Recently, the 2017 China Jiangsu Smart Factory Planning and Construction Conference and the Inaugural Meeting of the Smart Manufacturing Professional Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Society of Engineers were held in Nanjing. Experts and scholars, including Wang Jianwei, Director of the Integration of Informatization and Industrialization Division of the Department of Information Technology and Software Services, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT); Ning Zhenbo, Chief Consultant of the Information Technology Center, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC); and Xie Bingbing, Chief Engineer of the Beijing Research Institute of Automation for Machine Building Industry, offered new interpretations and perspectives on smart manufacturing in China.
Integration of Informatization and Industrialization Accelerates Towards a New Stage of Smart Manufacturing. Wang Jianwei believes that under the wave of networking and informatization, the current manufacturing industry is undergoing profound changes, and the integration of informatization and industrialization is becoming increasingly important. The integration of informatization and industrialization is a high-level, deep combination of informatization and industrialization. It refers to driving industrialization through informatization and promoting informatization through industrialization, thereby embarking on a new path to industrialization. The core of this integration is informatization support, pursuing a sustainable development model.
Wang Jianwei stated: "The internet is gradually developing from downstream applications to upstream industries. The deep integration of industrialization and informatization has played an increasingly significant role, and manufacturing and the internet have entered a new process of integrated development. In this transformation, industrial production models are evolving from automation and digitalization to become more networked and intelligent. This is manifested in the industrial sector shifting from using ICT technologies represented by computers to using ICT technologies represented by the internet."
"Our industrial production and manufacturing are advancing towards smart manufacturing. The deep integration of manufacturing and the internet is a crucial initiative for China's manufacturing sector to enhance quality, boost efficiency, and achieve overall upgrading." Starting in 2015, the nation successively issued policies such as "Made in China 2025," "Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting the 'Internet Plus' Action," and "Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Integration of Manufacturing and the Internet," thereby establishing a strategic policy framework for building a strong manufacturing country. Furthermore, ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), have introduced multiple policies, such as the "Smart Manufacturing Development Plan (2016-2020)" and the "Smart Manufacturing Engineering Implementation Guidelines (2016-2020)." In the future, in addition to pilot demonstrations and promotion in traditional sectors like non-ferrous metals, rare earths, textiles, and home appliances, there will also be an accelerated deployment in emerging fields such as 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and smart transportation.
Smart Manufacturing First Solidifies Sensor, Digitalization, and Networking Foundations. According to Ning Zhenbo, smart manufacturing begins with status perception. To achieve true smart manufacturing, three fundamental conditions must first be met: first, affordable sensors; second, digitizing everything that can be digitized; and third, networking everything that can be connected. Ning Zhenbo refutes the prevailing industry notion that "smart manufacturing simply means using more robots." He stated, "If smart manufacturing is merely about 'robots replacing humans,' the lessons learned from Foxconn are already profound enough."
Foxconn initially boasted that it would produce 1.5 million robots within five years to replace 1.5 million industrial workers. But what about now? How many did it actually produce? Only about 40,000 units before it couldn't sustain the effort and stopped. It suffered huge losses and barely replaced anyone! This clearly shows it listened to and credulously believed 'fake experts,' ultimately suffering the consequences."
At the end of 2011, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou publicly stated that Foxconn intended to install 1 million robotic arms by 2014, with plans to complete the first batch of automated factories within 5 to 10 years, an initiative dubbed the "Million Robot Program." However, by the end of 2016, five years later, only approximately 40,000 units had been installed. Experts analyzed that the main reasons for the failure included insufficient robot precision, inability to handle full production line tasks, and excessively high upgrade and maintenance costs.
It is the consensus among attending experts that robots are far from being the entirety of smart manufacturing. Tan Jianrong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, distinguished professor at Zhejiang University, and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, further believes that for China's current manufacturing sector, a higher degree of automation is not necessarily better.
According to preliminary statistics from the IFR International Federation of Robotics, last year alone, China purchased 90,000 industrial robots, accounting for one-third of the total global industrial robot orders. It is projected that by 2019, the annual orders for industrial robots in China will increase to 160,000 units. Tan Jianrong stated, "For a manufacturing enterprise, it is essential to achieve a reasonable division of labor and collaborative work among people, machines, and robots to maximize production efficiency, rather than solely focusing on the level of automation."
The complexity of its industrial sectors dictates that China's smart manufacturing must forge its own independent path.
China stands as the sole industrial nation globally that encompasses all large, medium, and small industrial classifications recognized by the United Nations. It is unique in possessing 39 major industrial categories, 191 medium categories, and 525 minor categories, thereby forming an unparalleled and comprehensive industrial system.
Ning Zhenbo posits that precisely due to the sheer breadth and completeness of China's industrial sectors, the implementation of "smart manufacturing" in the country must be a self-reliant endeavor. He asserts that pure imitation and wholesale copying would be futile. Ning Zhenbo explained, "Adopting Germany's 'Industry 4.0' wouldn't resolve half of our issues, as their industrial categories are neither comprehensive nor sufficient. Similarly, bringing in America's 'Industrial Internet' wouldn't work either; their categories are also incomplete and lack many elements that could not provide significant guidance for us."
Tan Jianrong previously emphasized in a media interview, "In a factory workshop, tasks that require human input should be performed by humans; those suited for machines should be done by machines; and those for robots, by robots. The human role remains indispensable."
Overall, experts contend that AI's transformative impact on manufacturing is far less monumental or magical than commonly perceived. Genuine "smart manufacturing" scenarios will inevitably unfold over the long term. For the current stage, smart manufacturing should uphold the principle of "human-machine collaboration, with humans taking the lead."
(Source: China Integration of Informatization and Industrialization Service Platform)
