The "Three Transformations" of Nidec KDS (Kinetek De Sheng)

Kinetek De Sheng (Shunde,Foshan) Motor Co., Ltd. ranks among the industry’s top players in traction machine development capability, product quality and annual output volume. Long regarded as a benchmark enterprise across the sector, it serves as the benchmark target for peers to catch up with and the reference for defining product development directions. What exactly is this company, and what is its connection to the widely referenced "KDS" or Nidec in the industry? Today we break down its brand name and trace its full story in detail.

Kinetek De Sheng (Shunde,Foshan) Motor Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Nidec Group, located in Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province. Its official English name is Kinetek De Sheng (Shunde,Foshan) Motor Co., Ltd., abbreviated as KDS from the capitalized initials of the English title. This three-letter acronym enjoys extremely high recognition and reputation within the elevator industry.

The story behind the four Chinese characters “Kinetek De Sheng” can be interpreted by splitting each component.

Back in the 1960s, Shunde Motor Factory was established in Shunde, Guangdong Province. As a powerful state-owned enterprise, it functioned as a pivotal motor production base in South China and housed a dedicated motor product testing center. Boasting robust technical strength, the factory already exported part of its manufactured products overseas, laying a solid technological foundation for its subsequent development.

In the 1990s, amid enterprise restructuring, Shunde Motor Factory was officially renamed Desheng Motor Company. During this period, the company achieved sustained revenue growth and flourished, marking its first glorious peak in development.

Buoyed by outstanding market reputation and solid technical expertise accumulated domestically, Desheng Motor Company caught the attention of Kinetek Group from the United States, a standout enterprise in the Pearl River Delta region. In 2002, this century-old American drive equipment manufacturer fully acquired Desheng Motor Company, which was then renamed Kinetek De Sheng (Shunde,Foshan) Motor Co., Ltd. The four characters “Kinetek De Sheng” combine “Jintai”, the Chinese phonetic translation of Kinetek, and the original “Desheng” from Desheng Motor. The industry commonly refers to the company by its English abbreviation KDS.

Following the acquisition, KDS introduced mature American management systems, embarking on its second golden era of prosperity. Within just a few years, the company achieved a sharp leap in turnover, rolled out multiple newly designed drive product lines, and secured numerous technical patents one after another.

In 2012, Kinetek Group was wholly acquired by Japan’s Nidec Group, officially making KDS a member of the Nidec family. As a world-leading motor manufacturer, Nidec further consolidated its dominant position in special-purpose motors for elevators and material handling equipment through this acquisition. The takeover exerted a profound and far-reaching influence on KDS: the company underwent business restructuring, with its diversified cross-sector operations split into independent Drive System Division and Elevator Division for optimized resource integration. Since then, KDS has been officially known as Nidec Elevator Motors. Leveraging Nidec’s global resource platform, Nidec Elevator Motors has dramatically elevated its overseas market influence, evolving into one of Nidec’s global production bases and R&D centers.

KDS’s development journey epitomizes the transformation of a local veteran factory into a global technology-driven enterprise: from a technically strong local state-owned enterprise, to a privately-run entity after restructuring, then a US-invested company under Kinetek’s acquisition that adopted international management frameworks, and ultimately a global elevator motor production base merged into Japan’s Nidec Group alongside its parent company. Having gone through these three pivotal strategic transitions, KDS stands as the perfect embodiment of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Since joining the Nidec Group, Kinetek De Sheng has absorbed the Group’s lean quality management and operational philosophies, ushering in another comprehensive upgrade across all dimensions.

1. Corporate Management

Nidec Elevator Motors has fully rolled out the Group’s proprietary 3Q6S management culture (3Q: Quality Employees, Quality Company, Quality Products; 6S: Seiri/Sort, Seiton/Set in Order, Seiso/Shine, Seiketsu/Standardize, Shitsuke/Sustain, Saho/Behavior). The company adheres to environmental governance and compliant operation, taps into Nidec’s technological edges, and deploys advanced management systems, tools and software widely used within the Group and the industry. Its R&D and design capabilities for elevator traction machines consistently stay at the forefront of the sector.

Moreover, the company has deployed high-precision automated processing equipment in batches for consecutive years, delivering tangible results in product quality improvement, production efficiency enhancement and continuous capacity expansion.

2. Product Strength

Since the turn of the 21st century, after years of intensive research and technological accumulation, Nidec Elevator Motors has launched a series of industry-leading traction machines, including 8m/s and 12m/s high-speed elevator main machines, steel belt traction machines, ultra-thin main machines, and heavy-load freight elevator main machines. Iconic landmark projects equipped with our products include:

• WH traction machine installed in Porsche Design Tower (2015)

• SWTY1 traction machine deployed for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge

• SWTY2 traction machine applied for the Big Air Shougang Venue of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

These models have become shining benchmarks in the global elevator industry.

Beyond traction machines for special working conditions, our core product portfolio centers on mainstream passenger and freight elevator main machines for daily application scenarios. Independently developed and manufactured models such as the WJC block-type traction machine and WR bar-type traction machine adopt materials exceeding general industry standards and implement safety factors stricter than national codes, with ample safety margins reserved in structural design. Widely applied to machine-room and machine-room-less elevators at home and abroad, they have earned unanimous praise for reliable quality, on-time delivery and responsive after-sales service.

Our traction machines feature high operational efficiency, easy installation and hassle-free maintenance, integrating outstanding safety, ride comfort, swiftness and smooth running into one single product, rarely seen on the market.

In recent years, Nidec Elevator Motors has newly launched an upgraded slim traction machine, effectively resolving pain points of legacy thin-type machines such as difficult on-site installation and inconvenient later maintenance, as well as drawbacks of other ultra-thin products including poor dimensional compatibility and incomplete model coverage. It delivers tailor-made solutions for both new elevator installation and old elevator modernization projects.

Nidec Elevator Motors boasts remarkable competitiveness and rich track records not only in the new elevator market with a diversified product lineup, but also in elevator modernization retrofitting projects. Drawing on the mature experience of Nidec Elevator Group in the U.S. elevator replacement market (with a market share exceeding 60%), combined with our in-house R&D and manufacturing capacity, we provide customized one-on-one modernization schemes for varying old elevator operating conditions, matching client demands precisely to achieve optimal outcomes at lower costs. Our traction machines have played a vital role in landmark renovation projects, including Shanghai World Trade Tower, the Statue of Liberty in New York, and Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Premium products stem from sophisticated design, lean production and reliable after-sales support. Apart from delivering customized, high-quality traction machines, Nidec Elevator Motors maintains a professional team of well-trained after-sales technicians for traction machine services. Our global service network covers 29 service outlets across 11 countries, offering 24-hour responsive on-site technical consultation and after-sales support for worldwide clients.

Backed by the robust platform strength of the Nidec Group, Nidec Elevator Motors has established an enviable leading position throughout the industry in all links ranging from traction machine R&D and design, production and processing to after-market services. Its solid foundation is underpinned by cutting-edge hard-core technological strengths, its height supported by the persistent research spirit of all Nidec Elevator Motors team members, and its brilliance illuminated by the stellar market reputation built among global customers.

Market recognition speaks louder than words. Nidec Elevator Motors lets its product competence do the talking, presenting its most impressive business calling card to the whole industry.