Industrial Internet: Going deeper and realizing, helping the development of the digital economy
As a new track of the digital economy that directly serves industries, the Industrial Internet has been applied to 37 key industries in the national economy such as raw materials and equipment manufacturing. The application scenarios are extending from peripheral links such as sales and logistics to internal links such as research and development, production control, and testing.
Xu Xiaolan Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, President of China Industrial Internet Research Institute
"Develop the industrial Internet, build more common technology research and development platforms, and enhance the innovation and specialization level of small, medium and micro enterprises..." This year, the industrial Internet was once again included in the government work report.
On March 10, Xu Xiaolan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and President of the China Industrial Internet Research Institute, who brought 11 suggestions to the meeting, said in an interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily: “As a new track of the digital economy that directly serves industries, the Industrial Internet has been applied to The application scenarios of 37 key industries in the national economy, such as raw materials and equipment manufacturing, are extending from peripheral links such as sales and logistics to internal links such as R&D, production control, and testing."
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country's industrial Internet industry will reach a new level in terms of platform innovation and upgrade, deep industry empowerment, integration and application of emerging technologies, and ecosystem construction.
The development of my country's industrial Internet presents "systematization" characteristics
What is the Industrial Internet?
According to Mei Hong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Industrial Internet is an important infrastructure for reshaping industrial manufacturing and service systems and realizing industrial digitalization, networking, and intelligent development. It has the connotation of multidisciplinary, multi-application-driven, and multi-technology integration. .
The United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific are the current focus areas for the development of industrial Internet platforms. Although the definitions of industrial Internet are different in various countries, they are similar in terms of goals, directions, and system architectures, all emphasizing the deep integration of data and industry.
Xiao Xue, Chairman and CEO of Inspur Cloud, introduced that the United States, Germany and other countries have always attached great importance to the Industrial Internet. The United States issued the "American Advanced Manufacturing Leadership Strategy" and established a digital manufacturing and design innovation center to focus on supporting advanced manufacturing plants.
Germany regards cyber-physical systems (CPS) as the core of Industry 4.0 and attaches great importance to the important role of data in digital transformation.
"There are also differences in the promotion path of the industrial Internet in various countries. The United States emphasizes that the new generation of information technology is the leading enabling industry to achieve top-down advancement. Western European countries represented by Germany are leading the world in industrialization and high-end manufacturing, and bottom-up. The industrial Internet is developed locally. The notable feature of my country's industrial Internet development is'systematization', which is to exert efforts at both ends of manufacturing enterprises and information and communication enterprises." Xiao Xue said.
In Xiao Xue's view, the positive progress made in the development of China's industrial Internet is manifested in several aspects: the policy system is gradually improved; the network system is accelerated, and the industrial Internet identification analysis system has achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1; the platform system has grown rapidly; security The system is gradually built; integrated applications continue to deepen, and five typical models of intelligent manufacturing, networked collaboration, service-oriented extension, personalized customization, and digital management have been formed; the effect of industrial ecological agglomeration is beginning to appear; the integration of "5G + Industrial Internet" is active in development and innovation.
The "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Term Goals for 2035" mentioned that "promote the deep integration of various industries such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence, and promote advanced manufacturing. Industrial cluster development" "system layout new infrastructure, accelerate the construction of fifth-generation mobile communications, industrial Internet, big data center, etc.".
Xiao Xue believes that digital industrialization, industrial digitization and data intelligence are the key points that need to be broken through to achieve the expected development goals of the industrial Internet. At the same time, the construction of industrial infrastructure should be accelerated, equipment linkage and big data application capabilities should be promoted. Give full play to the value of "data + AI" and implement intelligent transformation.
Play a supporting role in the "second half" of the digital economy
Huang Qunhui, director of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the new type of infrastructure represented by the industrial Internet is one of the necessary conditions for my country to form a new development pattern, which can effectively promote the high-quality development of my country's manufacturing industry and provide a new development for my country's "double cycle". The pattern provides strong support.
As an important economic form that promotes the development of productivity, the digital economy is included in the report of the 2020 Central Economic Work Conference, in which the effective use of industrial digitization, digital industrialization and data value is its core connotation.
"As an important cornerstone of the fourth industrial revolution, the Industrial Internet provides key infrastructure support and industrial ecological foundations for industrial digitization, becoming a key support for the innovative development of the digital economy, and promoting the digital economy to move toward more industries and more scenarios in the real economy. Extension." Xu Xiaolan said.
With the continuous integration and penetration of the digital economy in the real economy, the potential for industrial digital development is huge.
According to calculations by relevant agencies, industry digitization accounts for more than 80% of the digital economy, becoming the leading force in the development of the digital economy, and the development of the digital economy has entered the "second half".
Xu Xiaolan puts forward three suggestions on how to effectively play the key supporting role of the Industrial Internet in the "second half" of the development of the digital economy:
First, continue to strengthen policy guidance, increase support for industries, accelerate the cultivation of key industries in the process of industrial digitization, support industrial Internet companies to become stronger and better, and cultivate a group of industrial Internet technology innovation companies, system solution providers and operational services To create a batch of reproducible and extendable development models and typical application scenarios.
Secondly, further increase investment in technological transformation funds, shift technological transformation funds from investment in traditional equipment and technology to investment in the improvement of the industrial basic digitalization level, and promote the application of the industrial Internet in stages and industries in an orderly manner to help the industry's digitalization level. Deepen further.
Further promote the systematic construction of the national industrial Internet big data center nationwide, build an industrial data resource management system, strengthen industrial data aggregation capabilities, better use data-based service capabilities, and consolidate the foundation for industrial digital development.
In addition, it is necessary to promote the continuous deepening of industrial integration in the field of industrial Internet, increase the guiding role of industrial funds, ensure that social capital flows to the key areas of corporate digital transformation, and increase support for new technological innovation; actively explore the establishment of real-time production The credit investigation system for operating data establishes a detailed and complete enterprise dynamic information database to better serve the real economy.
Deeply empowering the digital transformation of SMEs
As Xu Xiaolan said, “The digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises is the main battlefield of the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, and it is the key to the advancement of the industrial base.”
However, it is undeniable that although my country's small and medium-sized enterprises have achieved staged progress in digital upgrading through the industrial Internet, the transformation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises has its own characteristics and internal driving logic. At the same time, there are also realities such as weak foundations, lack of funds, and poor talents. Challenges, the development potential of SMEs has not yet been fully activated.
According to survey data from 684 SMEs in Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Hunan Province, Guangdong Province, and Chongqing City, less than 10% of SMEs are in the deep application stage, and more than 60% of SMEs have a digital device connection rate of less than 40 %, nearly 50% of SMEs’ information system coverage rate is less than 40%, and the equipment networking rate is less than 40%. The digital transformation of my country’s SMEs is still in its infancy.
Obviously, the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises through the industrial Internet platform is not yet in-depth.
From the perspective of the supply side, industrial Internet service providers have made slow progress in the application of cloudification and platformization.
Industrial software service providers focus on offline services, and most product applications have not realized the decoupling and reconfiguration of microservices, and there is a serious lag in the development of multiple capabilities such as data intelligence, agile development, efficient operation, and mobile collaboration.
From the demand side, enterprise application platforms are still at a shallow level, and data functions and industrial apps are at a shallow level.
Small and medium-sized enterprises have improved their conventional capabilities, but the results of product innovation, model innovation and technological innovation capabilities have not yet been highlighted.
"It is urgent to promote the improvement of the quantity and quality of the specialized, special and new "little giants", to achieve solid, deep, and optimized manufacturing; build a multi-level industrial Internet-related public service system, promote SMEs to go to the cloud platform; accelerate the promotion of emerging technologies The integration of applications and business scenarios enhances the platform's ability to serve small and medium-sized enterprises; builds an industrial Internet industry ecosystem to promote the development of integration of large and small-scale enterprises; improves the core technical standard system of industrial Internet platforms and promotes interoperability between platforms." Xu Xiaolan said.
Future technologies and applications need to be strengthened at the same time
Mei Hong said: "With the continuous development and maturity of industrial Internet technology, standards, and forms, industrial Internet will eventually be deeply integrated in manufacturing, energy, transportation, medical and other industries, and bring revolutionary industrial changes."
Speaking of the 11 key actions and ten key projects proposed in the "Industrial Internet Innovation Development Action Plan (2021-2023)", Xiao Xue said: "They have locked down the deep-seated difficulties and pain points in the development of the Industrial Internet. However, the domestic industry The enterprise must first complete the supplementary course of enterprise digitalization (industrial foundation reengineering project), and complete equipment networking and enterprise informatization for enterprise scenarios and needs, so as to realize data interconnection and interoperability."
Although the Industrial Internet has enabled the efficient sharing of various elements of the industrial economy and has spawned a brand-new industrial production method and enterprise form, Mei Hong pointed out that there is no fixed model in the application of the Industrial Internet, and the implementation of technology is facing many practical difficulties. The next development needs "The hoof steadily seeks practical results" requires both technology and application.
Mei Hong emphasized that various industries are very different, and the level of enterprise informatization is uneven. The development of industrial Internet should mature one company to land one company, mature one industry to land one industry, and the deployment of industrial Internet should be problem-oriented.
Mei Hong said: "The development of China's industrial Internet still needs to address six key technical directions, including industrial intelligent perception, industrial interconnection and information integration, industrial big data and industrial intelligence, industrial Internet flexible control, industrial Internet platform software, and industrial Internet security. Challenge."
"Consolidate the foundation of my country's industrial Internet industry with systematic cultivation." Xu Xiaolan suggested that we should focus on the key links of the industrial Internet industry and strengthen the cultivation of several categories in the three key links of industrial Internet hardware, software and integrated applications.
Among them, the key support categories of the hardware part include industrial chips, intelligent industrial control equipment and so on.
The software part focuses on supporting industrial operating systems, platform-based intelligent industrial software, etc.
The integrated application part focuses on supporting professional platform integration applications, industrial SaaS development and services, and industrial security integrated services.
Our reporter Liu Yan