Industrie 4.0 in China | Encyclopedia MDPI

Industrie 4.0 in China: Comparison

Please note this is a comparison between Version 1 by Kuan-Lun Lee and Version 2 by Lindsay Dong.

Industrie 4.0 has stirred turbulences in China since its birth in 2011. The struggles of the Chinese manufacturing enterprises towards realizing and adapting Industrie 4.0 in their production processes have given peopleus many new perceptions. The 3rd Industrial Revolution was the biggest beneficiary of globalization. The first ten years of Industrie 4.0 also benefitted from globalization as its influence got widespread throughout the world [19]. Globalization originated from the need to optimize the allocation of global resources and the formation of industrial value chains under the impetus of the international division of labor. G [20]. Currently, globalization is facing more and more challenges in the international economic development.

Industrie 4.0
intelligent manufacturing
China Manufacturing

1. Introduction

Industrie 4.0 represents the interconnection of people, intelligent objects and machines, the use of service-oriented architectures and the composition of services and data from different sources into new business processes. Industrie 4.0 is the basis for the future of industrial value creation. The focus is on data-based value creation, digitally enhanced business models and forms of organization, but also new solutions in areas such as energy, finance, health, and mobility. Economically, it initially involved a shift from traditional automation with predetermined outcomes to learning and self-adapting machines and environments that react in real time to changes in customer demand as well as to unexpected disruptions. This is accompanied by a move from mass production to customization, i.e., the competitively priced production of individual, tailor-made products ^[1][2][1,2].

In 2013, with the publication of the revolutionary white paper “Recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative INDUSTRIE 4.0. Securing the future of German manufacturing industry. Final Report of the Industrie 4.0 Working Group” [3], Prof. Henning Kagermann and Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster introduced the concept of “Industrie 4.0“to the world. The beauty of Industrie 4.0 to the Chinese was that it initiated them to begin pondering the question “What is the future of manufacturing?” and gave the answer “Digitalization and new business models create values” at the same time ^[3][4][3,4]. Since then, Industrie 4.0 has become a hype word in China. There has been a rush to learn, implement and practice Industrie 4.0 technologies and methodologies in the industry. Figure 1 shows the growth of the market for intelligent manufacturing in the past few years.

Figure 1. Output scale of China’s intelligent manufacturing industry; unit: 100 million RMB. (Source: Forward Industry Research Institution).

Lately, compared with the rush and the attempts for a radical change in manufacturing a few years back, the major players of Industrie 4.0 in China are becoming calm and thoughtful about their endeavor. After numerous explorations from different angles, it has become obvious that this road would not be an easy one. Patience, experience, accumulation of technology foundations and knowledges, as well as sufficient monetary investments are critical factors for the success.

2. Industrie 4.0 in China

2.1. Variants of Chinese Versions of Industrie 4.0

A paradigm like Industrie 4.0 is bound to be influenced by the practical deployment of relevant projects in the market. Problems and issues encountered in the market provide feedbacks to help reshape the development of Industrie 4.0. In China, where the economy, technological progress and cultural environment are very much different than in Germany, implementing Industrie 4.0 in the Chinese market demands constant modification to the model and adapting the local needs, what is commonly called “localization”. Parallel to deploying Industrie 4.0 in the Chinese industrial environment, several variants of Industrie 4.0 have emerged to suit different market demands at different stages.

Figure 2 shows the timeline of the emergence of the variants of Industrie 4.0 in China. These variants of Industrie 4.0 dominated the major philosophy of smart manufacturing in the Chinese market at the different stages.

Figure 2.

Variants of Industrie 4.0 and the respective time of market emergence in China.

2.1.1. China Manufacturing 2025

“China Manufacturing 2025” was a strategic initiative brought out by Prime Minister Li Keqiang. An official document was issued by the State Council in May 2015 meant to strengthen the manufacturing capability of the Chinese economy.

The China Manufacturing 2025 Plan is also known as the “China Version of The Industrie 4.0 Plan”. The concept of “China Manufacturing 2025” was first proposed by the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Under the overall planning of the State Council, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) took the lead in working with more than 20 ministries and commissions such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology and more than 50 academicians to formally compile the “China Manufacturing 2025 Plan” [5]. The core goal of “China Manufacturing 2025” was to transform China from a manufacturing supplier to a manufacturing driver. The year 2025 was chosen after careful analysis of China’s status of manufacturing capabilities and the overall market environment at that time (2015). It was set as a goal to transform, in 10 years, its capability from simply providing low-cost labor for manufacturing outsourcing, to the form where demands of the new era will challenge the supply end and thus bring added value to the industry by driving innovations in the supplier technologies.

2.1.2. Industrial Internet

The concept of “Industrial Internet” actually originated in America. It was first proposed by General Electric (GE) in 2012 through the release of the white paper “Industrial Internet: Pushing the boundaries of minds and machines” [6], which elaborated on the connotation and future vision of the Industrial Internet from the aspects of technical architecture, development opportunities, potential benefits, application conditions, etc. In essence, industrial interconnectivity is the integration and innovation of industrial and IT capabilities. Subsequently, five industry giants in the United States joined forces to form the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), which vigorously promoted the concept of Industrial Internet and set off a wave of Industrial Internet movement in the world. In 2015, MIIT issued the documents “Implementation of the State Council on actively promoting the Internet + Guidance action plans (year 2015–2018)” [7], clearly stating the guidelines for the internet to be widely integrated into the entire process of production and manufacturing, the entire value chain and the whole life cycle of products, cultivating and developing an open innovative R&D model, and accelerating the development and application of industrial big data. In February 2016, China established the Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII). Jointly initiated by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and related enterprises such as manufacturing, communications industry, and the Internet, the alliance actively carries out work in the research of major issues of the Industrial Internet, the development of standards, technical test verification, and industry promotion. In the same year, AII released version 1.0 of the Industrial Internet Architecture. Since then, hundreds of industrial internet platforms have been founded and have entered the market, providing solutions and services to the manufacturing industry.

2.1.3. Cloud Manufacturing

In 2009, the research team led by Prof. Li Bohu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor Zhang Lin, then deputy dean of the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering of Beihang University, realized that the deep integration of advanced information technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things with the manufacturing industry will bring profound changes to the manufacturing industry and they took the lead in proposing the concept of “Cloud Manufacturing” [8]. They pointed out that “cloud manufacturing was a kind of network and service platform, organizing online manufacturing resources according to user needs”, to provide users with a variety of on-demand manufacturing services. Cloud manufacturing provides a new model and means for China to move from a manufacturing outsourcer to a manufacturing driver. The initiative was jointly supported by more than 300 researchers and developers from 28 organizations of universities, research institutes and enterprises across the country, and achieved a number of pioneering research results ^[9][10][9,10]. Prof. Li Bohu, Prof. Zhang Lin and their team members have publicized and introduced the concept and research results of cloud manufacturing by organizing international conferences or forums, publishing academic papers, carrying out academic exchanges and other forms, which have made important contributions to the recognition and attention of international counterparts for cloud manufacturing research, and gradually forming a new research direction in the world. Cloud manufacturing is one of the very few academic directions initiated by China that attracted the attentions of international academies.