From the connection of "things" to the connection of business processes, to the connection between enterprises and enterprises, the industrial Internet, which has been continuously implemented and deeply cultivated, has quietly entered the second half.
It was learned from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology a few days ago that as of the end of March, the numerical control rate of key processes in enterprises and the penetration rate of digital R&D design tools reached 52.1% and 73%, respectively. By connecting a large number of industrial equipment to the cloud and realizing the intelligent collaboration of all links in the industrial chain, the Industrial Internet is considered to be a key force in digital transformation.
Statistics show that there are more than 500 industrial Internet platforms in China, while the global statistics is 600. Obviously, whether measured by the number of platforms, apps, or the number of related hardware devices, China is undoubtedly ranked first. But the biggest problem at present is that many of my country's industrial Internet platforms are self-built by large enterprises, lacking data sharing and collaborative applications between each other, and the huge potential value of secondary data development is ignored.
For China's manufacturing industry, how to use the Industrial Internet as a carrier to create a more flexible and agile supply chain, and to enhance business resilience, has become one of the keys to forging core competitiveness.
Two sides of a coin
A big test of the new crown epidemic has allowed global companies to look at and deploy supply chains from a new perspective. If the previous focus on the supply chain stems more from the consideration of continuous optimization of efficiency and cost, then the focus now is more focused on safety and sustainability, such as the ability to resist risks and shocks.
Indeed, with the rapid penetration of the Internet, the substantial increase in production levels, the rapid advancement of the logistics system, and the continuous acceleration of the globalization process, the core position of the supply chain in the business process of enterprises has gradually become prominent. This has prompted companies to continue to squeeze inventory and labor costs, and to control costs through accelerated circulation of global procurement to maximize profitability.
This undoubtedly puts forward new requirements for the resilience of the supply chain. The sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic has amplified this crisis to the extreme, and the huge vulnerabilities and loopholes of the global supply chain have been exposed.
How to help manufacturing companies to ensure that the supply chain "transfers, produces, and delivers" despite the huge impact, the world's top software suppliers are seeking the best answer.
"From the perspective of resilience, resilience means the speed at which we quickly rebound from negative to normal in the face of crises. An important point for companies lacking resilience is that their business processes are not connected and their response speed is very slow. Dr. Peng Junsong, vice president and chief digital officer of SAP China, believes that under the current situation of multiple platforms in the Industrial Internet, the future will not only realize the exchange and integration of data between platforms, but also further realize the integration of business processes between platforms.
For example, Peng Junsong said that there was a bicycle company whose orders fell sharply at the beginning of the epidemic. However, due to the impact of many public transportation during the epidemic, the company's orders suddenly rebounded after reaching the bottom of the epidemic. "At this time, the test is coming: first, your purchasing ability must be able to quickly pass on the demand to all suppliers for sourcing through electronic means. Second, your production capacity must be quickly expanded, if your own capacity is not enough , To be able to quickly contract it out. We say Industrial Internet, precisely because it has the ability to integrate from design to procurement, manufacturing, delivery, and operation, so that companies can respond to changes with such a high efficiency." Peng Junsong believes that the rapid improvement of all capabilities must rely on the Industrial Internet to realize the response speed of the enterprise itself, the integration of its own manufacturing equipment, the connection with suppliers, the connection with logistics providers, and so on.
Manufacturing acceleration
According to McKinsey's forecast, by 2025, manufacturing companies and suppliers can create a potential value of US$3.7 trillion by promoting related projects such as the Industrial Internet.
For Chinese manufacturing companies, although they are in different degrees of mechanization, informationization, and dataization, they can find a solution that suits them by embracing the Internet. Whether in the design, procurement, logistics, manufacturing or operation stages, every enterprise needs an ecological network. The previous approach was that the company itself made point-to-point connections with these partners. Relying on the funds of the project itself, that is a limited digital connection. After the amount is large, it is unrealistic to rely on the enterprise itself to connect. There is a concept of a business network, through the establishment of infrastructure by enterprises with a third-party ICT (Information and Communication Technology) background, to provide a highway that everyone can follow.
As early as 2015, XCMG Group reached a strategic agreement with SAP. The strategic cooperation project between the two parties will extend the application of IoT intelligent cloud services to the intelligent manufacturing of XCMG's global equipment from the perspective of the upstream and downstream of the construction machinery value chain and based on big data technology and applications. And intelligent services, to realize the coverage and optimization of business processes such as R&D and design, installation and commissioning, intelligent logistics, and risk early warning of construction machinery and equipment.
In fact, large companies like XCMG, Sany Heavy Industry, Heli Forklift, Daquan, China National Heavy Duty Truck, Shanghai Electric, etc., have already established a deep presence on the Industrial Internet. Next, these companies will mainly consider how to use the latest technology and capabilities to achieve the goal of globalization of procurement and network expansion.
In addition, there is also the concept of an asset intelligence network. For example, when a company sells a car in a certain area overseas, it is necessary to understand how much its workload is, the maintenance spare parts it may produce, the corresponding technical changes, and related drawing changes, etc., all need to regard the car as the most important among the digital twins. Of digital assets are placed online so that all relevant stakeholders have the authority to use them. Like this function, Sany Heavy Industry has begun to promote and apply it overseas in an all-round way. On the basis of continuous deepening of practice, Sany Heavy Industry has also developed a set of industrial Internet platform-Genyun, which provides a case for the industry to learn from.
How to reach the "super connection"
An obvious trend is that in recent years, SAP and other companies in China have been committed to becoming the true "super-connector" of China's industrial Internet platform. Through modularization and Appization of all mature smart kits, an industrial Internet connection platform is created to break the "island phenomenon" between industrial Internet platforms.
In order to break the "platform island" and solve the problem of platform systemization and upgrade, the Chinese government has been actively doing it. Not long ago, the government-led establishment of the Industrial Internet Platform Innovation Cooperation Center is an exchange platform and innovation carrier jointly initiated by 7 affiliated institutions and more than 170 industrial Internet platform companies, aiming to open up the innovation chain, industrial chain, supply and demand The barriers of the chain, capital chain, and talent chain accelerate the innovation and development of platform systemization and standardization.
At present, the strategy for the development of China's industrial Internet is to build platforms for large enterprises and use platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises. Building platforms for large companies means that leading companies in various industries build their own platforms with various industries as the background. The advantage of an industry-based platform is that it is targeted to vertical industries, but in terms of connectivity between platforms, it may bring cost challenges.
"The ideal state in the future is that although each manufacturer may develop its own industrial Internet platform, through open interfaces based on the cloud and the edge, different industrial Internet platforms and different devices can be connected. Of course, this involves A series of issues such as security and coordination require partners to create standards and solve them together," said Dong Zhigang, vice president of SAP and co-general manager of SAP China.
Dong Zhigang said that in the second half of the Industrial Internet, SAP will fully integrate the original traditional IT technology and the data generated during the operation of the enterprise from the four dimensions of IT and OT integration, data-driven, interoperability, and continuous innovation to form wisdom. The insights urgently needed by enterprises are transformed into relevant actions to optimize existing business processes including manufacturing.
