What is the Industrial Internet? What is Industry 4.0? There has never been a convincing and accurate scientific definition or representation of what should be operational and achievable technologies and products or solutions. In my opinion, rather than being unclear, it is better to downplay the concept and pursue the connotation. Its connotation is to solve the safety, quality, cost, efficiency, green, low-carbon and other issues faced by enterprises, which all involve the innovation ability and competitiveness of enterprises.
Since the industrial revolution nearly 250 years ago, there have been two machine revolutions. The first machine revolution is to replace human muscles and part of the brain with machines, and the second machine revolution is to replace the human brain with machines. The automation, digitization and intelligence of the manufacturing industry are the important features of the second machine revolution, and can also be considered as the core content of the Industrial Internet.
| Why companies need digital transformation
Twenty years ago, Chinese enterprises began to promote “removal of drawings and account books”, “informatization of manufacturing industry”, and implementation of enterprise resource planning. At first, few enterprises were interested. However, today almost all successful enterprises have benefited from informatization. No one doubts these advanced technologies.
Every year for the past few years, I have visited or hosted hundreds of executives from large and small businesses, and I am amazed that almost all business leaders are thinking about digital transformation. They are not catering to fashion, but from within the business. To meet the needs of people, everyone pays more attention to “how to do it” rather than “whether to do it” .
For the past 40 years, I have been studying and researching industrial automation theory and technology. Looking back today, automation is the foundation of Industry 3.0 . In the large number of industrial automation practices I have participated in, I have seen that there are still a large number of Industry 2.0 enterprises in my country, especially the discrete manufacturing industry, which has a long way to go. It is precisely because of the large-scale use of automated equipment and automated production lines in the manufacturing industry that production efficiency has been greatly improved, industry 3.0 has been realized, and a large amount of industrial data has been obtained, thus forming an urgent need for analytical data, which has greatly promoted the digital transformation of enterprises. Industry 4.0 opens the door.
If we regard the transition from Industry 1.0 to Industry 3.0 as the first machine revolution, then the industry 4.0 we are now opening is the road to the second machine revolution. Indeed, today we face enormous challenges and opportunities. In the past five years, new concepts and technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, digital twins, blockchain, metaverse, and “5G+Industrial Internet” have also promoted the digitization of the manufacturing industry to a certain extent. transformation.
| What is digital transformation? What is smart manufacturing?
What is the Industrial Internet? What is Industry 4.0? There has never been a convincing and accurate scientific definition or representation of what should be operational and achievable technologies and products or solutions. In my opinion, rather than being unclear, it is better to downplay the concept and pursue the connotation. Its connotation is to solve the safety, quality, cost, efficiency, green, low-carbon and other issues faced by enterprises, which all involve the innovation ability and competitiveness of enterprises.
Realize digital production, visualized manufacturing, make factories transparent, and connect all data related to equipment and production in factories. Only in this way can we see hidden safety hazards, quality bottlenecks, energy saving space, sources of benefits, management pain points and improvements. direction etc. With the continuous development of sensing technology, there will be more and more data and information. Just as we go to the hospital for physical examination today, we will also be digital and transparent people in the future. Augmented reality and virtual reality technology can enter our body to find early lesions, and be treated.
| Realization Path of Manufacturing Digital Transformation: Factory Operating System
With the popularity of the mobile Internet, we have entered the era of intelligence through smart phones and their supporting application ecosystems. If we regard a factory as a mobile phone, we can extend our understanding of the “smart era” to the industrial field, and turn a traditional factory into a smart factory or a future factory, we need an ecosystem of “industrial applications” . Nor can we simply refer to industrial software as industrial applications, because “mao” applications in the age of intelligence are attached to “skin” mobile operating systems . Therefore, the Industrial Internet or intelligent manufacturing should be a “new industrial ecology” and a “new industrial software ecology”.
To this end, it is necessary to create a “factory operating system”, the core of which is to connect and manage all data on the production line in the factory, such as dynamic equipment, static equipment, logistics, energy flow, capital flow, human-machine operation and decision-making, to form a The data base builds an “operating system” platform that connects all physical devices downward and supports all applications upward. Through open source and open source, we will create a “new ecosystem of industrial software” for the Industrial Internet, and build intelligent manufacturing solutions and approaches based on “factory operating system + industrial applications” , helping enterprises to organically interact with comprehensive information and precise decision-making, and enable multiple elements to synergize .
In the past, companies with better informatization will have more vertical data chimneys and information islands, because there is no such data base or factory operating system. This brings huge difficulties to the digital transformation of enterprises, and it is even more difficult to realize digital twins, digital factories and transparent factories.
For example, a large petrochemical and chemical enterprise originally had more than 170 enterprise information systems. Because of their independence, many data were difficult to access and share, which became a new pain point for the enterprise. Through the method of “factory operating system + industrial application”, we design professional applications for the enterprise’s original islanded information system according to the different business domains it faces, so as to realize the intelligent connection between production and management, factory and market, From the group, the base to the factory, it has been deployed on the factory operating system, realizing a comprehensive digital transformation.
With the basic data base such as the factory operating system, we can build an open platform for the ecosystem, and use the mobile Internet thinking and ecological concept to integrate social resources, especially the development resources of industrial software. There are about 400,000 manufacturing enterprises above designated size and millions of manufacturing enterprises below designated size in my country. How to realize low-cost and large-scale promotion and application through “factory operating system + industrial application” is a problem that needs to be carefully studied and an important exploration of the digital transformation of China’s manufacturing industry.
| Industrial software is the soul and core driver of digital transformation
There is an old Chinese saying, “If the skin does not exist, the hair will be attached to it”. An open platform and an industrial software ecosystem are the future of intelligent manufacturing, and both are indispensable. Where does digitization come from without automation? Where can intelligence come from without digitization? In my opinion, Industry 4.0 is an industrial revolution driven by industrial software, that is to say, the intelligence of the second machine revolution is the technological integration composed of industrial software, artificial intelligence, interactive technology, industrial “metaverse”, and the industrial Internet. .
Today’s industrial software is not only management software in the general sense, such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, etc., but can be engaged in the design of products such as chips, new drugs, new materials, new processes, new equipment, etc.; production process design can be carried out and simulation, such as process simulation, digital simulation, industrial engineering design, production planning, etc.; it can also carry out efficient operation and management of the production process, such as safe production, energy saving and consumption reduction, operation optimization, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and product quality improvement. It can be said that the future manufacturing industry is completely based on a variety of industrial software, and the hardware is also designed and manufactured by software . Isn’t that what we are in today’s mobile Internet era and the “metaverse” era that may emerge in the future?
my country has a complete range of industries, so it needs a wide variety of industrial software. We need not only basic industrial software, but also a large number of application-oriented industrial software. A possible development direction in the future is the fragmentation and application of large-scale industrial software, which can be tailored, configured, and assembled, instead of having to use a large-scale software for customized development one by one, which is costly and effective. Not necessarily good either.
Industrial software is not an Internet technology product, it is an industrial product, soft equipment, and the soul of the manufacturing industry. Vigorously developing my country’s industrial software industry can not only promote the development of my country’s high-tech industry, but also help to promote the transformation and upgrading of my country’s manufacturing industry, and enhance the international competitiveness of my country’s manufacturing industry.
The fundamental purpose of developing the industrial Internet industry is undoubtedly to solve the essential needs of manufacturing enterprises. If the future manufacturing industry is really based on a variety of industrial software, then in the process from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0, digital transformation is the only way to connect automation and intelligence, as well as the bridge between Industry 3.0 and Industry 4.0 . Starting in 2021, Zhejiang Province took the lead in launching the construction of “Industrial Brain + Future Factory”, using practical actions to start the practice of digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.
The digital transformation of enterprises has become a consensus, but it is by no means an easy path. Faced with the opportunities and challenges that determine the future destiny, we have no hesitation.
Note: Unless it is marked as original, it is all submitted by netizens or institutions for sharing. If you need to publish, please contact [email protected].
This article is reprinted from: https://www.dx2025.com/archives/172424.html
This site is for inclusion only, and the copyright belongs to the original author.