How will Chinese manufacturing evolve in the era of Industry 4.0

OFweek Industrial Control Network News: Not long ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel continued to spare no effort to promote German manufacturing and "Industry 4.0" to the world at the opening ceremony of the CeBIT exhibition in Hannover. On March 25, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council presided over the executive meeting of the State Council, and emphasized the need to deploy and accelerate the implementation of "Made in China 2025" to upgrade the manufacturing industry.

The "Industry 4.0" and "Made in China 2025" strategies are in full swing, and the "Industrial Internet" rooted in the United States is also determined to go further. The concept of "Industrial Internet +" was first proposed by General Electric (GE) in 2012, and then five leading companies in the industry in the United States jointly formed the Industrial Internet Alliance to vigorously promote this concept.

Recently, at GE's media communication meeting, there was news that in order to cope with the competition and development of the global manufacturing industry, the US government may invest heavily in the industrial Internet.

Manufacturing 2025 is a strategy, not a concept

"Made in China 2025" has risen to a national strategic height, and "Industry 4.0" also has the German Chancellor as its platform. Although the "Industrial Internet" has never been officially "designated" by the U.S. government as a national manufacturing strategy, in the opinion of many industry insiders, because it is affirmed as the leader of the U.S. industry, the "Industrial Internet" is considered to be an important part of the U.S. manufacturing industry. Develop a representative strategy.

"Industrial Internet is supported by informatization means, and its foothold is asset optimization and operation optimization, which will bring about cost reduction, efficiency improvement and capacity transformation." Yang Tao, general manager of GE China's software business, explained, "'Industry 4.0' focuses on It is in the field of manufacturing, while the Industrial Internet pays more attention to the overall ecological chain of manufacturing companies." She strongly emphasized the difference between the two.

Similarly, the characteristics of the close combination of "Made in China 2025" and "Internet +" and the ten priority development areas are also emphasized: to follow the development trend of "Internet +" and take the deep integration of informatization and industrialization as the main line , focusing on the development of new-generation information technology, high-end CNC machine tools and robots, aerospace equipment, marine engineering equipment and high-tech ships, advanced rail transit equipment, energy-saving and new energy vehicles, electric power equipment, new materials, biomedicine and high-performance medical equipment In the ten major fields of production, agricultural machinery and equipment, strengthen industrial basic capabilities, improve technological level and product quality, and promote intelligent and green manufacturing.

"Industrial Internet", "Industry 4.0" and "Made in China 2025" are interlinked. Even some people in the industry have difficulty distinguishing the difference between the three, but there is one consensus that the manufacturing industry led by them is in constant competition and competition. developing.

"These are three brands of the manufacturing industry in three countries, and all countries want to make every effort to build a manufacturing brand." Lu Feng, deputy director of the Internet Research Institute of CCID Think Tank, told reporters that the three major manufacturing concepts are being tried hard The reason for the implementation.

However, industry insiders pointed out that the three have the same approach but the same results, all emphasizing the combination of information technology and industrial production. According to Ren Qilong, an expert on Beiqi Foton's productivity research and a special chief engineer, the competition among the three parties for the manufacturing industry will eventually lead to the same goal.

In April 2014, after GE, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel and other companies announced the establishment of the Industrial Internet Alliance in Boston, USA, Yang Tao revealed that GE will participate in the establishment of relevant industrial Internet industry associations in China and the formulation of industrial Internet standards this year. .

Ren Qilong said that in terms of the implementation of the "Industry 4.0" strategy, continue to maintain and continuously strengthen Germany's technological leadership in the fields of basic materials, basic processes, basic equipment, basic devices, industrial software, industrial electronics and cross-integration, and Trying to seize the opportunity in new technical fields such as virtual simulation, artificial intelligence, smart factory, smart products, and cyber-physical space (CPS), and occupy the dominant "territory".

"The motives for the Industrial Internet's 'land grab' are similar, but there are differences in focus and implementation methods, but they will eventually converge." Ren Qilong said.

How will Chinese manufacturing evolve

Jin Daren, executive director of the Management Engineering Branch of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, believes that in the next 10 years, with the implementation of the "Made in China 2025" strategic plan to strengthen the country, two fundamental changes will occur in my country's manufacturing industry.

First, it will greatly promote the development of my country's manufacturing enterprises towards the construction of smart factories with the basic structure of industrial Internet + information communication technology and information integration platform, and the core goals of intelligent research and development, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent management and intelligent services.

The second is to comprehensively promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry from production-oriented manufacturing to production-service-oriented manufacturing, from low-cost competitive advantage to quality-efficiency competitive advantage, from extensive manufacturing to green manufacturing, and most importantly, from element-driven to innovation-driven. . "Promoting the construction of smart factories with smart manufacturing as the core is not only an inevitable trend in the development of the global manufacturing industry, but also the main direction of the development goal of 'Made in China 2025'. Relevant government departments should classify and guide according to the actual situation of enterprises in various places, and formulate differentiated promotions. Goals and related standards, technologies, frameworks, and supporting service systems should not be eager for quick success." Jin Daren suggested.

Ren Qilong also believes that after raising "Made in China 2025" to a national strategic level, technological innovation in the manufacturing industry will be carried out in the following aspects: Traditional industries will continue to optimize innovation processes, innovation methods and innovation models in an information-based innovation environment , continue to evolve on the existing technology route; new sensors, integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, mobile Internet, and big data continue to evolve and innovate in the information technology innovation system, and lay a technical foundation for the continuous integration and penetration of new technologies in other industries; The integrated development of traditional industry and information technology includes not only a series of comprehensive integrated technologies such as CPS and smart factory overall solutions, but also individual technological breakthroughs such as various embedded systems integrating industrial software and hardware, virtual manufacturing, and industrial application electronics.

However, Jin Daren pointed out that the construction of smart factories in China's manufacturing industry is not an easy task. Whether it can be promoted smoothly and whether it can achieve leapfrog development depends on the company's own awareness of the subject, and it also takes time to ensure that it cannot be rushed blindly.

"A small number of qualified enterprises should make full use of the results of the integration of industrialization and industrialization, and formulate as soon as possible an overall plan for the construction of smart factories that includes enterprise technological transformation, enterprise business system reorganization and enterprise information integration platform construction. The goals should be clear and quantified." He suggested.

A strong industrial foundation is the most important thing now

The trend of China's manufacturing in the next 10 years has been outlined, how should we start now? Industry experts pointed out that a strong foundation is the key.

Compared with the seven strategic emerging industries proposed by the State Council in 2010, the "Made in China 2025" plan chose the above ten fields as breakthrough points. Jin Daren believes that separating from the original high-end equipment manufacturing industry is more clear, specific and targeted, and it is more conducive to the decomposition and implementation of planning.

However, Jin Daren pointed out that an important reason why China's manufacturing industry is relatively backward is that the basic components, basic technology, basic materials, basic software and basic management that support high-end equipment manufacturing are relatively backward.

"We must be soberly aware that China is facing outstanding problems such as insufficient overall level of high-end manufacturing, insufficient transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and excess production capacity at the low end. Especially in the areas of independent advanced manufacturing technology and application, independent production automation and equipment reliability, independent In terms of sensing technology and application, independent high value-added products, etc., there is a big gap with industrial powers such as Germany and the United States.” Ren Qilong said.

"In this regard, we need to implement the industrial foundation project." Su Bo, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also emphasized when he interpreted "Made in China 2025" on March 27.

Recently, at the symposium of the China Automobile Industry Innovation Joint Fund, Zhao Yuhai, director of the High-tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, deeply shared the lack of basic components of China's automobile R&D manufacturers. "China's automobile production and sales rank first in the world, but there are almost no original things in the field of core parts and components. Basic research has become a bottleneck in the development of automobile manufacturing." Zhao Yuhai said.

Chen Bin, executive vice president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said: "Many high-end equipment manufacturing fields exchange the market for technology, and everything that can be bought with money is bought, while the key components and key technologies of the manufacturing industry represented by automobile manufacturing It cannot be bought, and if we want to develop, we must break the boundaries of the industry, focus on the foundation, and develop in groups.”

"Therefore, industries such as numerical control systems, general parts, electronic components, and industrial software must first accelerate the implementation of the development concept of a strong industrial foundation and strengthen innovation and development." Jin Daren said.