IN recent years, as the attractions industry has developed, different types of facility have been favoured by visitors. Increasing numbers of people are enjoying attraction facilities and thus at the same time the industry is enjoying continued growth. For many years, Golden Horse Technology Entertainment Corp. Ltd. (Golden Horse) has been known as the oldest and largest attractions facilities manufacturer in China, as well as a research-oriented enterprise. “Happy days begin from Golden Horse” is not only a quality guideline of the company but also a mission that the company is working to accomplish. To have a better understanding of Golden Horse, InterPark spoke to vice-president and director Li Yong whose observations give us an insight into the history of Golden Horse and some of its key milestones along the way.
R&D ensures Golden Horse keeps improving
As a pioneer of the attractions industry, Golden Horse has always valued R&D. As early as 1983, Golden Horse created the first bumper car in China and ever since the company was restructured, it has paid more attention to R&D. Golden Horse used to create small and medium-sized products but now the company is also a developer of medium and large-sized brands and amusement tech products. Today it creates customised products and also develops its own innovative brands.
As for R&D, Li Yong tells InterPark: “Golden Horse is a typical research-oriented enterprise. We achieve technology upgrades through massive R&D investment. By doing this, we upgrade our product lines and gain more market share. At the same time as maintaining existing market share, Golden Horse invests large amounts of funds, human resources and time in R&D.
“The company sends employees to attraction facility exhibitions both at home and abroad and the employees also visit various amusement parks and theme parks in order to seek out the development direction of products in the future. At the early stage of restructuring, Golden Horse just manufactured certain products. It mainly focused on small projects and only accepted a few medium-sized ones. Based upon the tech level and production capacity of the company, Golden Horse chose to develop sliding projects at first – the Spinning coaster was a priority of its development at that time.
“The successful development of the spinning coaster brought confidence to customers in other products of Golden Horse and therefore laid a solid foundation for the prospects of the company.”
It is the bumper car that made Golden Horse well recognised by its peers within the attractions industry and the spinning coaster surprised the market. Nowadays, Golden Horse has abundant product lines and is undoubtedly a market leader in the industry. To date the company offers more than 200 products in 13 categories while also boasting advanced R&D capabilities, a sound quality assurance system and a top testing centre. The company also shows great ability to customise its products.
The success of Golden Horse can be attributed to huge investment and the company’s persistence on R&D. In the amusement industry, there is no doubt that product R&D requires sizeable investments and it is the continuous input of resources from Golden Horse that makes it achieve more fruitful results. Li Yong comments: “Our company has accumulated for quite a long time. We conduct research, upgrade products and learn from valuable experience and skill. For instance, suppose that we manufacture products based upon the existing standard. If the product costs 10 RMB, we can sell it at 12. But if the customer gives us 100 RMB and we still make it 10 RMB to produce, the product will hardly meet the requirements of our customer. At this moment, we need to spend more to comprehensively enhance our materials, allocation and processing skills. By doing this we can generate better products for customers. Golden Horse has always brought integrity and confidence to customers. And the company does everything to meet customer demands. We insist that we can always work better and make progress.”
Golden Horse valued R&D gradually. According to Li Yong, attraction facility investors began to diversify after 2000 and the number of investors has increased since 2003. In order to meet market demand, diverse products have been created and Li Yong believes that the R&D levels of Chinese enterprises have improved at a relatively fast rate. As well as independent R&D, Chinese enterprises are also adept at learning from others. They do not merely copy others’ products but take in useful thoughts and concepts.
Li Yong notes: “We have worked with companies overseas for several years. With the enhancement of our tech level and design ability, we expand our business. Additionally, as Golden Horse has improved its overall strength, we are able to offer better salary packages to talented designers at home and abroad.” Up to now, Golden Horse has partnered with several world-class attraction companies from the US, Germany, Canada, Japan and elsewhere.
As a result of its R&D work, Golden Horse continues to make breakthroughs in product development, research, theming and culture, etc. Now the company can provide its customers with more products and services and Li Yong states: “Golden Horse is driven by the demand of its customers. We are customer-oriented and respond to customers quickly. We strive to create long-term value for our customers. Now we not only sell traditional attractions but can also combine these with IPs, a distinctive landscape and the cultural strengths of towns. Golden Horse is able to meet the high-level requirements of the entertainment sector and make comprehensive proposals and unique designs based on the demands of the customer.”
In addition to R&D based on current technologies, Li Yong also mentions the need for a grasp of the latest tech. “In the near future, Golden Horse will keep on investing in R&D and make more high-tech and innovative products,” he says. “To be specific, we will actively develop high-tech mechatronics comic and TV projects and enhance our skills; we will endeavor to raise the added value of products and create more advanced products for the sake of generating more business value; and we will deploy certain resources for research on AI attractions.”
Strict safety control
Golden Horse is a true market leader when it comes to R&D and its strict safety controls help the company attract increasing numbers of clients.
On the subject of safety, Li Yong tells InterPark: “Golden Horse has specific teams for quality control and testing, who monitor the quality of products strictly according to certain standards. Also, the company is well equipped with many professional laboratories such as a measuring room, non-destructive testing lab, thermal chamber, etc. These labs offer a guarantee of sound, quality products.”
In addition to abundant safety procedures for product testing, Golden Horse’s attractions also have safety guarantees when being operated. Such measures include conducting internal training pertaining to operation and maintenance and the provision of a 24/7 post-installation service for operators, meaning that if required, they can contact the company’s technical staff very quickly.
According to Li Yong, Golden Horse will continue to maintain a machine’s safety after installation. The company creates a maintenance manual for flying and high-speed attractions, conducts regular audits of staff and riders and communicates with clients on maintenance skills so that they fully understand their attractions. Finally, an inspector will compile a comprehensive inspection report for the relevant person responsible for a particular client.
Golden Horse has always made safety a top priority and bases this on high-quality technology. The slogan “Happy days begin from Golden Horse” has become the company’s most precious quality guideline and it has always worked to the ISO9001 standard. It strictly implements national standards and relevant regulations, from product design to installation, from primary products to end products, to ensure products are safe and reliable.
Spirit of Golden Horse: solidarity
According to Li Yong, the management team of Golden Horse has come from many different places. “We all get together in Golden Horse for the same goal,” he says. “Solidarity becomes a driving force of Golden Horse.”
And he continues: “The reason why we can hold together is our company culture. As a joint-equity enterprise, we integrate all kinds of talents and resources into a single team. Our company cannot achieve steady growth without our responsible staff. When an enterprise expands to a certain level, it should count on every single person in the team. We forged an excellent team in the early stages so that we can move smoothly later.”
Today, Golden Horse works with closely with operators such as OCT, Fanta and Wanda and has continuously made breakthroughs in technological innovation and independent R&D. So far, Golden Horse has invented more than 10 original technologies around the world and the slogan “Happy days begin from Golden Horse” is not only words, but also reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of the Golden Horse
