Homa greets 2023, its 20th year of production, with a spectacular evolution in products and manufacturing!Since 2003, the year that Homa kicked o production as a global OEM/OBM manufacturer of cooling appliances,we have been through a series of impressive growth milestones.
Within two years of the start, production hit 1 million units, and by 2009, we were no.1 exporter to the EU and globally.
2012 saw production reach 5M units and by 2015 this had doubled to 10M units.
2019 brought the 10th consecutive win on exportation, while in 2021 construction began of an extensive new NO-FROST DISTRICT as part of Homa’s factory complex, a project that is near to completion in spring 2023. Throughout this growth, the core of Homa’s business has always been a close understanding of our B2B partners. The products we make for them embody their personalities and make their brands zing with life.
Taking a cue from Federico Rebaudo, our GM at Homa Europe, boasting over 25 years of hands-on international experience in corporate strategy, marketing and product development: “Today more than ever, companies know that they must place the customer experience at the centre of the products they design and market. Today’s consumers want stylish cooling products that optimise food preservation and storage, rather than just a box to keep food cold. They are also looking for appliances that are respectful of our planet”.
We at Homa rise to meet these needs of our partners and their customers througha focus on constant and innovative Research and Development to deliver beautifully designed and engineered original authentic products, all based around high energy efficiency standards and overall sustainability. And now we have also achieved true ODM status and are offering client brands our own take on the industry’s state-of-the-art.
In all these ways, to be even more precise, borrowing words from our CEO, Michael Yao “We build value for our partners, encapsulating all this focus and e ort in our corporate tag line: We take care of your dreams”.
Our footprint and R&D focus
Our nine factories in Nantou have a footprint of around 600,000 sqm, plus the 70,000 sqm of the soon-to- be finished NO-FROST DISTRICT. There are 10,000+ staff, 13 production lines and 130+ product platforms, covering top mount, upright, combi, table-top, no frost and multi-door refrigerators plus chest freezers, with two plants producing components and CKD. Production capacity is 50,000+ units per day and 15M+ units for 2023.
Our R&D team comprises over 200 skilled professionals in fields such as mechanical and electrical engineering, mechatronics, and computer science, just to name a few. This incredibly efficient team is led by Simon Wu, Homa's founder and Senior VP, has not only developed over 150 cooling platforms for the global market but has also pioneered patent-owned innovative industrial designs and cutting-edge cooling technology. They spearhead our relentless drive for innovation, working hand in hand with a network of esteemed universities, research institutes, and global partners, tapping into the finest global technologies and practices.
While continuing to seek incessantly for advanced technologies to improve people’s daily lives, it is also our heart- felt belief that our R&D objective is no longer simply meeting technical specifications, but also satisfying consumers’ expectations of the new trends around emotions, status and eating and shopping habits, as well as their concerns for the environment. Our close relationships with our B2B partners enable us to develop a deep understanding of these trends and others as they develop.
New solutions
And it is these collaborations with our B2B partners, as well as with suppliers, technical partners, and University research organisations, that also help us gain a unique understanding of which technologies are significant and when they are mature enough to be most effectively used and become mainstream.This is the case with No-Frost.
No- Frost is substantially about having air constantly owing around the cavity, managing humidity, and preventing the formation of frost while at the same time ensuring even temperature levels throughout the appliance. This way, food lasts longer and in fresher conditions. We did not invent it, andit has been around for a while, but it has come a long way and is now ready for us to take it to the next level and systematically feature it across our entire range of products.
Hence, our new NO-FROST manufacturing DISTRICT.
We have also found a way to offset potential energy consumption increase due to No-Frost with our AI inverter technologyTM, applied to the compressor system of our refrigerators. Additionally, this technology helps avoid temperature fluctuations, maintaining a precise temperature inside the cavity, resulting in further energy savings and better preservation of food.
Leading our other outstanding recent innovations is the proprietary MultiClimate SystemTM , by which different levels of temperature and humidity are achieved to preserve different foods in conditions that are best adapted to them and as close as possible to their natural environment. Other innovations are the “converter box” in the refrigerator cavity that can reach temperatures below 0°C, more choice in organising the internal spaces, and new intuitive, precise user interface solutions.
With the timely introduction of leading-edge technology that can be immediately scaled to any dimension, we are offering our clients a key competitive advantage. A claim we can sustain because in our industry, size does matter, and our being specialised in cooling and at the same time having such a large production footprint further boosts our relative scale, and edge, over generalist players, and offers our clients compelling and competitive products in a record go-to-market timeframe.
Moving into the future
For the last three years, while the pandemic impacted the ability ofour partners to visit our plants andsee in person our offers, we have nonetheless been continuing to build on our strengths not just in the strategic expansion of our No-Frost platform, but in many other ways. Management, new staff training, a deepened design culture, more high-end product range, more digitisation and automation, additional quality processes, evolved approaches to partner service and to sustainability all underpin Homa’s production vision: “Homa future production plants – smarter, faster, cleaner, brighter, and greener”.
We demonstrate our care ethos in the recognition that a safe and pleasant working environment is essential for both staff and visitors, and the infrastructure surrounding the manufacturing site certainly ensures easy access to transportation, supermarkets, restaurants, and a bank. Onsite, the visitors’ experience has recently been enhanced with the addition of a special product showroom and upgraded meeting rooms. Onsite, staff safety and comfort are taken extremely seriously.
Annually,the month of June is dedicated to focused additional safety training and communication. Comfortable temperatures are maintained throughout thanks to a centralized cooling system in each factory. Thereis continuous treatment of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) to reduce harmful emissions, and re sprinkler systems are in place. Overall investment in safety improvement equipment over the last 10 years has been over 5 million RMB.
The future of intelligent manufacturing: a virtual tour of Homa manufacturing
Visiting our manufacturing site, everywhere you will be struck by the high levels of digital management, with our mass production MES system, and state of the art automation.Moving into the sheet extrusion area,it is fascinating to watch the highly automated twin-screw extruder, with fully automatic control of feedingand forming, easy operation, and fast transformation, resulting in stable and uniform plate thickness and surface brightness greater than 80 nit.Our Side Panel Forming Machine is fully automatic, handling cutting, rolling, condenser pipe sticking and U-shell bending all in one line. Given the great need for fexibility in our business model, our best-in-class machinery enables us to shift quickly between different platforms. All this with high dimension accuracy and stable quality, with a tolerance within 0.015mm, and high productivity, with 160pcs per hour.
Comi Inner Cabinet Thermo-suction
Passing to the section dedicated to the production of vacuum formed cabinet liners, using machines constructed by our Italian partner Comi, you will be amazed by the speed and efficiency of the auxiliary hydraulic punching and shearing. At 115 units/hour, it is the fastest in the industry, providing a stable cabinet quality that also has the best-in-industry appearance.
The automated high performance vacuum pump line will also impress you with its powerful vacuum pump working at 8 L/min. Vacuum timing stands at 15 minutes, with a vacuum degree of 12 Pa and an auto shut off system to retain the vacuum.
The cabinet assembly line conforms to the one- flow production mode of refrigerators, with line side auxiliary supporting automation equipment. The overall line speed is adjustable by frequency conversion, from 8-15s/m. Production capacity per shift is 3000 units.
On the dynamic cooling performance inspection line, you will once again have proof of our care for quality. Here the 45 minute fully computerized fast testing of the product provides high cooling detection efficiency and quick detection of abnormalities.
Robots are always a pleasure to watch with their precise, ultra-efficient movements, and our carrying robot fulfils it role by reducing heavy labour for the workers while improving safety and handling efficiency, and reducing damage to the refrigerator as it is being moved.
A final stop in our virtual factory tour will take you to the auto sealing and packing line. Here, the automatic Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) manages automatic box pushing, automatic binding, automatic code scanning into the warehouse, as well as entering the box data into the system for counting. Automatic pressing of the box top can provide a tightness of 75kg.
Partnering for value
Homa’s global scale and reach, the beautiful products we manufacture for our clients, our way of caring and of being part of our client’s team, and our belief that people and relationships are the key ingredients to our success: this is what defines us. This is what guides us in every business decision we take every day. Yes, like everyone else, we are in business to create shareholder value, but we know that this requires satisfying stakeholders, starting with our clients and their customers. Value is therefore a natural consequence of our ability to deliver on our unique and different proposition.
We hope you have enjoyed this peek into the caring world of Homa, and we welcome the chance to get to know you better as you discover how we can add value to your business, through the diligence and imagination of our partnership possibilities!
Sustainability in the factory
Having concluded our whistlestop virtual factory tour, it is important to come back to an acknowledgement of the fact that consumers around the globe are not just concerned about sustainability in terms of how much energy their appliances use, but also how sustainable the processes are in manufacturing those products, and they are less and less prepared to compromise. At Homa, we recognise how crucial this is, and you could say that the technology in our products and plants is conceived and validated under that perspective. In our vision, the purpose of technology is to serve the ideal of caring from a concrete, technical point of view.
Our ongoing work to make our plants highly sustainable spaces revolves around:
• Reducing energy consumption by reconfiguring our equipment energy management systems
• Carrying out regular equipment maintenance to ensure the stable operation of the equipment and maintaining stable processing quality to reduce manufacturing energy consumption.
• Reducing energy consumption through frequency conversion operations.
• Selecting new equipment according to new energy standards.
• Equipping areas of high energy consumption with automatic remote-control systems to reduce consumption.
• Installing LED energy-saving lighting and adopting local start-stop control.
• Installing photovoltaic power generation equipment.
Copyright HOMA 2023- This article is from "Manufacturing, " a Homa white paper. Editorial Coordination: Studio Volpi. Editor in Chief: Federico Rebaudo.
Copyright HOMA 2023 Issued By Homa Marketing dept. on November 2023
