Empowering Manufacturing via Industrial Internet Platforms: Tailor Solutions to Enterprises’ Actual Conditions
2018 marked the kick-off year for full-scale implementation of the Industrial Internet and also saw an explosive surge of domestic Industrial Internet platform vendors. In December 2017, the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Development of the Industrial Internet through "Internet Plus Advanced Manufacturing", which designated the Industrial Internet as a key pillar for building a manufacturing powerhouse and a cyber power. Following its release, central ministries, commissions and local governments rolled out a flurry of policies and regulations to refine top-level design, align with the guiding principles and elaborate actionable tasks.
Among the three major Industrial Internet systems — network, platform and security — the platform sits at the core. The Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020) issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) set a clear target of fostering roughly 10 national-level Industrial Internet platforms by the end of 2020. To secure a foothold in this emerging sector, enterprises of all types leveraged their respective industrial competitive edges to develop Industrial Internet platforms and seize first-mover advantages. Statistics show that nearly 300 Industrial Internet platform products have been developed nationwide, with key application sectors covering equipment manufacturing, general manufacturing, consumer goods, raw materials and electronic information.
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What Is an Industrial Internet Platform?
The aggregation of massive industrial data and accumulation of industrial mechanism models have given rise to industrial internet platforms. Within the industrial internet system, platforms act as a hub connecting all industrial elements, allocate industrial resources and underpin industrial applications. It can be interpreted from two perspectives as follows:
An industrial internet platform functions as an operating system for the industrial sector, analogous to Microsoft Windows, Google Android and Apple iOS. Developers can conduct secondary development using standardized microservice components provided by the platform, while end users can access industrial APPs on the platform to meet scenario-specific demands.
It also serves as an e-commerce platform for the manufacturing industry, similar to Taobao and JD.com. It precisely matches product demand with available manufacturing capacity, reduces idle industrial resources and information search costs, and gradually forms an ecological resource pool represented by cloud factories.
Essentially, industrial internet platforms leverage network infrastructure to break the isolation of traditional factories through vertical integration and horizontal expansion. Inside factories, materials, equipment, systems and personnel are interconnected; outside factories, extensive links are established covering upstream raw material suppliers and downstream clients across broader supply chains. R&D design, production, marketing and value-added services are integrated via platform construction. Through industrial PaaS (Platform as a Service) and industrial SaaS (Software as a Service), massive data is collected, aggregated and analyzed to reconstruct real-time factory operation status, supporting scientific decision-making and intelligent control.
Industrial Internet Platforms Must Be Tailored to Enterprises’ Actual Conditions
Industrial enterprises advance through sequential stages: automation, digitization, informatization, networking and intelligence. Deployment of industrial internet platforms must be built on preconditions including digital equipment and industrial software within factories. At present, Chinese industrial enterprises vary widely in informatization maturity, so industrial internet platforms must deliver targeted empowerment for enterprises at different development stages.
For large enterprises with mature informatization and sound production operations, industrial internet platforms help explore new business models and achieve breakthroughs in smart manufacturing. Data lays the foundation of the industrial internet, yet end-to-end smart manufacturing solutions — covering on-site equipment communication, network renovation, interconnection of business systems, and self-built or leased industrial cloud platforms — entail enormous costs ranging from millions to tens of millions of yuan. Only large enterprises possess sufficient capital to deploy applications such as visual inspection for product quality and algorithm-based predictive equipment maintenance.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have just completed automation and are advancing toward digitization and informatization, industrial internet platforms empower manufacturing via cost reduction and industrial chain collaboration. Migrating industrial software to industrial cloud platforms drastically cuts SMEs’ capital expenditure on hardware procurement, IT operation staffing costs and hardware upgrade expenses. Meanwhile, platforms enable SMEs to rapidly enter comprehensive system integration. Enterprises at Industry 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 levels will inevitably step onto the fast track of industrial internet platforms, either actively or passively. With factory data integrated and shared on the cloud, SMEs can optimize the full workflow spanning raw material procurement, inventory management and sales.
Source: Information and Software Service Network
