energy vehicle gears" project has been put into small-batch production. Advanced equipment such as Reishauer (Switzerland) and Hofler (Germany) are in operation; the gear precision reaches within Grade 5, and the noise is 3 decibels lower than the industry standard. The products have been supplied to enterprises such as Geely and Shenxiang Technology, and there are plans to cooperate with Scania (Sweden) and Volvo. At the same time, the enterprise is promoting intelligent upgrading: the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) will be launched soon to monitor the entire production process; intelligent sensors have been installed in the workshop to warn of faults; industrial robots are planned to be introduced in the future. "To build a century-old enterprise, we cannot stick to the old ways," he said, pointing to the old locust tree he planted when the factory was founded. "A tree can only grow tall if its roots are deep; an enterprise can only withstand hardships if it deeply roots the concepts of ‘people-oriented’ and ‘technology-driven’."​

From a rural boy with a carpenter dream to the "Gear King", Zhang Jianfu has always remembered over the past 35 years: "Running an enterprise is like making gears — it requires precise engagement and, more importantly, warmth; building a century-old enterprise is like planting a locust tree — it requires patience with time and, more importantly, growth with the times." The eight-character philosophy of "people-oriented, technology-driven development" is exactly the core code of Jianfu Gear’s journey from "small workshop" to "century-old dream", and it also writes a warm footnote for the long-term development of SMEs in China’s manufacturing industry.​

📩 Contact: harry@jianfugear.com​

🌐 Website: www.jianfugear.com​