Around 2018, the smart lock industry entered a phase of rapid development, with production and sales volumes increasing from 8 million units to 15 million units, nearly doubling. As the industry developed, products quickly iterated, and a large number of companies began to enter the market. The production technology threshold for smart locks has been continuously raised, and the level of specialization has also been steadily increasing.
To meet the growing market demand, more and more smart lock brands are choosing a development model where brand marketing and production manufacturing are independent of each other, outsourcing their production business to specialized smart lock ODM/OEM manufacturers. As the smart lock market continues to expand year by year, the OEM factories, which play the role of "ammunition depots" behind the lock companies, are also undergoing rapid transformation.
According to the "2022 Smart Door Lock Industry," the total domestic production of smart locks in 2022 was approximately 17 million units, with ODM/OEM (original design manufacturing/original equipment manufacturing) shipments accounting for a significant proportion. This demonstrates that ODM/OEM manufacturers hold a pivotal position in the smart lock industry chain.
鈻睤ata Source: 2022 Smart Door Lock Industry White Paper
By analyzing the data, it is not difficult to see that the current smart lock OEM/ODM manufacturers mainly operate in three modes:
The first mode is the professional OEM/ODM manufacturer. These companies focus on smart lock manufacturing services, providing R&D and production for various brands to meet their needs. This type of manufacturing mode is represented by companies like Guangdong Mansion.
The second mode is self-operated brands combined with OEM services. These companies not only operate their own smart lock brands but also provide OEM services for other brands. This mode is represented by companies such as YingHua, Yijia, Puxin, and Techangheng.
The third mode is cross-industry OEM. These companies, originally engaged in multiple businesses, have entered the smart lock industry in response to market development and provide OEM services for other brands. This mode is represented by companies such as Zhaochi, Xinzhihong (a subsidiary of Sunwoda), O-Film, and Fenda.
Each of the three OEM modes has its unique characteristics. It is evident that the smart lock OEM business holds different positions in various companies. For some, it serves as a strategic supplement to their self-operated brand business; for others, it is a tactical choice to enter the industry from different sectors. However, for some companies, it is a strategic "ALL IN," focusing solely and dedicatedly on the smart lock OEM business.
According to Sunflower Big Data, in 2022, Guangdong Mansion Smart Technology Co., Ltd. ranked No.1 in OEM/ODM manufacturing volume among its peers. The reason lies in Guangdong Mansion's pure dedication, treating the smart lock OEM business as its sole focus. By continuously delving into and developing this field with a dedicated attitude and professional spirit, they have perfected the smart lock OEM business.
The success behind every company is never coincidental. Guangdong Mansion's achievements in smart lock OEM can be said to be the inevitable result of its years of exploration. Keeping pace with the times and continuously innovating, Guangdong Mansion has demonstrated through practical actions the qualities that a successful entity should possess.
In 2004, the Mansion brand was established, and shortly after, it introduced the concept of the Super B-class lock cylinder and launched the first domestic Super B-class anti-theft lock cylinder. Today, the Super B-class lock cylinder has become a standard feature of a qualified smart lock.
In 2008, Mansion independently developed and launched a fully automated lock cylinder production line. In the same year, as the concept of smart homes emerged, the Mansion team kept pace with industry trends and established a smart home research center to explore the Internet of Everything.
2008: Launched the first alarm lock core in China.
2010: Released the ultra-B-level alarm lock core, smart lock chip keys, and a fully wireless smart home system.
2011: Launched the first fully wireless smart home system certified by the Ministry of Public Security.
2012: Based on its understanding of smart homes, ManShen became the first to introduce a fully wireless smart home system, 鈥淢anShen Smart Butler.鈥
2013: Launched the first 鈥渟mart anti-theft door鈥 certified by the Ministry of Public Security, which has now become a trendy project.
By leveraging its keen sense of market trends and business models, combined with production expertise, Mansion has formed strong alliances with its clients. This collaboration has led to a series of impressive commercial achievements.
In 2015, Mansion partnered with Alibaba to launch the first cloud smart lock linked to WeChat and initiated a crowdfunding campaign on Taobao, setting a record of tens of millions of yuan and becoming the champion in the smart lock category on Taobao Crowdfunding. This not only started the crowdfunding model in the smart lock industry but also made 2015 known as the "Year of the Smart Lock," marking the beginning of a rapid development period.
In 2016, Mansion launched the industry's first round fingerprint cloud smart lock, iLock A5, breaking the sales record again with 16.5 million yuan on Taobao Crowdfunding. Today, round fingerprint heads have become standard in smart locks.
In 2017, amidst the rapid growth of the shared bicycle market, Mansion became the core supplier for a leading shared bicycle brand, producing and delivering over 5 million smart bike locks that year, making it the largest smart bike lock company in the industry.
宸﹀彸婊戝姩鏌ョ湅鏇村
鈻睲anSion Cloud Smart Lock Sets Record for Crowdfunding in the Smart Lock Category on Taobao, Reaching Tens of Millions
Around 2018, the smart lock industry entered an era of rapid development, attracting many cross-industry players. Although they had advantages in branding and channels, the product characteristics posed significant challenges to their supply chain R&D and delivery capabilities. As a result, many brands opted for OEM services.
After in-depth industry research, Guangdong Mansion invested in setting up the "China Smart Lock Shared Industry Platform" (CSLP) in Xiaolan, Zhongshan. The company strategically transformed into a supply chain service provider, focusing on mid-to-high-end smart lock ODM/OEM services. This platform provides one-stop smart lock services for domestic and international brands entering the smart lock field, offering comprehensive technical and commercial support to help clients succeed.
In 2019, Mansion established strategic partnerships with renowned companies such as ASSA ABLOY, Siemens, TCL, Bull, General Stone, Buyang, 360, and Hisense, leading to rapid growth in its OEM/ODM business segment.
In 2020, Mansion completed its transformation into an "end-to-end smart lock solution provider," offering services from front-end product planning to product realization and delivery.
In 2021, the annual production of smart lock OEM/ODM surpassed 1 million units, with Mansion dedicated to making CSLP a first-class "smart lock reliable delivery platform."
In 2022, Mansion launched lock solutions for apartments, policy-based housing, online rental housing, and North American families, further expanding its product portfolio.
鈻睤ata Source: 2021 Smart Door Lock Industry White Paper
Having been in the industry for nearly 20 years, Mansion has developed a comprehensive technological chain from mechanics to electronics, and from electronics to the cloud. Leveraging this capability, Mansion can offer clients full-process services including product design, patent research and development, and manufacturing.
鈻睲anShen has established a complete technical roadmap from lock core 鈫 lock body 鈫 smart home 鈫 smart door
From the establishment of CSLP in 2018 to ranking first in the industry for shipment volume in 2022, what has enabled Mansion to achieve a leading position in the lock manufacturing sector?
The author believes that to lead the smart lock OEM track with an absolute advantage over peers, Mansion's advantages must be comprehensive and multi-dimensional. After a special visit to Guangdong Mansion, the author discovered that the company's achievements are attributed to its capabilities that align with its strategic positioning, mainly summarized as innovation, efficiency, quality, and cost.
鉂 Continuous Innovation
With 20 years of accumulation and experience, Guangdong Mansion possesses a robust R&D system, a comprehensive technological chain, and a full-spectrum product line. This enables them to provide brand clients with holistic technical support for their differentiated and personalized needs, covering everything from product planning and definition to realization. Such comprehensive and professional capabilities are generally beyond the reach of typical OEMs, allowing Mansion to meet diverse client demands and assist in their sustainable development.
Mansion has also pioneered a boundaryless R&D management model, collaborating with top teams from various technological fields within the industry for co-research and co-creation. This ensures the continuous leadership in technology.
To accelerate the market application of new technologies and improve delivery efficiency, Mansion releases new products quarterly and conducts targeted product selection invitations. This significantly shortens the time-to-market for new products for clients and reduces their trial-and-error costs.
鉂 Extreme Efficiency
The rapid iteration of industry technology, fast evolution of business models, uncertain demand, and volatile markets are common challenges faced by the manufacturing industry today, posing significant difficulties for continuous production operations. From its inception, Mansion has been exploring solutions to these issues by creating the Chinese Smart Lock Shared Industry Platform. This initiative led to the development of the "Flexible Agile Manufacturing Method," which effectively addresses external challenges and disruptions. This method enables Mansion to meet the fast delivery requirements for small-batch, multi-variety smart door locks. Despite managing up to 400 SKUs, Mansion can maintain stable delivery.
鉂 Excellent Quality
As a durable electronic product, quality is the cornerstone of smart locks. With nearly 20 years of technical accumulation, Mansion's quality control capabilities have surpassed most peers. In addition, Mansion is supported by authoritative laboratories that ensure product quality:
The first is a testing center accredited by CNAS (China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment). This signifies that the technical capabilities and hardware/software of Mansion's testing center have been recognized by national authoritative institutions, enabling it to conduct tests according to relevant international standards. The experimental data produced will be internationally recognized.
The second is the "Lock Security Laboratory," commissioned by relevant national departments. This laboratory focuses on building industry databases and researching high-security performance.
Mansion not only has two authoritative laboratories as strong hardware support but also has established a comprehensive quality assurance system: one is developing its own corporate standards based on national and industry standards, where key indicators such as safety, reliability, and durability far exceed industry standards. These corporate standards have been filed with the Market Supervision Administration. Throughout the production process, Mansion's R&D, production transfer, manufacturing, and internal control are all conducted according to these corporate standards. The second is extensive and well-developed testing cases. When Mansion's R&D department creates a product project proposal, they simultaneously compile a product requirement document and corresponding testing cases and outlines. After a product is developed, testing cases are used to verify that the development process is outputtable and controllable. Reportedly, Mansion's testing center has over 1,400 testing cases for smart locks. Each smart lock must pass these tests from development to delivery, effectively ensuring the quality of every smart lock.
From the frontend quality control capabilities to the backend fulfillment of quality commitments, this reflects Mansion's strong comprehensive strength and distinguishes Mansion from typical OEMs.
鉂 High Cost Performance
The smart lock industry is experiencing prolonged and intense internal competition, leading to a continuous decline in product prices. According to AVC's online data, the average price of household smart door locks in China's online market was 1,102 yuan in the first half of 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 11.6%.
鈻睺otal Market Size of Online Household Smart Door Locks in China from 2020 to H1 2023
It is foreseeable that as industry competition deepens, controlling costs to ensure product profitability will be an unavoidable consideration for many brands. Currently, some brands are reducing production costs by using slightly lower-quality materials or reducing production steps, but these approaches inevitably lead to a decline in product quality, which is clearly unacceptable.
In the face of intense competition, Mansion adheres to its cost philosophy, which is to "continuously provide qualified, compliant, and highly cost-effective products to customers." To achieve this, Mansion relies on years of technical accumulation to achieve cost reduction through technology. Secondly, by standardizing and modularizing designs, Mansion increases the commonality of parts, thereby achieving economies of scale to reduce production costs and improve production efficiency. Additionally, Mansion builds harmonious and mutually beneficial supply chain relationships, achieving a high level of recognition for its cost philosophy, ultimately leading to cost reductions throughout the entire supply chain process.
Perhaps it is precisely in today's environment of hyper-competition, where more and more companies are compromising on quality in pursuit of lower prices, that Mansion's insistence on "cost reduction without compromising product quality" supports the sustained competitiveness of the brands it serves.
To objectively evaluate Mansion, understanding the six-year development of its Chinese Smart Lock Shared Industry Platform and the three changes in its slogan reveals a precise company profile: "Focused," "Professional," "Versatile."
From 2018 to 2019, Mansion's slogan was "One-stop Service Provider for Smart Locks," dedicated to helping clients with product positioning, product design and development, production delivery, installation and after-sales service, and product iteration.
From late 2019 to early 2020, the slogan was adjusted to "End-to-End Solution Provider for Smart Locks," with services shifting to front-end product planning, product realization, and delivery.
In 2022, the slogan was updated to "Trusted Delivery Platform for Smart Locks," creating a reliable platform for clients, enabling them to compete at the front end without worries.
The changes in slogans show that Mansion has always been keeping up with industry trends, constantly adjusting its pace. "Preparedness ensures success, unpreparedness spells failure." In the current highly competitive environment, if a company lacks differentiated competitive capabilities, it will be stuck in endless hyper-competition. After completing its strategic transformation, Mansion has a clear goal and is committed to being a smart lock supply chain service provider. With focus comes professionalism, and by continuously deepening its moat, Mansion has been building comprehensive customer service capabilities, becoming an all-around player.
Twenty years of perseverance, staying true to its original aspiration, only then can it achieve lasting success. In the interview, Mansion consistently emphasized to me that a company can only win the trust of customers and consumers by adhering to the right values in terms of product, quality, and cost. Only in this way can a company go far and win the future.
How will Mansion proceed in the next twenty years? Where will it go? Let鈥檚 wait and see.