Feel the "new pulse" of China's manufacturing industry from the production workshop

In Zhejiang, a traditional enterprise faced the dilemma of relocation and transformation. After repeated weighing, it made up its mind to upgrade the workshop with robots, automated production lines, and intelligent systems.

After the transformation, production efficiency doubled, product qualification rate increased by 15%, and overall efficiency increased by 35%. The production line after technological transformation has also become a "star" product that peers are competing for, and market demand continues to rise.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that in 2024, industrial production will grow well, and the added value of high-tech manufacturing will increase by 8.9%, which is 3.1 percentage points faster than that of large-scale industries. As of December 20, 2024, my country has built more than 1,200 advanced smart factories and more than 230 excellent smart factories. The development of smart manufacturing has achieved results, the scale of the smart manufacturing equipment industry has grown rapidly, and the ecological system has been initially formed.

A digital production workshop in a manufacturing industry. Photo by Wang Shaoshao, a reporter from People's Daily Online

At present, digital technologies represented by artificial intelligence and big data are becoming a new driving force for the development of the manufacturing industry.

"Digital technology is an important engine for reshaping the global manufacturing competition landscape and plays a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of my country's manufacturing industry." Zhang Zhengang, professor of the School of Business Administration of South China University of Technology and director of the Guangzhou Digital Innovation Research Center, said in an interview with reporters that its role can be divided into three aspects. First, it drives efficiency improvement. Digital technologies such as big data, industrial Internet, and artificial intelligence promote full-process, full-factor, and all-round intelligence, greatly promoting enterprises to reduce costs, improve quality, and increase efficiency; second, it accelerates the product development process. Generative AI empowers product research and development and accelerates the speed of technology and product iteration; third, it reshapes the industrial ecology, relying on the dual-cross platform of the industrial Internet to achieve full-process digitalization and optimize the collaborative services of the industrial chain.

The manufacturing workshop is connected to the market on one end and production on the other end. It is an important carrier for digital technology to empower real productivity. In the workshop, watch the traditional manufacturing industry change to "new" and be full of vitality.

In Guizhou, on a tire manufacturing production line, multiple handling robots are carrying materials in an orderly manner, the robotic arms on the production line are waving, and the display screen in the workshop shows various data such as the operating status of the manufacturing equipment in real time.

The transformation of tires from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing" is a "qualitative change" brought about by new technologies. "Many people think that tires do not have much high-tech content. In fact, tire research and development involves multiple disciplines such as material science and aerodynamics, and the manufacturing process requirements are also very complex." The technician of the workshop told reporters that the industrial software developed by the team helped the company achieve a 35% increase in production efficiency, a 25% reduction in product delivery cycle, and a 20% reduction in comprehensive costs.

In the workshop, watch the emerging industry advance from "new" and gather energy to gain momentum.

In Zhejiang, the 400,000th mass-produced car of a new energy vehicle manufacturing company rolled off the production line a few days ago. The intelligent mechanical trolley that accurately locates and arrives at the loading and unloading area lifts the cargo box with both arms and places it steadily on the material rack... On the intelligent production line, the humanoid robot has multimodal perception and autonomous decision-making capabilities, and is able to complete tasks such as handling, sorting and quality inspection.

In Jiangsu, the first green intelligent production line was successfully put into production on a photovoltaic module manufacturing production line. The automated material handling vehicle accurately delivers solar panel components to each production station, and the various data in the central control room flash in real time for timely monitoring... On the green production line, the system adjusts the production process in real time through big data analysis, and the equipment reduces energy consumption through adaptive control, realizing the recycling of factory wastewater and waste gas. After the new production line was put into use, the production capacity increased by 30% and the energy efficiency increased by 25%.

In the workshop, see the craftsmanship spirit under the background of digital intelligence.

Every morning, Master Wang walks into the workshop. His workstation is no longer equipped with only traditional welding guns. Laser welding machines and intelligent control systems have become his powerful "assistants". "Through this device, I can better control every detail and reduce many manual errors by adjusting welding parameters in real time." Master Wang told reporters that, especially when dealing with some heavy steel plates, the intelligent detection system helps him accurately measure temperature and pressure. Combined with manual control, the sealing accuracy can now reach 1/50 of the hair.

In the transformation of manufacturing industry from intelligent to digital, the craftsmanship of talents and intelligent technology complement each other, driving the industry towards a more efficient, precise and intelligent future.

How to further consolidate the foundation of "intelligent manufacturing" in the future? Zhang Zhengang suggested that we should give full play to the role of leading enterprises, establish incentive policies for leading enterprises, give full play to their role in mentoring, provide subsidies for "cloud computing and data use" to small and medium-sized enterprises, and reduce the cost of trial and error; we should cultivate a team of digital talents, promote the joint training of digital talents by schools and enterprises, strengthen the construction of the mechanism of chief data officers of enterprises, and optimize the evaluation mechanism to encourage the growth and development of digital talents; we should strengthen the construction of digital transformation infrastructure, improve the service level of industrial Internet cross-platform to enable enterprise transformation and upgrading, strengthen the construction of standard guidance, open scenarios, and tolerance of failure mechanisms, and build a good ecology of digital transformation. (Intern Tian Keyi also contributed to this article)

People's Daily reporter Wang Shaoshao

Source: People's Daily