[Expert Perspective] Industry 4.0 is not a simple production line upgrade

[Expert Perspective] Industry 4.0 is not a simple production line upgrade

The recent meeting of the State Council of the People's Republic of China called for promoting the integration of " Made in China 2025 " and "Internet+", achieving a breakthrough as quickly as possible in the "Made in China + Internet" and realizing that China's manufacturing is moving toward the mid-to-high end. Make use of the advantages of Internet innovation to create the Chinese version of “ Industry 4.0 ” and promote efficient industrial upgrading.

So, what exactly is Industry 4.0?

Nowadays, many companies understand that Industry 4.0 focuses on smart manufacturing, ie, intelligent production systems, but lack understanding of the true connotation and concept of Industry 4.0 and the development path of Industry 4.0 of Chinese companies. The consequence of this is that many companies in China have first thought of upgrading equipment as soon as they mention Industry 4.0. It seems that replacing the automation equipment with intelligent equipment will create a new production line.

However, this is a typical way to wear new shoes. This will not only make the company's investment very large, but will also cause Chinese companies to detour. Even if the equipment and smart production lines are advanced, if the old products are produced, what is the significance of such an industrial 4.0? For example, if you are producing Kodak film, you are using a very smart device and production line, but you still can't compete for a digital memory card, which can only increase the cost. Therefore, companies must not be intelligent for intelligence.

Understanding the connotation of Industry 4.0 has two key points: one is the understanding of the Industry 4.0 production system, and the other is the understanding of its core technology, the information physics system.

Industry 4.0

The mesh-type production system in the era of Industry 4.0 is a system based on the Internet (big data, cloud computing, etc.). R&D, production, sales, and users can fully realize information interaction, communication, and control through the Internet. The information physics system is an intelligent machine, a storage system, and a production facility, which can automatically exchange information, trigger actions, and control independently of each other, so that the production system can be transformed from automation to intelligence, and flat production can be achieved. You can think of it as a tool for realizing the docking between the physical world of the entity and the virtual world. It is a connection between the virtual reality and the real world.

From 2009 to 2012, in order to complete the transformation and upgrading of the company's personalized production system, the United States’s Harley-Motor removed all of the original factory area and rebuilt a new production line, which resulted in the production of a motorcycle that meets the individual needs of users. The time was reduced from 21 days to 6 hours. Similarly, Haier invested huge amounts of capital in 2015 to build five digital interconnected factories, including Qingdao air conditioners, Shenyang refrigerators, Zhengzhou air conditioners, Foshan washing machines, and Qingdao water heaters, for the same purpose.

In the transformation of enterprises in the era of Industry 4.0, we should give priority to the development and production of Internet products instead of focusing on smart factories first, because consumers are more concerned with what kind of products I need than product production processes. Whether or not an enterprise's products are internet products is not necessarily related to whether or not its factory is a smart factory. Internet products are not necessarily manufactured in smart factories. Products produced by smart factories are not necessarily internet products.

In addition, the transformation of Internet products will inevitably require an adaptive production system. Therefore, while focusing on product transformation, companies must also pay attention to the transformation of production systems.

[Expert Perspective] Industry 4.0 is not a simple production line upgrade