Smart cooperation
China highlighted the integration of information technology with industrialization during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in 2012.
In May 2015, the State Council, China's cabinet, introduced a 10-year national plan, known as "Made in China 2025," to transform China into the world's manufacturing giant.
Under the "Made in China 2025" plan, the local government of the new area in Qingdao is ramping up efforts to accelerate the renovation of local manufacturing industries, including automotive, electronics and mechanical equipment, in a move toward new kinetic energy from the old type, Xie Longmu, director of the Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Qingdao West Coast New Area, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The establishment of the Qingdao West Coast New Area, the ninth State-level economic development zone in China, was approved by the State Council in 2014.
In recent years, local companies have seized opportunities under the "Made in China 2025" plan in order to promote intelligence transformations. And Doublestar is a typical example, Xie said.
The "Made in China 2025" plan draws inspiration from Germany's "Industry 4.0" program, which was adopted in 2013. "Industry 4.0" focuses on intelligent manufacturing, applying tools of information technology to production lines.
China and Germany signed an agreement in 2010, a commitment to collaborate on the building of the Sino-German Ecopark in the West Coast New Area. The construction of the ecopark was completed in July 2013.
"Over the past three years, the ecopark has attracted several famous German enterprises, such as Siemens AG, Continental AG and Airbus Helicopters, and we have signed cooperation agreements with 16 German 'hidden champion' firms," Zong Bo, director for the ecopark's management committee, told the Global Times.
The 'hidden champions' - dark horses - referred to by Zong are relatively small and unknown, but are becoming hugely successful and have the potential to become market leaders within their respective industries.
"We try to bring in German technology to aid the transformation and upgrading of local industries and to also push the integration of Germany's 'Industry 4.0' with 'Made in China 2025' here [in Qindgao]," Zong said.
Rising power
Innovation abilities, product competitiveness and an efficient system are key to the success of an enterprise that wishes to undergo intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrading, Dai Huizhong, general manager of Hisense Electric Co, told the Global Times Thursday.
As a leading domestic smart TV manufacturer, Qingdao-based Hisense Electric started its transformation in 2011 through efforts like establishing a big data platform, introducing robots onto production lines and setting up a smart logistics system.
"Hisense is also facing many challenges during its exploration," Dai said, noting that, despite rapid development in intelligent manufacturing, the industry has nonetheless failed to create comprehensive and unified sector standards.
Companies may indeed encounter technical complications when seeking cross-system and cross-platform integration, Dai said. However, ''if industrial standards were made in the early stages of smart manufacturing development, the right approach would have helped save time and lead to better results,'' he noted.
Construction of intelligent manufacturing is widely perceived as a complicated craft that involves many stages such as research, production, storage, delivery, marketing and after-sales services.
"Therefore, manufacturers are first of all expected to design a high-quality plan and then launch a long-term business deployment plan," Dai said.
For now, it seems that the future is bright for Chinese manufacturing companies.
More and more firms, just like Doublestar and Hisense, will be supported to deploy kinetic energy as China continues to demonstrate its commitment to becoming the world's manufacturing power.
