Industrial giants deploy cloud platforms, and my country must cultivate industrial cloud platforms that participate in global competition

What kind of policy support will the government provide for the establishment of industrial cloud platforms? How about the implementation of China's smart manufacturing transformation pilot in the early stage? At the point of the second anniversary of the "Made in China 2025" strategy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Xinsoft Division) and the Equipment Industry Division (hereinafter referred to as the Equipment Division) accepted an exclusive interview with Caixin, focusing on the above-mentioned market Interpretation.

After the early exploration of the transformation path of intelligent manufacturing, the industrial cloud platform has become the strategic entrance for the current international manufacturing giants to enter the digital age, and each company is accelerating the pace of deployment. The industrial Internet of Things cloud platform has become a new stage of competition for international industrial giants: GE in the United States emphasized its industrial Internet platform Predix, Siemens of Germany pushed for the release of its industrial cloud platform MindSphere, which was just a year old, and Schneider Electric launched industrial objects in April this year. Networking platform EcoStruxure.

Domestic manufacturing companies represented by Sany Heavy Industry and Haier Electric are also rapidly deploying industrial cloud platforms. However, with the exception of a few pioneers, the development of domestic industrial cloud platforms is still relatively slow. A series of problems such as communication standards and information security have become obstacles to industrial development.

Caixin: In terms of industrial cloud, international giants such as GE, Siemens, and Schneider Electric have all launched industrial cloud platforms. Domestic manufacturing companies are relatively slow in this regard. What are the main pain points of domestic industrial cloud development?

Xinsoft Division: The current global multinational giants are focusing on building an industrial ecosystem based on an industrial cloud platform, and are accelerating the integration of industrial chain resources. GE and Siemens have respectively launched platform products Predix and MindSphere. Facing the new trend of the evolution of the manufacturing competition landscape, domestic enterprises Aerospace Cloud Network, Haier COSMO and other independent industrial cloud platforms have been launched intensively. However, in general, the domestic industrial cloud platform is still in its infancy and still faces many challenges. The specific manifestations are as follows:

First, the basic industries are weak. China depends on foreign countries for a series of basic industries such as intelligent perception, automatic control, and industrial software necessary for the development of industrial cloud platforms.

Second, the platform construction capability needs to be improved. Constrained by the accumulation of industrial technology on the platform, the secondary development of open source software, and the ability to cultivate open source communities, my country's industrial cloud platform construction ability lags behind.

Third, the end-to-end solutions need to be strengthened urgently. The ability to build end-to-end solutions for device interconnection, edge computing, protocol conversion, platform migration, and business optimization is the basis for building an industrial cloud platform. Chinese platform companies only have initial transformation capabilities in some links.

The fourth is the lack of resource integration capabilities. GE and Siemens rely on alliances to integrate the upstream and downstream resources of the industrial chain. Compared with the international giants' "group warfare", Chinese platform companies are weaker and basically in a single-handed state, lacking "leading" companies that can compete with international giants.

Caixin: Will the government issue policies to help manufacturers build industrial cloud platforms?

Xinsoft Division: In the face of the above challenges, in the next phase, our ministry will adopt the overall strategy of innovative deployment, pilot applications, and perfect supervision, and carry out the following tasks: First, encourage and guide manufacturing companies to "go to the cloud" and start from the industrial cloud platform. Both the "supply side" and the "demand side" are working hard to gradually cultivate a group of industrial cloud platforms "aircraft carriers" that can participate in global competition through the two-wheel drive of "platform building" and "platform use".

The second is to promote the softwareization of industrial technology. It is necessary to build a national and provincial industrial cloud platform innovation center in combination with special projects such as "nuclear high base", and promote core technologies such as smart sensors, industrial control systems, industrial cloud operating systems, and new industrial software. R&D and industrialization.

The third is to strengthen open cooperation and accelerate the formation of a regulatory system for the development of industrial cloud platforms.

Caixin: Building the Industrial Internet of Things requires the collaboration of manufacturing companies, communication companies, and cloud platform service providers. At present, there are many problems such as inconsistent technical standards between enterprises and between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, which hinder the ecological growth of the industry. How to solve these problems?

Xinsoft Division: At present, there are dozens of fieldbus protocols, industrial Ethernet protocols, and wireless communication protocols in the factories of manufacturing enterprises in our country, which have brought great challenges to data interconnection and interoperability.

In the face of these problems, in the next step, we will promote the standard interoperability and system compatibility of industrial cloud platforms from the aspects of standards, pilot demonstrations, and international cooperation. First, we will vigorously promote the formulation of industry-based industrial cloud platform standards. There are many sub-categories in the industrial field, and various companies focus on different data collection. We will encourage leading companies in the industry to combine the application characteristics of industrial cloud platforms to formulate data collection specifications for the industry platform, and promote the interconnection of data between enterprises.

The second is to vigorously promote the pilot demonstration of common technologies and solutions, and promote the application of smart gateways, smart controllers and other products in industrial cloud platform pilot demonstration enterprises to form a universal program that can be demonstrated and promoted across industries.

The third is international cooperation. Actively participate in the formulation of international standards for industrial control systems and industrial cloud platforms, improve the internationalization level of industrial cloud platform standards, and fully demonstrate the achievements and capabilities of my country’s industrial cloud platforms, while effectively combining technological achievements with international standards and participating in mergers and acquisitions. Leading the formulation of international standards to enable China's industrial cloud platform to achieve marketization, industrialization and internationalization better and faster.

Caixin: Industrial data and industrial information security have become a big concern for manufacturing companies in their digital transformation. What measures will the government take to strengthen the management of industrial data security? How to coordinate the relationship between upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain?

Xinsoft Division: The issue of industrial information security is very important, and industrial data security in particular should arouse great attention. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology always regards industrial information security as one of the important foundations for building a strong manufacturing country, strives to resolve the relationship between manufacturing development and information security, and insists on the simultaneous advancement of security and development.

In accordance with the relevant requirements in the "Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Deepening the Development of Manufacturing and Internet Integration" (Guo Fa [2016] No. 28), in October 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guidelines for Information Security Protection of Industrial Control Systems" (hereinafter referred to as "Guidelines"). "). The "Guide" puts forward specific requirements for security protection from 11 aspects, especially in terms of data security. It clearly requires enterprises to protect important industrial data during static storage and dynamic transmission, and regular backup of key business data. And according to the risk assessment results, the data information is classified and managed.

At present, we have carried out the "Guide" publicity and implementation training. In the future, we will continue to promote the implementation of the "Guide". Through inspections, protection capability assessment and other means, we will guide enterprises to plan and construct industrial information security protection systems in the process of transformation and upgrading. , Improve the overall security protection level of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, and earnestly do a good job in industrial information security protection.

Caixin: In the past two years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has selected a number of smart manufacturing pilot demonstration projects to provide policy support. What is the current implementation status of the pilot project in smart manufacturing? What specific assistance does the government provide?

Equipment Department: From 2015 to 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology selected a total of 109 smart manufacturing pilot demonstration projects, distributed in 27 provinces (cities, districts), covering 63 industries. After two years of exploration and practice, preliminary results have been achieved.

First, the pilot demonstration projects have achieved "two upgrades and three reductions." Preliminary calculations show that, compared with before and after the intelligent transformation of the pilot demonstration project, the production efficiency is increased by more than 30% on average, and the highest is more than 2 times; the operating cost is reduced by more than 20% on average, and the highest is reduced by 60%; the product development cycle is shortened by more than 30% on average. The highest reduction is more than 50%; the product defect rate is reduced by more than 26% on average, and the highest is reduced by more than 90%; the energy utilization rate is increased by more than 11% on average, and the highest is increased by more than 50%.

The second is the preliminary exploration to form a number of replicable empirical models. For example, the large-scale personalized customization mode in the clothing and furniture fields led by meeting the individual needs of users, the remote operation and maintenance service mode in the fields of power generation equipment and construction machinery, and the network collaborative manufacturing mode in the aviation and automotive fields. Strong demonstration value.

The third is to form a good environment for multi-party coordinated development. National ministries and commissions have established a linkage mechanism, overall planning, and various localities have actively coordinated and acted actively, forming a good situation of central and local coordination, system integrators, equipment manufacturing enterprises, and users jointly implementing, and jointly promoting intelligent manufacturing.

In the process of advancing smart manufacturing, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has established the general idea to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and endogenous power of enterprises. In the selection of pilot demonstration projects for smart manufacturing, enterprises will be tested first, invested and started operations in advance, and have significant growth. As an important condition, the project highlights the main role of enterprises in developing integrated innovation, engineering applications, industrialization and pilot demonstrations.

In the specific process of advancement, we give full play to the enthusiasm of localities, industry associations, and enterprises, increase the promotion of smart manufacturing pilot demonstrations, actively cultivate system solution providers, and use existing means such as special construction funds and technological transformation to increase Great support for enterprises to promote intelligentization, and create a good ecology for the development of intelligent manufacturing.

Caixin: The manufacturing industry involves different vertical industries. In different fields such as light industrial manufacturing and heavy industrial equipment manufacturing, what are the different support policies for the government to promote intelligent manufacturing?

Equipment Division: The "Intelligent Manufacturing Development Plan (2016-2020)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance at the end of last year pointed out that the development of smart manufacturing is a long-term strategic task, with classification and hierarchical guidance, and industry and step by step progress. Focusing on the ten key areas of "Made in China 2025", pilot the construction of digital workshops/smart factories, speed up the integrated application of key intelligent manufacturing technology and equipment, and promote manufacturing process simulation optimization, digital control, status information implementation monitoring and adaptive control.

On the one hand, we are focusing on expanding the coverage of industries and regions as much as possible in the process of advancing the special action of pilot demonstration of intelligent manufacturing, setting demonstration benchmarks for different industries, and driving the intelligent development of the industry through model promotion.

On the other hand, for the ten key areas of "Made in China 2025", appropriately taking into account the transformation and upgrading needs of other areas of the manufacturing industry, support the development of smart manufacturing standard test verification and new model applications, and develop the basic commonality of smart manufacturing, key technologies, and basic industry applications. Standard research, exploration and practice of effective experience and mode of intelligent manufacturing, after continuous enrichment and maturity, comprehensive promotion in various fields of manufacturing.