Global industry development faces new opportunities for digitalization (in-depth observation)

Source: People's Daily

Figure (1): Haier's first refrigerator interconnection factory in the European Union was officially put into operation in the Romanian Alianso Industrial Park.

Xinhua News Agency

Figure (2): At the 4th China International Import Expo, an industrial six-axis robot is building a house.

Photo by Xu Congjun (People's Vision)

Figure (3): Automatic transportation system in the workshop of Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Factory.

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Figure (4): The local government and machinery manufacturers in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, launched an "unmanned tea picking machine" for tea farmers.

Figure (5): A 3D printed fiberglass boat on display at the Genoa Yacht Show in Italy in October 2020.

Image China

Driven by a new generation of digital technologies, the world has accelerated into the era of digital economy. Digital industrialization and industrial digitalization are the two major contents of the digital economy, while the Internet, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other digital industries are developing rapidly, involving more industrial fields, larger market scale, deeper structural level of industrial digitalization is also in full swing, becoming an important direction for the future development of the digital economy.

Under the background of the severe impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the global economy, more and more industries have accelerated digital transformation and promoted the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, so as to gain new impetus for development.

Data becomes a key factor of production

The data itself has economic value, can improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and directly bring economic benefits

In South Korea's Samsung Electronics semiconductor workshop, many boxes are constantly shuttling along the overhead orbit. Using the automatic transport OHT system, the robotic arm can automatically carry the box containing the semiconductor wafer, complete the processing of one process after another, the speed is fast, the order is orderly, and there will be no collision. Compared with the busyness of the "aerial track", the floor of the workshop is somewhat deserted, and occasionally one or two technicians pace between the equipment. "The operation of thousands of production equipment on the production line is displayed in real time on the computer in the office, and the technicians monitor this information and ensure that the equipment is running normally." Staff introduction.

Digital factories like these are constantly emerging. According to the "Global Digital Economy White Paper" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in 2020, among the 47 countries measured, the added value of the digital economy accounted for 43.7% of GDP, of which industrial digitalization is the main engine of the development of the digital economy, accounting for 84.4% of the digital economy, showing a trend of continuous increase in the proportion. This means that on a global scale, digital technologies and data resources are accelerating the embrace of the real economy from a deeper and broader field.

At present, the land, resources, energy and environmental constraints facing the development of human society have increased, and economic growth needs to activate new momentum. With the continuous maturity of digital technology, data has become another important factor of production for mankind after land, labor, capital, etc. "The data itself has economic value, and participating in production activities as a factor of production can improve the efficiency of resource utilization and directly bring economic benefits to enterprises." Li Xiaohua, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out.

Taking the new energy industry as an example, the addition of digital technology can effectively improve the utilization efficiency of renewable resources. A team of researchers at Imperial College London used big data to simulate the power generation process of a wind farm and found that when all windmills are in operation, the airflow generated by the blades of the front windmill affects the working effect of the windmill behind. If the location of the windmill installation is determined according to the suggestions given by big data, and part of the windmill is selectively opened, the power generation efficiency is greatly improved, and the cost of power generation will also be greatly reduced.

"Data has an alternative effect on other elements, can optimize the input structure of production factors, change production functions, and in the process require enterprises to carry out comprehensive reforms of product architecture, production processes, value chain organization, etc." Li Xiaohua explained that as a production factor, data also has many advantages, such as low marginal cost, replicable, shareable, continuous generation and supply, "inexhaustible, inexhaustible", can overcome the total resource limit of traditional production factors, and has the characteristics of increasing scale returns.

As it is closely related to the progress of productivity, governments attach great importance to industrial digitalization and have introduced a series of strategies and policies. For example, the "Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Program" in the United States, the "Industry 4.0" strategy in Germany, and the "Superintelligent Society (Social 5.0)" strategy in Japan. During the epidemic prevention and control period, the urgency of developing the digital economy has become more prominent, and many countries have increased policy guidance, such as the European Union's 2021 "Digital Compass 2030: The European Road to the Digital Decade", proposing to promote the comprehensive digital transformation of enterprises, with the goal of using cloud computing services, big data and artificial intelligence by 75% of European enterprises by 2030, and more than 90% of small and medium-sized enterprises have reached at least the basic level of digitalization.

Digitalization promotes the upgrading of traditional industries

Actively explore their own digital path, and leaders such as "Lighthouse Factory" take the lead in setting an example

Compared with emerging industries such as the Internet, how can traditional industries such as consumer goods and industrial product manufacturing undergo digital transformation? Kearney Management Consulting believes that when traditional enterprises embrace digital transformation, they should base their digital strategy with the company's vision and business strategy based on their own business at the strategic level, so that their main business can be plugged in with digital wings.

In Germany, a traditional European industrial powerhouse, Siemens once presented a case study of the beer industry at the Hannover Messe.

Over the past few hundred years, German beers brewed on the basis of the "Beer Purity Method" have become popular. A glass of beer has to go through more than 10 processes, and high-level brewing technicians have always been an important guarantee of product quality. However, there is uncertainty in human operation, especially in the beer industry has long been globalized, how to achieve large-scale production of the same brand of beer in different factories around the world, maintain the same taste and quality, and quickly adjust according to market changes, has always been a huge challenge for the industry.

THE TOTAL FOOD AND BEVERAGE CONTROL SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY SIEMENS ALLOWS TECHNICIANS TO PRECISELY CONTROL TIME, TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE, CONCENTRATION, CONDUCTIVITY AND MANY OTHER PARAMETERS DURING SACCHARIFICATION AND FERMENTATION, AS WELL AS THE FINAL STORAGE, FILTRATION AND FILLING LINKS. With this system, only a few operators need to be in front of the screen, and more than 100,000 bottles of beer can be produced per hour, and the production efficiency is greatly improved.

At the same time, the production data collected by the system, through the Siemens industrial cloud MindSphere, can be shared in real time at any of the beer brand's global factories to achieve product quality unification. Once the data deviation is found, the system will also alarm in time, reducing the time of downtime and maintenance.

With digital twin technology, the pre-production plant setup process can also be digitized. Wearing VR glasses, in front of the virtual operating table, the manager can adjust the various process parameters, customize the production process, adjust the equipment placement and pipeline layout, in order to make better use of the plant space, saving building materials and energy.

"Breweries embracing digitalization can improve production management with real-time data analytics, reduce equipment maintenance costs through remote monitoring and error prevention, and pinpoint peak productivity and product quality with process software." With fewer blind spots for production managers, they can plan processes more easily and significantly increase productivity. Schneberg, a digital expert on the German beer industry, said.

At present, brewing process control systems based on digital technology are already widely used in the German beer industry. It is understood that the first generation version of the BRAUMAT system was born in 1983 and has now been upgraded to the eighth generation, which can provide 2 versions of standard and streamlined, the latter suitable for small and craft breweries. From automation to digitalization, Germany has formed a super-large technology supplier represented by Siemens to explore digital technology and market, driving small and medium-sized enterprises to follow up the development trend.

Globally, there are many leaders who have taken the lead in industrial digitalization. Since 2018, the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company have launched a global selection of "lighthouse factories" to find a model of digital transformation in manufacturing, and 90 factories from 22 industries around the world have been selected. These "lighthouse factories" are widely distributed in consumer goods, automobiles, household appliances, steel products, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, industrial equipment and other fields, actively exploring their own digital paths, showing the great potential of digital transformation of traditional industries.

Digital technologies continue to unlock value

The dividend of the digital economy will gradually spread from the industrial sectors and industrial chain links with the most significant economic benefits

In its Industrial Development Report 2020: Industrialization in the Digital Age, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) argues that advanced digital manufacturing technologies can improve corporate profitability and capital utilization, and enhance environmental sustainability. The report also pointed out that the diffusion of advanced digital manufacturing technology is unevenly distributed among economies and industries, with the top ten leading economies having 90% of the patents for advanced digital manufacturing technology, and only a few manufacturing companies are adopting advanced digital manufacturing technology.

Digital transformation of production lines, rental of servers, development of software... Enterprises want to digitally transform, and cost investment is the threshold. "At present, high cost is an important factor hindering the development of industrial digitalization. Enterprises should consider the input-output ratio when applying digital technologies, and countries should focus on applying them first to the industrial sectors with the most significant economic benefits in the process of embracing industrial digitalization. Li Xiaohua said.

The economic benefits of some companies applying digital technology have emerged: in the power industry, Canada's Bruce Power Company has greatly increased the operational efficiency of nuclear power equipment after using the Predix Industrial Internet digital platform, the stability of equipment has been improved, and the average price of power generation has dropped by 30%; in the aviation industry, GE Aviation Group has been able to provide reliable maintenance, fault early troubleshooting and other services by installing a large number of sensors on aircraft engines and using artificial intelligence technology to analyze engine data in real time. In the photovoltaic industry, GCL-Poly uses big data and artificial intelligence analysis to obtain the optimal parameters when producing polycrystalline silicon wafers with a thickness of only 0.2 mm, and then optimizes the production line, which increases the yield rate by one percentage point and saves 100 million yuan a year.

At the same time, it should also be noted that compared with large enterprises with strength, small and medium-sized enterprises are limited by talent, capital, technology and other conditions, and digital transformation is relatively lagging behind. "As digitalization is an important driver of productivity and wage growth, these disparities exacerbate inequalities between different populations, companies, and regions." In its 2021 report On the Digital Transformation of SMEs, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development noted that the biggest challenge for many companies is taking the first step. Once the transition to digital technologies begins, strong technological complementarities will drive further adoption of digital technologies. To take this step, SMEs can take full advantage of external systems, support and advice.

The digital transformation of SMEs has attracted the attention of many governments. With the support of the government, Germany has established 25 Industry 4.0 Competence Centers, and a number of federal states have established Industry 4.0 frontier clusters to solve the technical and security problems encountered in intelligent upgrading for small and medium-sized enterprises. "In terms of the planning and application of Industry 4.0 technologies and services, the German government has provided practical support for the digital transformation of SMEs in terms of policies, technologies and funds." Sharma, an expert in the field of Industry 4.0 of the German Federal Trade and Investment Agency, introduced.

During the epidemic prevention and control period, the speed of digital transformation has accelerated unprecedentedly. With marketing and administration as the entry point, many small and medium-sized enterprises are using more digital technologies, and e-commerce, remote work, and digital marketing are rapidly becoming popular. "The digital economy is the trend of the times, with the continuous development of technology, the cost continues to decline, the digital economy dividend will gradually spread from the most significant economic benefits to other departments, from one link in the industrial chain to other links, and ultimately promote the continuous improvement of the digital level of various industrial sectors." Li Xiaohua said.

(Beijing, Berlin, Seoul, reporters Shang Kaiyuan, Qiang Wei, Wang Hui, Li Qiang, Zhang Yue)