By Yu Jianbin, People’s Daily
In China, digital technologies, such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and 5G are
picking up their pace of integration into traditional industries as the efforts to promote intelligent
transformation are being extended from online to offline.
Regarding smart manufacturing as a key to transformation and upgrading of traditional
manufacturing industry, many local governments of the country have carried out practical actions
to boost intelligentization by speeding up intelligent transformation and building industrial
Internet platforms, digital workshops, and unmanned and smart factories.
Accelerating the development of smart manufacturing is an inevitable path for the upgrading of
the manufacturing sector and an effective way to foster more new growth areas.
China has explicitly stated in this year’s government work report that the country will promote the
industrial Internet and boost smart manufacturing, which signals that smart manufacturing is
increasingly becoming a major trend and a core part in the future development of the
manufacturing sector and playing a vital role in advancing the push toward mid- and high-end
industries.
Only by accelerating the integration of the new generation of information technologies and the
manufacturing sector, and making the sector more digitalized, networked and intelligent, can
China further make its manufacturing smarter.
Digital technologies are redefining production chains, with activities extending from consumption
to production and from the virtual economy to the real economy. The new automated, digitized
and smart manufacturing is just around the corner.
For example, all links on the production chain in a digital workshop are powered by digital
technologies to improve production efficiency. On a smart production line, workers and industrial
robots work side by side. Besides, spare parts can be printed in customized shapes through 3D
printing, a transformative technology.
The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is providing a historic
opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry.
In terms of smart manufacturing, priority should be given to the “chemical reaction” of the deep
integration of intelligent technologies and the manufacturing sector. As an important part of the
“new infrastructure”, the industrial internet can straighten the whole value chain from R&D to the
market by realizing comprehensive connectivity among humans, machines and things.
In particular, the integration of new technologies such as AI into advanced manufacturing
technologies in the process of smart manufacturing can make all links including product design,
scheduling and troubleshooting smart. Besides improving efficiency and cutting costs, it can also
realize custom-tailored manufacturing and add more value to technologically-advanced products.
After intelligent transformation, companies could improve over 20 percent of average production
efficiency, cut about 20 percent of operational costs and shorten about 35 percent of the product
development cycle, according to a survey conducted in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong province.
Similarly, a sample survey in Changzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province showed that local
enterprises could increase around 70 percent of the output value and cut about 20 percent of the
cost per unit of production after intelligent transformation.
The comprehensive and in-depth intelligent transformation will also generate new manufacturing
models such as digital manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, and service-oriented
manufacturing to enhance the market competitiveness of products.
Intelligent transformation is significant because it not only optimizes production and supply, but
also ensures targeted alignment between the supply and demand sides with the help of big data
and algorithms, thus striking a proper balance between custom-tailored production and assembly-
line production.
For instance, some time-honored brands in China, based on the analysis of consumer data, are able
to make products that are more favored by the young generation, and thus regain vitality.
By using big data technology, some garment enterprises saved all information about customized
business suits, including the sizes, materials and sewing processes of each part of the suits, so as to
ensure that a single production line is able to make suits with different styles, fabrics and sizes.
Big data and cloud computing analysis can also connect online consumer data and offline
production data to optimize manufacturing and open up a new pathway for manufacturing
transformation and upgrading.
With the acceleration of new infrastructure, China’s smart manufacturing embraces better
development opportunities. More than 10,000 5G base stations are newly installed every week in
the country. The industrial internet platforms developed by leading companies have helped small
and medium-sized enterprises boost intelligent transformation.
Advancing in-depth smart manufacturing through the joint efforts of the government, enterprises
and other parties will benefit more manufacturers and unleash more growth drivers for industrial
transformation and upgrading and high-quality economic development.
