Siemens low code application development platform Mendix has entered the Chinese market. Early adopters of the German firm’s platform include car manufacturer SAIC Motor, semi-trailer manufacturer CIMC Vehicles, and smart manufacturing specialist Maxnerva Technology Services, a Foxconn affiliate.

Siemens is counting on its long-standing presence in China to give Mendix significant advantages in access to customers, resources, and expertise.

Among Mendix’s current users are Continental, Zurich Insurance, ConocoPhillips, the Municipality of Dubai, and NS, the Netherlands’ high-speed rail operator.

Chen Jun, senior IT manager of SAIC Motor, one of China’s largest automobile manufacturers, said: “Focusing on SAIC Motor’s ‘1+4’ digital transformation strategy of its passenger vehicles business, we use the Mendix enterprise-level low-code development platform to create lean manufacturing human resource management applications and ultimately achieve reduction of single-vehicle labour costs. This project covers more than 10,000 employees across four major domestic sites of SAIC Motor Passenger Cars; shortens development time by 50%; reduces deployment and maintenance costs by 30%; and achieves two major breakthroughs in business: firstly, the first close collaboration of significance between business and IT teams to develop and integrate a big data platform architecture that has applications for future scenarios; and secondly, allowing SAIC Passenger Vehicles to go from managing month/day cycles down to the hour in its human resources lean management application, achieving significant digitalisation of the entire business process and reaching a leading level in the automotive industry in China and even the world.”

CIMC Vehicles is a manufacturer of high-quality semi-trailers using Mendix to drive its intelligent manufacturing capabilities. Dr. Li Xiaofu, CTO of CIMC Vehicles, said: “Through the practices of vehicle certification systems, we have gained a deeper understanding with regards to the knowledge and positioning of Mendix. Mendix can play a key role in the high-end intelligent manufacturing strategy of CIMC Vehicles. In the future, the digitalisation of CIMC’s business systems will focus on core business capabilities, while other customised requirements can be quickly and efficiently achieved through Mendix. Furthermore, this will allow us to iterate continuously and keep up with the changes in market demands, thereby reducing the complexities of business systems and efficiently supporting the growth of the business.”

Shi Chunhao, COO of Maxnerva Technology Services, an affiliate of Foxconn whose business domains include smart manufacturing, smart office and new retail solutions, said: “Mendix is a new way that we have been looking for to greatly speed up application delivery in our digital operations. We have launched two apps within a month. Now we are developing the third app, and we believe it will be launched soon. Using Mendix not only helps our IT team improve efficiency and save IT costs, but allows them to quickly support business needs, increase productivity for tens of thousands of factory workers, address government requirements to reopen in the pandemic, manage project costs, help IT report work, and more.”