Industrie 4.0 Gains Surprising Traction in China

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Summary
ARC Advisory Group attended Siemens Industry 2014 China Forum, held this summer in Beijing. During the event, Feng Fei, Director of Industry Policy Division under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT); Prof. Russwurm, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG, and CEO of Siemens Industry; Mr. Herrmann, CEO of Siemens Ltd., China; and other senior executives from Siemens China participated and delivered speeches.

Over 1,000 experts, industrial customers, partners, and journalists attended this successful event. Here, Siemens provided Chinese audiences with a clear picture of how the company is driving digital manufacturing under the "Industrie 4.0" vision that originated in Europe, but is gradually gaining traction in other world regions, like China.

Industrie 4.0: A Roadmap for the Future
In his keynote speech, Feng Fei listed the challenges that China manufacturing face today. These include transforming the country from a "manufacturing factory" to a "manufacturing force" and increasing the global competency of China manufacturing.

China's MIIT previously initiated the concept of "integration of informatization and industrialization," which Mr. Feng believes shares many goals and characteristics with Industrie 4.0. He believes that the combination of the large Chinese domestic market and German technologies could drastically accelerate economic and social developments in China and Europe alike.

According to Prof. Russwurm, Industrie 4.0 is a future-oriented technology vision, which could possibly be fully realized within 20 years. In its initial stages, industrial IT and software are key elements. Siemens will focus on three next steps:

  1. Further develop the company's Digital Enterprise Platform products offering
  2. Focus on developing manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems to create flexible supply chains with information available in real time across company boundaries
  3. Design new automation components in line with the "plug 'n' yield" philosophy, which is similar to the "plug 'n' play" concept for electronics products

Dr. Marc Wucherer, Executive Vice President of Siemens Limited China commented: "At present, Siemens can provide a Digital Enterprise Platform for our Chinese customers. This combines advanced manufacturing management systems and production process software and hardware, including Siemens SIMATIC IT MES, Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software, Siemens Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) and Integrated Drive Systems (IDS)."

"Industrie 3.X"  
Although "Industrie 4.0" is still somewhat in the future, the company believes it is in a good position to implement transitional technologies, or Industrie 3.X."

As we learned at the event, Comau Automotive Equipment Company in Shanghai utilizes Siemens PLM software to simulate the production design and production process, which reportedly has helped shorten the time to market by 20 to 30 percent.

Siemens PLM Software also helped Jinan Second Machine Tool Corporation, one of the world's largest producers of forging and pressing equipment, shorten product design cycles and increase manufacturing flexibility.

Siemens Electronic Works Chengdu Employs the Company's Own Digital Enterprise Platform

Siemens had already brought the model of "Industry 3.X" to China in its own operations. Siemens Electronic Works Chengdu (SEWC), the company's largest overseas digital factory is also an early adopter of the Digital Enterprise Platform. The factory's impressive defect rate is less than 15 defects per million.

Conclusion
While the German government initiated the Industrie 4.0 concept in 2013 and it has gained maximum traction in that country, an increasing number of Chinese, including many government officials, believe it's the technology that Chinese manufacturers need to enhance their competitiveness; to help transform Chinese manufacturing from "big" to "strong," and move away from the "made in China" paradigm, to a "created in China" paradigm in which Chinese manufacturers contribute to innovative new product designs and manufacturing practices. It also helps explains why the Industrie 4.0 vision has become so "hot" in China in such a short period of time.

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Keywords: Industrie 4.0, Siemens Industry Forum, Digital Manufacturing, China, ARC Advisory Group.

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