An Xiaopeng: Future Industry from a Software Perspective
"The strategy of Made in China 2025 proposes to focus on the integration of the new generation of information and communication technology and manufacturing industry, with intelligent manufacturing as the main direction. In the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Integration of Manufacturing Industry and the Internet, it is proposed to strengthen the basic role of software in supporting and defining the manufacturing industry. Around these two sentences, we can look at intelligent manufacturing from the perspective of software."
InAt the 3rd Information Strategy Forum of the China Information Technology Hundred People's Congress in 2016, Chang'an Xiaopeng, Deputy Director of the Information and Software Services Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, gave a new understanding of industrial software in the new industrial revolution from multiple perspectives such as intelligence, integration, and intelligent manufacturing, with the theme of "Future Industry from a Software Perspective"; At the same time, from multiple aspects such as products, processes, production methods, new capabilities, and industrial ecology, the future manufacturing of industry has been redefined, and a "software defined" blueprint for intelligent manufacturing has been drawn.
Software support and definition of intelligence
An Xiaopeng said that from the perspective of software, he has two experiences in intelligent manufacturing: firstly, he needs to understand the software in the new round of industrial revolution. The second is redefinition, looking at future manufacturing from the perspective of industrial software.
To understand the status and role of software, one must understand what intelligence, integration, intelligent manufacturing, and industrial software are. "An Xiaopeng pointed out that the development of new technologies has brought new buzzwords, concepts, and technologies, such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, etc. However, behind these new concepts, there is a very core key technology that supports them, which is software.
Made in ChinaThe 2025 document proposes five major projects: the construction of manufacturing innovation centers, green manufacturing projects, intelligent manufacturing projects, high-end equipment innovation projects, and industrial strong foundation projects (four foundations): basic materials, basic components and parts, basic processes, and industrial technology foundations.
However, for intelligent manufacturing, it is necessary to supplement the manufacturing industryThe "New Four Basics": "One Hard", "One Soft", "One Network", and "One Cloud". "One hardware" is intelligent perception and processing, which should be supported by high-performance, low-cost, and highly reliable sensors and processors. "One software" is the core industrial software, "One network" is the industrial Internet, and "One cloud" is the industrial cloud and intelligent service platform.
An Xiaopeng believes that from the perspective of intelligent manufacturing, it is necessary to understand the physical objects of the manufacturing system——Perception of people, machines, and objects requires analysis, followed by comparison and analysis based on expected values. Scientific decisions are made after comparison, and finally, execution is carried out.
And the key links of state perception, real-time analysis, scientific decision-making, and precise execution are similar to those proposed in the previous textThe "New Four Basics" require automatic control technology, sensing technology, and in-depth real-time analysis of collected data. After analysis, an industrial cloud and big data processing platform are also needed. These require interconnectivity between different machines and systems.
In this sense, if we define the intelligent minimum unit, it is actually scattered in all aspects of intelligent manufacturing systems. This minimum unit can be displayed using a symbol that becomes our intelligent machine, an intelligent production line, and forms a minimum unit in planned production scheduling. These intelligent units form a local system within the vertical system integration of the enterprise, building from a single system to a local system.
In the end, these enterprises keep up with downstream enterprises for systematic interconnection and interoperability, building a complex system, industrial chain system, and forming an ecosystem. Therefore, intelligence is the process of building a small system or a single system into a local system, building a complex system from a local system, and finally building a giant system.
Integration is the deepening of manufacturing
An Xiaopeng believes that the essence of integration is the description of the scope and depth of manufacturing resource optimization. From automation to intelligence, it is the process of local optimization to global optimization. In terms of time optimization, there is only a starting point and no end point. In terms of space, the resources involved in optimization are continuously expanding along points, from machines, intelligent production lines, control systems, manufacturing execution systems, to the internal systems of the entire enterprise, to the entire industrial chain, and to the entire industrial ecosystem, in the direction of points, lines, surfaces, large systems, and giant systems. Of course, automation is single point, low-level, and limited resource optimization. Intelligence is multi-point, high-level, and global resource optimization. Therefore, the so-called integration process is the process of continuously deepening the scope and domain of the manufacturing process.
The relationship between the investment in enterprise informatization and the benefits of enterprise informatization is not linear. The benefits of enterprise informatization will only show exponential growth after it has passed the stage of integrated innovation. The system of the enterprise is constantly integrated, and when the number of integrations reaches a certain critical point, its benefits will show exponential growth. "An Xiaopeng believes that the essence of intelligent manufacturing is to solve the uncertainty and diversity of complex systems through the automatic flow of data, and improve resource allocation efficiency.
He said that personalized customization is undoubtedly the direction of future industrial development, but it brings a series of challenges and problems to enterprise production, as more and more products are manufactured, processes are becoming more and more complex, and demands are becoming more and more complex. How to solve the problems of cost, quality, and delivery time has brought about the complexity, diversity, and uncertainty of enterprise production. The problem that intelligent manufacturing aims to solve is the uncertainty and diversity brought about by personalized customization and the complexity of production in enterprises.
An Xiaopeng said that now everyone talks about big data. The flow of data has two very important aspects. One is the timeliness, accuracy and integrity of the data, and the second is the scientificity, progressiveness and effectiveness of the algorithm behind it.
Only by realizing the timeliness, accuracy and integrity of data, the scientificity, progressiveness and effectiveness of algorithms, and the continuous input of data to achieve data flow, can the uncertainty of complex manufacturing systems be solved, which requires the integration of networks, software and data. A large amount of implicit industrial knowledge is solidified in various software and information systems, transforming data into information, information into knowledge, knowledge into decision-making, and continuously optimizing decision-making to improve the efficiency of resource allocation.
Software Defined Industry Ecology
An Xiaopeng pointed out that software is defining products, defining enterprise processes, defining production methods, defining new capabilities of enterprises, and also defining the ecosystem of industries.
The IoT era is coming, and the evolution of product functions into four modules: power components, execution components, intelligent components, and interconnected components. When defining these basic functions, software enables future intelligent products to be monitored, controlled, and optimized. The flexibility, scalability, security, and manageability of product functions can all be achieved through software.
The emergence of mobile phones is another milestone in software definition. Moreover, the implementation of highly intelligent products and features such as fighter jets and Tesla cars increasingly depends on whether the software functions are powerful
Software is defining the structure of a product. The basic logic of this structure is to hardware the universal functions, software the variable parts, reconstruct the product structure, optimize the product's functional structure, reconstruct the value chain of the industry and the product, making it an important component of the product's transition from low-end to high-end.
Software is also defining the processes of enterprises. This process is first reflected in the R&D process. In the past, R&D followed a linear path of requirements, R&D design, industrial design, raw material procurement, and manufacturing. The emergence of new software platforms and tools has transformed our processes, sales, production, procurement, and R&D from serial to parallel. In the past, R&D was based on functionality and performance, but now it is based on product manufacturability and material procurement. Essentially, it is the process of optimizing from local resources to global optimization.
Software is also defining the production methods of enterprises. The most important symbol is the integration of physical manufacturing and virtual manufacturing, where software reconstructs the traditional process of design, manufacturing, testing, and redesign. Software is driving the implementation of research, design, simulation, testing, and manufacturing in virtual space before transitioning to physical space production and manufacturing. So, software has driven the migration of production scope in the manufacturing industry, which is to rebuild manufacturing efficiency, cost, and quality through rapid iteration, continuous optimization, and data-driven approaches.
An Xiaopeng pointed out that in terms of the future development trend of manufacturing industry, it will go through three stages: local virtual manufacturing, static virtual manufacturing, and dynamic virtual manufacturing.
The so-called local virtual manufacturing refers to the virtualization application in single machine equipment, single link, and single scene. It brings local efficiency improvement. Static virtual manufacturing is based on a weekly or daily cycle, while process industry is centered around batches, optimizing industrial production for the next cycle. Dynamic virtual manufacturing enables complete, real-time, and dynamic response of various production factors such as personnel, machines, materials, processes, environments, and products in the virtual world.
An Xiaopeng said that informatization should be observed from the perspective of the competitiveness of enterprises. In the process of promoting the integration of industrialization and informatization management system in China, many enterprises have put forward the need to build capabilities. However, different enterprises will build new capabilities under different technological backgrounds. From large-scale production capabilities to personalized customization capabilities, from channel construction capabilities to real-time perception, response, and service capabilities for customer needs, from cost control capabilities to fine cost control capabilities, from manufacturing capabilities to online diagnosis to new service-oriented manufacturing capabilities, some leading enterprises also need to build the ecological capabilities of the industry.
For intelligent manufacturing, the integration of digitalization and industrialization requires the transformation of software, equipment, processes, and management into new capabilities for enterprises. We will carry out supply side structural reforms, promote new technologies, products, and formats, cultivate new driving forces, and implement them at the enterprise level, which is the replacement of old and new capabilities for enterprises
（Source: China Industry News）
