On the afternoon of April 27, the industry's first "White Paper on Digital Transformation of Lithium Battery Industry" was held in Chongqing. Liu Yanlong, former secretary general of China Chemical and Physical Power Association, Luo Huanta, founder of Dadong Times Think Tank (TD), representatives of Qingyi Industrial Software, Shenzhen Xinxiang, Econic, Hanma Technology and other representatives jointly launched the white paper release ceremony.
At the press conference, Liu Yanlong, secretary general of China Chemical and Physical Power Association, delivered a speech. At the same time, Luo Huanta, founder of Dadong Times Think Tank (TD), introduced and shared the White Paper on Digital Transformation of the Lithium Battery Industry (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper).
Through field research on 115 leading enterprises in the lithium battery industry, the team of the Digital Intelligence Research Institute of Dadong Times Think Tank (TD) has compiled a complete picture of the digitalization of the lithium battery industry and a "infrastructure" level book, which is intended to provide enterprises with practical experience and insights with guiding value through the industry's cutting-edge data, cases and in-depth analysis of the leading enterprises in lithium batteries, lithium battery equipment and lithium battery materials. The White Paper is sponsored and supported by Shanghai Qingyi Industrial Software Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Xinxiang Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Hanma Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Ecoli Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and Quzhou Research Institute of Zhejiang University.
Introduction to the research sample of the white paper on digital transformation of the lithium battery industry
Image source: Courtesy of the team of the Institute of Digital Intelligence of the Great Eastern Times Think Tank (TD).
The subjects of this survey include:
There are 42 lithium battery enterprises: power, consumption, energy storage lithium battery manufacturing, lithium battery PACK, lithium battery application solutions to provide enterprises, 31 lithium battery material enterprises: cathode (including ternary precursor and cathode upstream materials), anode, electrolyte, additives/solvents/solutes, separators, aluminum-plastic film, copper foil manufacturing enterprises, 42 lithium battery equipment enterprises: battery cell manufacturing and design of the front/middle/back section, PACK, experiment, testing equipment enterprises.
Specifically, 71% of lithium battery companies will be listed as a "top project", most of the "top leader" for the definition of informatization and digitalization is not clear, but simply the introduction of "information software system" as the core means of digital transformation of enterprises, and most enterprises still equate digitalization with informatization, handed over to the business department and IT department to lead.
According to the survey results of the Dadong Times Think Tank (TD), 94% of enterprises have no long-term plan for informatization/digitalization, and are dominated by the needs of business departments and companies. According to the white paper, although up to 71% of enterprises list digital transformation as a "top project", lack of systematic planning, and cannot comprehensively promote the improvement of the overall digital capabilities of enterprises, and even although most enterprises have built a cross-departmental collaboration mechanism, the rights, responsibilities and interests linked to responsibility, cost and performance are still very vague.
From a result-oriented perspective, 58% of enterprises believe that the main factors for the current digital progress "there is a big gap with the company's strategic direction" are the lack of comprehensive talents and the timing, starting time, and consistency of digital transformation.
In terms of common digital tools, the common tools for operation represented by ERP (excluding PLM), the choice of enterprises is no longer dominated by the most famous and powerful software development manufacturers, but more consideration is the use experience, as well as the connection between software and ERP. Including but not limited to MES, QMS, APS, WMS and other commonly used tools in production and supply chain, except for TMS, which has a low application popularity, domestic service providers and self-developed lithium battery companies are more than 50% and 15% respectively. Commonly used tools need to fit the industry attributes and enterprise characteristics, and become the preferred requirements for lithium battery enterprises.
According to the white paper, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, energy storage systems and other fields, the demand for lithium batteries is also increasing, and with the advent of the digital era, the integration of the industrial chain has become the general trend. The policy guidance at the national level also emphasizes the synergy and cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises, as well as the deep integration in various application scenarios.
On the one hand, the requirements of the "battery passport" have brought huge challenges and opportunities to domestic battery companies, and there is a clear trend of upstream transmission. The "battery passport" requires clear data tracking and recording of each link such as battery production, sales, and recycling, and the battery carbon footprint is a very important part of it. At present, the carbon footprint accounting and methodology of the lithium battery industry are still relatively weak, especially the carbon footprint measurement of the upstream and downstream has not yet been fully rolled out, and the underlying data of the "digital battery passport" may be the closest to the value of "data assets".
On the other hand, in December 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) publicly solicited opinions on the Guidelines for the Construction of a Comprehensive Standardization System for Lithium-ion Batteries (2023 Edition) (Draft for Comments). We can see that the standardization system will gradually become one of the effective means to promote technological innovation and research and development in the lithium battery industry. Through the testing and evaluation of consistent standards, lithium battery enterprises can better evaluate the performance and applicability of new materials, accelerate the promotion and application of new technologies, and use this as the basis for technological innovation to promote the technological progress and competitiveness of the industry.
Digitalization can provide a reliable data foundation to support data-driven decision-making and optimization in the enterprise. Based on standardized data, companies can build models and algorithms to optimize and predict production processes. Through targeted data collection and in-depth analysis of data, bottlenecks in the production process can be identified, optimization opportunities and resource utilization can be achieved. This helps to increase production efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure that products meet quality standards.
Digital technology can not only improve the intelligent level of lithium battery production, realize the automation and intelligence of the production process, improve production efficiency and product quality, but also bring new business models and product innovation to the lithium battery industry, and promote the development of the lithium battery industry to high-end and intelligent.