Industry 4.0 subverts the new thinking of global manufacturing!

The concept of Industry 4.0 proposed by the Germans is sweeping the world. The so-called "Industry 4.0" refers to a production method that combines virtual production with reality. In the future, the manufacturing industry will achieve higher engineering efficiency, flexibility and shorter time to market. In the "Industry 4.0" era, the virtual world will merge with the real world. Through computing, autonomous control and networking, people, machines, and information can be connected and integrated into one.

Germany was the first country to put forward the concept of Industry 4.0. In the "High-Tech Strategy 2020" launched by the German government, Industry 4.0 was listed as one of the top ten future projects. Different from the popular saying of the third industrial revolution in the United States, Germany describes the gradual progress of technology in the manufacturing sector as the four stages of the industrial revolution, that is, the evolutionary course of Industry 4.0. The term "Industry 4.0" first appeared at the Hannover Messe held in Germany in 2011. At the 2013 Hannover Messe, the concept of "Industry 4.0" was formally proposed by the German "Industry 4.0 Group".

The previous Industry 3.0 era began in the 1970s and has continued to the present, that is, the widespread application of electronics and information technology has made the manufacturing process continue to be automated. At this time, machines can gradually replace human operations. Today, Industry 4.0 shows us a brand new industrial blueprint: In a "smart and networked world", the Internet of Things and Internet of Services (Internet of Services) will penetrate all key areas and create new value. The process is gradually changing, the division of labor in the industrial chain will be reorganized, the traditional industry boundaries will disappear, and various new fields of activity and forms of cooperation will emerge.

It is worth noting that Industry 4.0 will develop a new business model and cooperation model. The characteristics of "networked manufacturing", "self-organized and adaptable logistics" and "integrated customer manufacturing engineering" have also enabled it to take the lead in satisfying a dynamic business network rather than a single company, which will trigger a series of financing, development, Reliability, risk, liability and intellectual property and technical security issues.

In China, in January last year, the Chinese Academy of Engineering initiated and carried out the "Manufacturing Power Strategy Research" consulting project, with the President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Zhou Ji and former Executive Vice President Zhu Gaofeng as the project team leaders. The project clarifies the phased goals and various indicators for China to become a manufacturing power, and at the beginning of this year it proposed guidelines and priority actions for entering the ranks of manufacturing powers in 2025.

In fact, the development and transformation of China’s manufacturing industry has been facing “the front and back attack from developed countries and developing countries in Europe and the United States; the cost of labor, land costs and other factors have risen rapidly; the domestic economy has entered a period of medium-speed growth; resources and environmental constraints have further strengthened and independence Insufficient innovation ability, low resource utilization efficiency, and unreasonable industrial structure."

In early June of this year, at the 2014 International Engineering Science and Technology Conference, Li Peigen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, disclosed for the first time the four major transformations and one main line of the "Made in China 2025 Plan" being formulated: that is, the transformation from factor-driven to innovation-driven; from low-cost competition Advantages are transformed into competitive advantages of quality and efficiency; from extensive manufacturing with high resource consumption and high pollutant emissions to green manufacturing; and from production-oriented manufacturing to service-oriented manufacturing. The main line is to take digital and intelligent manufacturing, which embodies the deep integration of information technology and manufacturing technology, as the main line of future development.

Prior to this, the project team passed three comprehensive research groups: "Study on the main indicators of a strong manufacturing country", "Study on manufacturing innovation and development strategy" and "Strategic research on a strong manufacturing country", as well as machinery, transportation, energy, metallurgy and chemical engineering, information electronics, and light industry. Research groups in eight fields of textiles, instruments and manufacturing services were launched at the same time. This also means that the "Made in China 2025 Plan" announced in the future will clarify special action plans in related fields on the basis of the general outline.

"In traditional manufacturing, a drawing is usually produced during research and development, and then handed over to the production department to make a sample. The drawing is returned to the research and development department for adjustment and modification before production. Under digital manufacturing, from research and development to manufacturing are based on the same data platform, change With the traditional manufacturing rhythm, R&D and production are almost synchronized, and there is no need for paper drawings or orders.” An industry insider once explained the changes brought about by digital manufacturing. This change in rhythm has brought about a significant reduction in the time to market for products, an effective improvement in production efficiency and product quality.

Obviously, "Industry 4.0" means not only the transformation of technology and production process, but also the adjustment of the entire management and organizational structure. In this regard, companies must give up silos and prepare for change. Big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things technologies will all be used in the fourth industrial revolution, and their coordinated operations will completely subvert the traditional manufacturing thinking.