In November 2017, the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Development of Industrial Internet through "Internet + Advanced Manufacturing". In February 2018, the Industrial Internet Special Working Group was established. Industry insiders believe that the strategic opportunity period for the development of China's industrial Internet has arrived. This is an effective path for China to explore the intelligent upgrading of manufacturing and promote high-quality economic development, and it must be seized.

In the survey, the Economic Information Daily reporter found that due to the lack of funds, standards, safety and talents, the penetration rate of industrial Internet in China's manufacturing industry is still low, and some small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises are not willing to transform, and the industry layout still faces many "obstructions". Experts pointed out that precise policy implementation should be problem-oriented, and measures such as setting industry benchmarks to form a demonstration effect, building an industrial Internet industry ecological resource pool to increase technology supply, formulating national standards for data formats and interfaces, and strengthening the "bottom line" of information systems and data security should be taken to solve development problems and promote the layout of the industrial Internet.

Industrial Internet Welcomes Strategic Opportunity Period

The number of workers on the production line has dropped from 160 to 51, the changeover time has dropped from 45 minutes to 9 minutes, and the information quality control points have increased from 6 to 108... Thanks to the efficient collaboration brought by equipment interconnection and human-machine interaction, the Midea Air Conditioning Smart Factory in Nansha, Guangzhou, has achieved a double improvement in efficiency and quality by using a fully intelligent production line.

"The advantages of intelligent manufacturing are obvious. Although the number of our workers is decreasing, the peak of our products is increasing, and the product delivery time is decreasing." said Wang Xiaojin, general manager of the Nansha Factory of Midea's Home Air Conditioning Division.

Today, Midea Group has built this intelligent manufacturing system into an industrial Internet platform and launched it to the market, which has been applied to more than 50 companies in eight industries including home appliances, automobiles, retail, textiles and clothing. Like Midea, new practices that help the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry through the industrial Internet are in the ascendant.

"The Industrial Internet is building digital factories in an unprecedented way, helping more manufacturing companies to go straight to the cloud and upgrade their quality." said Chen Xinle, manager of the Intelligent Manufacturing Cloud Division of Meyun Zhishu.

The Industrial Internet is a revolution in the field of production. Its core is to improve production efficiency and quality and create precise supply through data application and intelligent connection. Industry insiders believe that this is an effective way for China to explore the intelligent upgrading of manufacturing and promote high-quality economic development, and it must seize this opportunity.

"At present, the global industrial Internet is still in a critical period of uncertain pattern, a window period of large-scale expansion and an opportunity period of seizing the dominant position. It requires the country to coordinate and promote it at the strategic level and basically deploy it in parallel with developed countries." said Liu Duo, president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

China issued a national strategy for the development of the Industrial Internet in November 2017, and then several major manufacturing provinces including Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong also issued implementation plans and support policies.

However, many industry insiders said that the development of China's Industrial Internet still faces huge challenges. At present, the innovative development of the industrial Internet is reshaping the new global industrial landscape. Developed industrial countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan, and France have realized early that this digital revolution ignited by the Internet will inject new momentum into the development of the manufacturing industry. They are accelerating the global expansion of the industrial Internet platform from the national strategic level, seizing the leading position of the industrial big data entrance, integrating resources from all parties to build an industrial ecology, and consolidating their monopoly position. This has caused tremendous pressure on the data security and even national security of China's manufacturing industry.

Li Fang, manager of the Industrial Solutions Center of China Telecom Guangdong Branch, said that under the WTO rules, it is inevitable for foreign advanced industrial Internet platforms to enter China, "It is urgent to accelerate the cultivation and development of local industrial Internet platforms and complete the layout of the Chinese market."

The rapid layout of the industry still faces pain points

China's industrial Internet development started early, but compared with developed countries, it still faces gaps, mainly manifested in the lack of key basic capabilities, insufficient ecological construction capabilities, and insufficient support capabilities. The Economic Information Daily reporter found that the penetration rate of the industrial Internet in China's manufacturing industry is still low, and the industry layout still faces many "obstructions" such as lack of funds, lack of standards, lack of security, and lack of talent.

--High cost and other factors lead to weak transformation willingness of small and medium-sized enterprises

During the investigation, the reporter found that in the process of promoting the industrial Internet in some regions, enterprises are not in a hurry, but the government is in a hurry. Many enterprises are still waiting and watching. Many industry insiders said that this "wait and see" is mainly caused by many factors such as cost issues, technology maturity issues, and the exploration period of new technology application models.

"Manufacturing is not digital by nature, but physical. Digital transformation of industrial equipment and data networking are the first step, but this often means huge investment of funds." Chen Xinle said.

It is understood that the digital transformation of equipment requires a lot of initial investment, unclear returns, and related subsidies cannot be put in place in time, which makes many enterprises dare not try it easily, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. The current government support model is mostly ex post subsidy. "Many enterprises are unwilling to increase investment in digital transformation of equipment and "cloud and platform", but are more willing to invest money in simple technical upgrades of supply chain and existing products." Chen Xinle said.

Similarly, in the actual service process for enterprises, Li Fang found that some manufacturing enterprises care more about the recent input-output. "For example, a tool manufacturing enterprise in Guangdong still has a manual production line. Although the person in charge of the enterprise thinks that the industrial Internet is a good direction, the current equipment transformation investment is too much, so there is no plan to "go to the cloud" for the time being."

In addition, compared with the consumer Internet, the industrial Internet pays more attention to the reliability and stability of technology. Therefore, the maturity of technology has become a major consideration for many manufacturing companies when deciding whether to "go to the cloud platform."

In addition, as a new technology, the application model of the industrial Internet is still being explored. "For manufacturing companies, the application of the industrial Internet boils down to one point, which is to meet the original needs of the company, that is, to improve efficiency and reduce costs. If this point is not solved, the enthusiasm of the company will not be high." Jiang Kun, director of the Manufacturing and Internet Integration Department of the Guangdong Provincial Economic and Information Commission, said.

--Inconsistent standards lead to difficulties in data collection

"Without data collection at the source, the development of the industrial Internet is just empty talk." Huang Turong, chief engineer of intelligent manufacturing at BoChuang Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., said that data collection is a prerequisite for the development of the industrial Internet and a major difficulty at this stage. Many industry insiders interviewed said that the problem of data collection difficulties caused by inconsistent data interfaces and format standards does exist.

It is reported that China's manufacturing equipment is of various types and manufacturers are numerous. Due to the lack of a common industry standard system and key standards, the communication interfaces and functional parameters of different types of equipment from different manufacturers are different, and the equipment and manufacturing management system also lack a unified integration mechanism, resulting in difficulties in interconnection and interoperability between equipment and equipment, and between equipment and systems, which restricts the improvement of the information level of the processing system and the process of intelligent production.

"Take the injection molding field as an example. Europe began to integrate data communication protocols in plastic machinery earlier, and also introduced integration standards for production equipment and manufacturing information systems. In comparison, China does not have a complete standard system in this industry." Huang Turong said.

In addition, many industrial Internet platform service providers are transformed from IT companies without a manufacturing foundation. In the absence of national standards, they will inevitably encounter problems in different industries, equipment data ports, and formats inconsistencies in the process of platform development and promotion.

In addition to the lack of unified technical standards for domestic equipment manufacturers, some industry insiders believe that there is another difficult problem. At present, many high-end manufacturing equipment in China are mostly imported from abroad, and the data interfaces and data formats of these imported equipment have their own standards, which are relatively closed and only open to the vertical systems of this product series. This has caused difficulties for the Chinese manufacturing industry that uses such equipment to "go to the cloud and platform" to a certain extent.

--There are still hidden dangers in system security and data security

"As long as a chip is installed in your own equipment, remote monitoring and data collection can be achieved, and even remote diagnosis and repair can be achieved. Who will guarantee the security of such chips?" The reporter heard such statements many times during the survey. In the view of enterprises, the security issues of the industrial Internet are both abstract and specific. Many interviewees expressed concerns about whether there will be hidden dangers in information security after "going to the cloud and platform".

"Industrial information security is related to economic development, social stability and national security, and is the foundation and prerequisite for the healthy development of the industrial Internet." Liu Jie, director of the Information Security Center of the Fifth Institute of Electronics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.

Many industry insiders believe that with the accelerated construction and development of China's industrial Internet, network and information security protection is particularly important in an open, interconnected and intelligent environment. Network security threats have expanded from information security to industrial production safety and even national security, entering the era of "big security".

"In the past, network viruses may only control a mobile phone, but today they may control a factory or even a region." Liu Duo described the importance of data system security in the era of the industrial Internet.

Liu Jie believes that the current industrial Internet security mainly includes two meanings, one is system security and the other is data security.

At the system security level, Liu Jie believes that the information security protection of China's industrial Internet is currently facing serious challenges, which is reflected in the increasingly prominent security risks of industrial control systems, the low adaptability of industrial network security products and services, and the need to strengthen the industrial information security protection capabilities.

In terms of data security, China has not yet legislated on data, and the security commitments commonly used in the industry only exist in the form of a "gentleman's agreement", which is mainly guaranteed by the industry's self-discipline mechanism and lacks mandatory supervision.

"It can be said that if the safety hazards are not eliminated, China's industrial Internet will be difficult to truly develop." Jiang Kun said: "We hope to guide some large industrial Internet platform service providers to take this step first through the "white list" mechanism, and gradually improve the regulatory mechanism for data security until the "data legislation" is passed in the future."

--Talent reserves are extremely scarce, and the recruitment ratio is even less than 1%

Industry insiders pointed out that there is an extreme shortage of cross-border integration talents who are proficient in both industrial technology and information technology required for the development of the industrial Internet.

"The lack of industrial Internet talents is one of the most headaches for enterprises." Huang Turong said. In recent years, Bo Chuang has been accelerating its transformation from an injection molding equipment manufacturer to an intelligent platform service provider for the injection molding industry, and launched its own industrial Internet platform in early 2018. As a result, Broadcom accelerated its talent introduction strategy and formed a special recruitment team in early 2018 to recruit high-end talents in the field of industrial Internet at home and abroad, but the results were not optimistic.

"According to regulations, the recruitment team must review 20 resumes every day and interview 20 people every week, but less than 1% of high-end talents can be retained in the end." Huang Turong said.

In addition, fierce competition in the industry has led to rising salaries for talents in this field, and there is a phenomenon that the input and output of enterprises in talent introduction are not matched. In Huang Turong's view, this is the cost of trial and error for enterprises, which must be borne.

For this reason, many platform companies choose to recruit some experienced retired workers with high salaries to cooperate with IT experts. "After all, this is not a long-term solution. If the talent gap is not resolved, it will seriously hinder the development of the industrial Internet in the future." Jiang Kun said.

In addition, industry insiders pointed out that China's industrial Internet has not yet formed a unified platform, and there are network barriers between the same industry and between enterprises, which affects the connection between the Internet. "If we rely solely on market regulation, the time cost is high and it is easy to miss precious development opportunities." Li Fang said.

Multiple measures to promote the layout of the industrial Internet

Industry insiders pointed out that after the full development of mobile Internet, China has accumulated a lot of innovative achievements and experience in the tide of Internet economy. If we take advantage of the situation in policy, give play to the role of market entities, and implement precise policies with problem orientation, then China's industrial Internet will still have great potential.

Chen Xinle and other industry insiders suggested that the development and layout of the industrial Internet must be carried out according to scenarios and industries, and by setting benchmarks to promote qualified industries and enterprises to take the lead in trial, form a demonstration effect, and gradually drive upstream and downstream enterprises to follow up and layout, and small networks will become large networks.

"Everything is difficult at the beginning, and it is very important to reduce the one-time investment cost of enterprises, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises." Chen Xinle said.

Guangdong Province recently issued 11 policies to support the development of the industrial Internet, three of which are related to reducing corporate costs, such as adopting a pay-as-you-go and rent-to-buy model to reduce the one-time investment cost of enterprise informatization, and at the same time supplemented by a preferential policy of reducing fees of no less than 30% for public cloud platforms and network usage.

"The current policy is to encourage qualified enterprises to "go to the cloud" first, so that data can run, and when the effect is apparent, it will naturally attract more users." Jiang Kun said.

In order to make up for the shortcomings of technical support and R&D of enterprises with insufficient strength and solve the practical problem of shortage of professional talents, many industry insiders interviewed suggested that the government can take the lead in building a unified industrial Internet industry ecological resource supply pool, promote the cooperation between platform providers and manufacturing enterprises, Internet companies, industrial Internet innovation centers and technology research institutions of manufacturing enterprises, and expand technology supply.

Industry insiders pointed out that only by building a unified industrial Internet platform as a "connector" can the integrated development of manufacturing in key areas be promoted and the maximum benefits of the industrial Internet be maximized.

Such practices are underway. Guangdong has established the Guangdong Industrial Internet Industry Alliance in 2017. "We hope that the companies in these alliances can unite, form a joint force, integrate the upstream and downstream industrial chains, jointly build a research and development platform, and create an industrial Internet industry ecosystem in Guangdong Province." Jiang Kun said.

Creating a resource supply pool is one aspect, and cultivating professional talents in the field of industrial Internet is a long-term plan. Liu Duo and many other industry experts believe that the core of developing the industrial Internet is to cultivate talents. It is recommended to guide investment and training in basic disciplines related to the Internet of Things, and at the same time strengthen the training and selection of senior technical workers to create a professional talent team that is compatible with industrial development.

Developing data standards is an important engine for promoting the optimization and upgrading of China's industries. Industry insiders suggest that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology should promptly work with relevant parties in the industry to formulate national standards for data formats and interfaces, and actively participate in the formulation of relevant international standards to gain more voice for Chinese companies.

Huang Turong and other industry insiders suggest that at this stage, standards can be formulated by industry field first, and cross-industry data formats and port standards can be compiled when the time is ripe, among which leading enterprises in the equipment manufacturing industry can play an active role. "The advantage of this type of enterprise is that they are equipment manufacturers, rooted in the industry, and have a relatively strong voice in the market. They can solve the data standard problem of the industry at the source at one time, and actively participate in the formulation of relevant national standards in the future." Huang Turong said.

In addition, some industry insiders suggested that the national level should introduce policies at this stage to require foreign manufacturers to open data interfaces when introducing foreign machine tool equipment.

While the industrial Internet is accelerating its integration and application in various fields, it must be "backed up" with security. Liu Jie and other experts suggested that data legislation should be promoted in a timely manner, network security technology research should be accelerated, and efforts should be made to ensure the security of the industrial Internet from the data security level and the system security level.

"Through the combination of technology and management, a multi-level security assurance system for the industrial Internet covering equipment security, control security, network security, platform security and data security should be established." Liu Jie said that at the same time, a security assessment and certification system for industrial Internet equipment, networks and platforms should be established, and security capability assessment and certification should be carried out based on third-party institutions such as industrial alliances to lead the continuous improvement of the security protection capabilities of the industrial Internet. (Reporter Mao Xin)

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