The latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the intelligent transformation process of the manufacturing industry continues to advance. In July, the value added of high-tech manufacturing above designated size grew by 10% year-on-year, and the growth rate has been higher than that of all industries above designated size since the beginning of the year. In terms of intelligence, the output of digital products such as civilian drones, virtual reality devices, service robots, integrated circuits, and industrial robots achieved double-digit growth, with year-on-year growth rates of 84.7%, 55.7%, 41.6%, 26.9%, and 19.7%, respectively.

Experts believe that intelligent transformation has greatly improved the quality and efficiency of manufacturing development through the deepening integration and application of digital technology, providing important support for the advancement of new industrialization.

The quality of transformation has rapidly improved

At present, China's manufacturing industry has made positive progress in expanding the scope, deepening the degree, and improving the quality of intelligent transformation.

The policy system for intelligent transformation continues to improve. At the national level, policy documents such as "Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Integration of New Generation Information Technology and Manufacturing Industry" and "Action Plan for Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Industry" have been successively issued to guide and support the digital transformation and development of the manufacturing industry. At the local level, more than 20 provinces have issued supporting policies such as development plans, action plans, and implementation plans.

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Digital infrastructure is strongly supported. Jia Zijun, Deputy Director of the Institute of Informatization and Software Industry at the CCID Research Institute, introduced that China has built the world's largest fiber optic and mobile broadband network. By the end of 2023, the total computing power reached 230EFLOPS (hundred billion billion floating-point operations per second), ranking second in the world. The industrial internet has initially built a five-system framework of network, identification, platform, data, and security.

The level of digital technology and industry supply has significantly improved. Cloud computing, big data, and blockchain technological innovation capabilities are among the world's first echelon. The scale of the core artificial intelligence industry continues to grow, with the number of enterprises exceeding 4,400, and innovative achievements such as intelligent chips, development frameworks, and general large models continue to emerge. A full-chain digital technology and industry system has been preliminarily formed.

"The efficiency of digital transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises has generally improved. According to statistics, 46% of small and medium-sized enterprises have improved the competitiveness of products and services through digital transformation, and 42.1% of small and medium-sized enterprises have achieved a leap in business efficiency through digital transformation," said Zhao Gang, Dean of the Sai Zhi Industry Research Institute.

Artificial intelligence adds wings

Since the beginning of this year, artificial intelligence, especially large model technology, has made rapid progress and accelerated its integration into the research and development, design, and manufacturing links of the manufacturing industry. "Industrial large models are accelerating deployment and application in enterprises, and humanoid robots have begun to be tested on production lines such as automobiles and equipment, promoting the upgrade of intelligent manufacturing capabilities," said Zhao Gang.Lenovo Group has partnered with an automotive battery company to achieve industry-leading discriminative artificial intelligence (AI) technology for lifelong learning with small samples. This technology provides an in-process, end-to-end AI quality inspection solution for factory production lines, reducing costs by 50% to 80% and increasing efficiency by 15% to 40%.

Tencent Cloud has helped WanKong Zhizao, an electrical cabinet manufacturer, to build the "WanZhi Cloud" industrial internet platform. In the intelligent design process, Tencent Cloud's OCR (Optical Character Recognition) large model transforms electrical cabinet design plans into high-quality model training data, which is then extensively annotated and trained. After inputting relevant design parameters, the "WanZhi Cloud" platform can automatically output preliminary drawings. What used to take three to four days of design work can now be completed in just 3 minutes on the "WanZhi Cloud" platform.

Zhu Keli, Executive Director of the China Information Industry Association and Founding Dean of the National Research Institute for New Economy, stated that intelligent transformation has increased production efficiency by reducing manual operation links and shortening production cycles through automated equipment and intelligent technologies. It has also optimized supply chain management, achieving transparency and real-time monitoring of the supply chain, thereby reducing inventory and logistics costs. Furthermore, it has promoted innovative development in the manufacturing industry by helping enterprises grasp market dynamics and consumer demands through data analysis and forecasting.

Jia Zijun analyzed that the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry fundamentally changes the way resources are allocated, processes are optimized, and processes are reorganized, creating a new type of industry model that is intelligent, collaborative, and networked. It breaks through spatial and temporal limitations, expanding the breadth and depth of industrial division of labor, and eliminates the gap between supply and demand, transforming the production paradigm.

Dual advantages lay a solid foundation

As a major manufacturing country, China has a complete industrial system and the advantage of a super-large-scale market, with the overall scale of its manufacturing industry ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years. At the same time, China's digital economy scale has been in the second place globally for many years, with advantages such as a complete information infrastructure, massive data resources, and a rich array of application scenarios. Currently, China is at a critical period of transitioning from a manufacturing and internet power to a manufacturing and internet superpower. These dual advantages provide a good foundation for the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry.

The digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a focus and a challenge. Jia Zijun suggests that strategies should be tailored to individual enterprises and the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry should be advanced in a categorized manner. Support should be given to leading enterprises to focus on digital transformation across all factors, processes, and ecosystems, strengthening the application of new technologies and the cultivation of new models to create a batch of "digital pioneers." Support should also be provided to SMEs to enhance their connection with the digital platforms of leading enterprises, using "chain-style" transformation to compensate for the insufficiency of individual enterprise resources and capabilities. SMEs should be guided to widely apply subscription-based product services to reduce the cost of enterprise production and operation.

Zhao Gang believes that the cost of digital transformation for SMEs should be further reduced, and manufacturers should be encouraged to provide inclusive products and services for manufacturing SMEs. The construction of industrial internet platforms should be strengthened to promote the opening and sharing of industry data. Digital technology service providers should be encouraged to delve into the industry, innovate product and service models around different industry business models, and meet the personalized needs of enterprises.

In addition, experts believe that talent cultivation and introduction should be strengthened to provide ample talent support for the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry and to increase support for the digital transformation of SMEs.