In recent years, the new industrial revolution is in the ascendant, and the global manufacturing industry is moving towards a digital and intelligent era. In order to cope with the international competition under the new industrial revolution, developed countries have taken intelligent manufacturing as an important direction of the future development of manufacturing industry. The National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing in the United States aims to vigorously promote the strategic layout of intelligent manufacturing characterized by "industrial Internet" and "a new generation of robots". As an advocate of Industry 4.0, Germany intends to lead the formulation of industrial 4.0 standards such as smart factories, and control the rules of intelligent manufacturing. Japan has put forward a series of strategic measures such as the New Robot Strategy and the Social 5.0 Strategy to support the development of intelligent manufacturing, so as to reshape the new competitive advantage of its manufacturing industry.

    Looking back at the development process of the world economy, each industrial revolution has always brought about a significant increase in labor productivity and a huge change in the mode of production, and also provided an important opportunity for late developing countries to "overtake at curves". Whether we can seize this major strategic opportunity of intelligent manufacturing is related to the realization of China's strategic objectives of moving towards a manufacturing power, overcoming the "middle-income trap", and building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

    At present, the scale of China's manufacturing industry has leapt to the first in the world, with the most complete industrial system in the world, and has become an important participant in the global value chain. However, in general, manufacturing in China is characterized by large but not strong, relatively weak independent innovation capacity, large resource consumption, overcapacity at the low end, and obvious shortage of high-end supply. The industry as a whole is still at the middle and low end of the global manufacturing chain. In the current situation of the transformation of domestic development momentum and the intensification of international competition, the development of intelligent manufacturing is an important way to achieve the strategic goal of industrial power.

Strengthen the comprehensive competitiveness of "Made in China"

Under the new normal of economic development, intelligent manufacturing will become a new engine to accelerate the supply side structural reform and drive the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

The essence of intelligent manufacturing is the mutual penetration and integration of virtual network and physical production. By integrating expert knowledge and experience into perception, decision-making, execution and other manufacturing activities, it endows product manufacturing with the ability of online learning and knowledge evolution, so that all enterprises and production units in the manufacturing system can work together efficiently, which can greatly improve production efficiency while reducing the demand for traditional labor. Intelligent manufacturing is not only the breakthrough and application of single technology and equipment, but also the deep integration and integration of manufacturing technology and information technology, such as equipment intelligence, digital design, production automation, modern management, and grid marketing service, to create new added value. With the use of sensors, the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, etc., intelligent manufacturing can realize the seamless connection between equipment and equipment, equipment and factories, factories, upstream and downstream enterprises of the supply chain, and enterprises and users. Enterprises can more accurately predict user needs, carry out flexible production according to the diversified and personalized needs of users, and monitor the entire production process in real time to achieve low-cost customized services.

For China, the function of intelligent manufacturing to improve production efficiency can help offset the impact of rising labor costs, and maintain and strengthen the comprehensive competitiveness of "Made in China". The transformation of manufacturing industry to intelligent manufacturing will generate a large demand for intelligent equipment, intelligent sensors, new materials, industrial software systems and related services, which can form new industrial growth points. In addition, with the help of the new production organization mode and business model, intelligent manufacturing can also realize the dynamic matching between production and manufacturing and market demand, which is conducive to reducing excess capacity and inventory, saving resources and energy, which is highly consistent with the goal direction of supply side structural reform. The intelligent manufacturing industry will inject power and vitality into "complementing weaknesses" and creating a new driving force for economic development.

Intelligent upgrading still faces challenges

Due to China's late start of industrialization, relatively weak technology accumulation and relatively low level of informatization, the intelligent upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is facing severe challenges.

First, the overall level of integration of "industrialization and industrialization" needs to be further improved. The informatization development among regions, industries and enterprises in China is unbalanced. Some enterprises have begun to explore intellectualization, but more enterprises are still in the stage of electrification, automation and even mechanization. Semi mechanization and manual production still exist in some underdeveloped areas. According to the data of the 2015 Report on the Integration and Development of Chinese Enterprises, as of 2015, only 14.6% of enterprises in China had a high level of informatization application, only 3% had achieved cross enterprise business collaboration and mode innovation on the basis of comprehensive integration, but 40% had not yet carried out informatization construction. There is still a long way to go before China's manufacturing industry can fully realize digitalization, networking and intellectualization.

Second, the basic R&D capability of intelligent manufacturing is relatively weak. There is still a big gap between China's domestic, academic and research level and advanced countries such as the United States, Japan and Europe. Intelligent software and hardware lack independent research and development technology. High end sensors, operating systems and key parts mainly rely on imports, which has hindered the development of intelligent manufacturing to a certain extent.

Third, the intelligent manufacturing production mode is still in its infancy. Chinese enterprises have long relied on low labor costs to form a cost depression, and are used to competing in the international and domestic markets, leading to low-end lock-in of the global value chain. Most enterprises lack the power to use intelligent equipment to replace artificial labor. At this stage, even some enterprises that introduce intelligent devices are still in the primary application stage. Few enterprises integrate value chains and business models with intelligent manufacturing, and there is no strategic thinking and overall planning for building an intelligent manufacturing system.

Fourth, the foundation of intelligent manufacturing standards, industrial software and network information security is weak. Standards are the battleground of industrial powers and commercial giants in the field of industry, especially high-tech industries. Leading standard formulation means mastering the voice of market competition and value distribution. At present, Germany has not only promoted the standardization of Industry 4.0 at the domestic and EU levels, but also set up an advisory group related to Industry 4.0 in the International Organization for Standardization. Although China is a big manufacturing country, the number of international standards for manufacturing industry formulated by China is not large, and the recognition of Chinese standards in the world is not high. China lacks voice and influence in the field of global manufacturing standards. In the field of industrial software, the mainstream software used for product lifecycle management (PLM) in the world is mainly developed by Siemens, PTC and Dassault. China lacks independent intellectual property rights in industrial software development, which is obviously at a disadvantage.

Fifth, there is a serious shortage of high-quality and versatile talents. From the perspective of operation and management, Chinese enterprises lack leaders with foresight, as well as professionals in high-level R&D, market development, financial management, etc. From the perspective of the staff team, there are more junior technicians, fewer senior technicians, more traditional technicians, fewer modern technicians, more single skilled technicians, and fewer complex technicians in Chinese enterprises. The low comprehensive quality of employees directly restricts the application and promotion of intelligent manufacturing systems. At the national strategic level, senior professionals involved in the formulation of intelligent manufacturing standards, international negotiations, laws and regulations are more obvious "weaknesses".

Climbing up the global value chain

Seize the strategic opportunity brought by the new industrial revolution, take intelligent manufacturing as a breakthrough, and lead Made in China to the high-end of the global value chain.

First, promote the independent R&D and industrialization of key equipment and core software of intelligent manufacturing, and improve the control of core links in the value chain. The government should increase the support for the basic research of intelligent manufacturing software and hardware, and break through the key core technologies that restrict the development of intelligent manufacturing; Promote cooperation among government, industry, university, research and application, and establish industrial innovation alliances, accelerate the formulation of China's intelligent manufacturing standards, and the development, promotion and application of industrial software, especially intelligent manufacturing operating systems; Research and develop industrial robots, additive manufacturing equipment, intelligent sensing and control equipment and other key technical equipment with independent intellectual property rights, and comprehensively improve the industrialization level of intelligent manufacturing.

Second, encourage innovative business models and open up value networks. The new production model and business model of "product+service" brought about by intelligent manufacturing, which are consumer centered and "demand customization+big data marketing+participation in manufacturing", requires enterprises to shift from a closed value chain to an open value network. The government should encourage enterprises to establish a platform ecosystem to realize new value added opportunities through ecological, systematic and intelligent services.

Third, cultivate independent brands and backbone enterprises to expand the global market. Taking the special action of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration as an opportunity, we will focus on cultivating a group of large backbone enterprises with strong independent innovation ability, outstanding main businesses, good product market prospects and great role in driving the industry. Encourage enterprises to actively "go global". On the one hand, through open innovation, they can actively use global innovation resources; On the other hand, promote the Chinese standards and platforms of intelligent manufacturing to create a strong intelligent manufacturing ecosystem.

Fourth, establish a multi-level human resource development system to meet the needs of intelligent manufacturing. Vigorously develop vocational education, continuing education, vocational skills training, etc., and cultivate and bring up application-oriented talents with high quality. Encourage backbone enterprises and qualified colleges and universities to carry out collaborative education, build industrial talent training bases, cultivate applied talents with "craftsmanship spirit", and consolidate the talent base of intelligent manufacturing.

Fifth, improve the enterprise's internal value chain management, enhance the enterprise's intelligent management ability, and improve the added value of data. In view of the new requirements of the highly flexible production mode of intelligent manufacturing on the complexity of management, guide enterprises to integrate in accordance with the new creation mode of product added value from product concept design, prototype development, resource management, order management, production plan acquisition and implementation, to logistics management, energy management and marketing after-sales, and establish an efficient intelligent operation system.

From Haibao Software Issue 0479

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