"Made in China 2025" and Germany "Industry 4.0": A large number of manufacturing companies successfully married

"Made in China 2025" is the first ten-year action plan for China to implement the strategy of a manufacturing powerhouse, aiming at five major projects and ten key areas to help China's manufacturing industry to innovate, transform and upgrade.

German "Industry 4.0", proposed by Germany in 2011, intends to promote digital and intelligent manufacturing and lead a new wave of industrial revolution.

The two hand in hand is an inevitable choice for the two major manufacturing countries to adapt to the trend of digitalization. It is the mutual learning and cooperation of advanced technology, and it is a strong alliance for mutual benefit and win-win.

Work together to promote the digitalization process

Digitization, recognized as an important feature and key driving factor of the next round of industrial revolution, has become one of the main trends affecting today's world economy and society.

Lagarde, President of the International Monetary Fund, once called for the digital revolution to advance, and every country must act. Siemens Digital Factory CEO Jan Mhouzk said that digitalization has solved many of the problems faced by global industrial companies, such as rapid market launch, production efficiency, flexible production, quality control and safety assurance, which are extremely important for industrial development. . The German Minister of Economy and Energy Brigitte Zipris believes that when the digital wave hits, "who does not participate will fail."

In 2014, China and Germany jointly issued the "China-Germany Cooperation Action Plan: Co-Shaping Innovation", which believes that the digitalization of industrial production is of great significance to the future economic development of China and Germany. Both sides believe that this process should be promoted by enterprises themselves, and the governments of the two countries should provide policy support for enterprises to participate in this process.

Shi Shiwei, a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin and a Sino-German economic and trade expert, said that the Chinese and German governments and business circles have a broad consensus and strong desire to jointly promote digitalization. "Made in China 2025" and German "Industry 4.0" are the strategies of the two countries to follow the digital trend choose. Although the manufacturing industries of the two countries are at different stages of development and the digital content is also different, the two countries have strong complementarities in multiple industries such as equipment manufacturing and machine tools, which are conducive to advancing pragmatic cooperation.

Government Cooperative Environment

The strategic docking cooperation between "Made in China 2025" and German "Industry 4.0" has a long history and is progressing smoothly.

At present, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research have established an "Industry 4.0" dialogue mechanism, and have successively signed memorandums of understanding and framework cooperation agreements to jointly promote the two countries in the field of smart manufacturing Cooperation practice. The two countries have also initiated systematic and strategic cooperation in the field of "Industry 4.0" international rules and standards formulation, and have established a number of cooperative demonstration projects to provide information and experience for more companies in the field of intelligent manufacturing between the two countries.

Dieter Kempf, chairman of the Federation of German Industries, said that "Made in China 2025" creates new opportunities for cooperation between Chinese and German companies. He believes that compared to short-term promotion projects, the policy framework jointly operated by the two governments is more important for business cooperation in the long run, and it is particularly effective for small and medium-sized enterprises that are highly dependent on it. While committed to providing more favorable framework conditions and policy support, the Chinese and German governments have also strengthened their investment and support for the research and development of smart manufacturing.

After two years of development of "Made in China 2025", the implementation effects of the five major projects have begun to show. With regard to the construction of manufacturing innovation centers, the first national-level power battery innovation center has been established, and preparations for the establishment of a national-level additive manufacturing innovation center have begun. Governments at all levels have also invested heavily in innovative research and development. The German government also strongly supports "Industry 4.0" scientific research. In addition to funding key technology research and development, the government has also established technology centers in various places to provide enterprises with free consultation and test "Industry 4.0" technologies to help them increase the speed of enterprise transformation and upgrading.

Shi Shiwei believes that upstream technology research and development is the prerequisite for promoting the industrial revolution, and the Chinese and German governments, industry associations and universities have great potential for cooperation in the field of research and development.

Enterprise alliance seeks a win-win situation

"Made in China 2025" and Germany's "Industry 4.0" have facilitated the successful marriage of a large number of Chinese and German manufacturing companies.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce of China, China invested US$2.945 billion in Germany in 2016, an increase of 258.6% over the previous year, and the stock reached US$8.827 billion. In the same year, Germany added 392 new investment projects in China, with an investment of more than 2.7 billion U.S. dollars, a total of 9,394 investment projects and an investment stock of 28.18 billion U.S. dollars.

In recent years, Huawei and Si Aipu have cooperated to provide intelligent manufacturing solutions. Baosteel and Siemens have jointly explored "Industry 4.0" in the steel industry. Haier and Fraunhofer Logistics Research Institute in Germany have cooperated to build an intelligent and interconnected washing machine factory in Tianjin, Midea The Group acquired the German KUKA Robot Company... a large number of Chinese and German manufacturing companies have successfully docked, and the areas of cooperation have continued to expand and levels continue to upgrade.

Recently, German "Industry 4.0" leader Bosch and China's water heater industry leader Wanhe established a joint venture to jointly build an electric water heater production base. Advanced technology merges the advantages of scale, Chinese efficiency joins German quality, Bosch joins Wanhe, adding another successful case for the "Made in China 2025" and German "Industry 4.0" cooperation.

Wang Weidong, Minister Counselor of the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, said that the docking of "Made in China 2025" and German "Industry 4.0" is a process of mutual learning and mutual learning, and it is a mutually beneficial cooperation.

Kempf said that in the process of independent selection based on mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, the success rate of cooperation between Chinese and German industrial enterprises has been rising, and "experience is very positive."

Pei Yonggui, Economic and Commercial Consul of the Chinese Consulate General in Munich, said that in the future, Chinese and German companies still have a lot of room for cooperation in the fields of high-end equipment, smart manufacturing, mobile Internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing and big data.