xinhua news agency, beijing, July 8thQuestion: Digital Transformation of Manufacturing: How to Calculate the Benefit Account of Input and Output?

Xinhua News Agency reporter

Not long ago,The executive meeting of the State Council deliberated and approved the action plan for digital transformation of manufacturing industryMake a top-level design for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.

Digital transformation is the trend, but the process of transformation is full of challenges. Some enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are confused because of their large investment and long cycle.

How exactly should this input and output account be calculated? The reporter recently conducted field research in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Anhui, Chongqing and other provinces, listening to enterprises, governments, and financial institutions around this issue to talk about ideas and calculate detailed accounts, from which to understand the realistic path to further promote digital transformation.

"Explicit account": profit growth through efficiency and cost reduction

To promote digital transformation, although enterprises have to invest millions or even tens of millions of yuan, they can reduce costs and improve efficiency. For enterprises, it is a visible and tangible income.

The machines run at high speed, and the colorful fabrics flip and flow ...... Located in the workshop of Xinhai Shengtian Textile Finishing Co., Ltd. in Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, the production is orderly.

Xinhai ShengtianEngaged in the printing and dyeing business, commonly known as "dyehouse" in the past ". Before the digital transformation, the number of old masters in the factory decreased year by year with the passing of time, while young people were unwilling to enter the workshop. How can the enterprise achieve sustainable development? This is a question that Feng Deming, the general manager of Xinhai Shengtian, often thinks about.

In 2021, Xinhai Shengtian and Shanghai Zhijing Information Technology Co., Ltd. will cooperate to start the digital transformation and launch the "Flying Shuttle Smart Spinning" Galaxy Dyeing and Finishing Smart Manufacturing System, covering all printing and dyeing business links such as color matching, production scheduling and finalization.

Feng Deming told reporters that in addition to software support, digital transformation also needs to purchase new advanced equipment. For example, the printing and dyeing industry needs a matching color meter to "read" product color information. Such a set of software and hardware transformation was done, and the investment reached 5 millions or 6 millions yuan, accounting for about 2% of Xinhai Shengtian's annual operating income. Statistics show that the first quarter of this year, China's printing and dyeing industry sales profit margin of only 3.03. Obviously, this investment requires a lot of determination from the enterprise.

"Although the investment is not small, the efficiency has been improved and the benefits are obvious." Feng Deming said that the printing and dyeing factory should make samples before production to meet the customer's requirements for color. In the past, this link was highly dependent on the experience of the old master, and a color often had to be matched five or six times to succeed. After changing to an intelligent color matching system, young people can get started with simple training and the proofing efficiency is greatly improved. "It used to take 3 days for product proofing, but now the clothing industry is in vogue' small order quick reversion' mode, and it only takes 24 hours for urgent orders to sample."

Digital transformation brings not only efficiency improvement, but also cost savings.

Gong Shiwei, senior product director of Zhijing Technology, said that printing and dyeing is a chemical process, and many links such as feeding and stirring determine the success rate of the final product. Relying on various technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, the intelligent manufacturing system developed by Zhijing Technology has realized many functions such as intelligent formula and collaborative production scheduling in printing and dyeing process. Data from Xinhai Shengtian show that after the digital transformation, the product recovery rate of the enterprise has dropped by 30%, the defective product rate has dropped by 10%, and the cost has been saved by 3 millions or 4 millions yuan a year.

In Anhui Taier heavy Industry Co., Ltd., the reporter saw that the digital transformation has opened up all the equipment, production and management. "Some problems that were easily hidden in the past have emerged, such as machine material consumption, which can be finely controlled through data accumulation, and neither more nor less can be used." Yang Wei, director of the production and operation center of Tyre Heavy Industries, said that the digital transformation has reduced the company's machine material consumption by 40%.

Many enterprises have begun to taste the sweetness of digitalization, and their enthusiasm for transformation has increased. According to the e-works survey data of consulting institutions, about 80% of enterprises in China have formulated digital transformation plans, and more than 40% of enterprises take digital transformation as their core strategy. Most enterprises continue to invest in digital transformation, and the proportion of enterprises with investment in the range of 3 million yuan to 10 million yuan has steadily increased.

"Hidden account": through the reverse management, layout long-term quality upgrade.

The process of digital transformation is also forcing the enterprise management system to upgrade. In addition, solving business pain points by promoting digitalization is beneficial to the long-term development of enterprises, which are the hidden benefits of transformation.

Many interviewees said that in addition to financial pressure, one of the major challenges of digital transformation is internal resistance. Digitalization brings transparency. After the digital transformation, the efficiency of each link from production to sales, and what problems exist, can be seen more clearly than before, which leads to the resistance of some management. In particular, some factory directors in charge of production believe that their value has been weakened.

"If the management awareness and system are not upgraded, the digital transformation will be difficult to play its due role." Feng Deming said.

Enterprises to promote digital transformation, but also to co-ordinate the short-term income and long-term income two accounts.

Chongqing Galloping Light Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. has introduced more than 150 robots in the process of digital transformation. In the past, workshop welding was mainly manual, and there were always invisible gaps and missed welding. After using the robot, the qualified rate of the product jumped to more than 99%, which well matched the order demand of the vehicle factory such as Selis.

"Since 2016, we have successively invested more than 0.2 billion yuan in digital transformation, such as the introduction of robot equipment and the deployment of MES information system." Huang Gan, deputy general manager of the company, said that after spending a lot of money, when the automobile industry went down, the order volume shrank for a time, and the enterprise was under great pressure. "But we think this is a necessary stage, and the company finally survived. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, our monthly output value has grown from more than 1000 million yuan to more than 4000 million yuan at present, and the transformation dividend has been gradually released."

The research report on the input-output relationship of enterprise digital transformation recently released by the Innovation-driven Development Center of Huawei and the National Development and Reform Commission pointed out that from the perspective of the development stage, digital transformation is entering a new stage with value-driven as the core, and enterprises need to pay more attention to the digital transformation. The actual value, not just the technology application or the degree of digitization.

Li Peigen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that under the value-driven model, companies no longer simply pursue short-term profit maximization, but combine short-term commercial value with long-term strategic values such as sustainable development, and continuously adjust and optimize the input-output structure. Ensure the effective use of resources and the maximization of output.

Policy blessing: both "real money" and tilt support

Digital transformation is a systematic project, and it is difficult for enterprises to cross the digital divide by "fighting alone. The reporter found in many places that local governments, financial institutions, service providers and other social parties have introduced measures to promote digital transformation. The support of "real money and silver" helps enterprises share the transformation investment, shorten the return cycle, and enhance the confidence of enterprises in digital transformation.

-- Bring in financial "living water". Digital transformation requires short-term investment and long-term income. Enterprises that dare to digital transformation have therefore become the focus of financial institutions.

As early as 2021, Foshan City, a major manufacturing city in Guangdong Province, took the lead in launching "digital loans" in the country, introducing two major policies of risk compensation and full discount. Foshan Dengqi Electromechanical Technology Co., Ltd. is a state-level specialized and special new "little giant" enterprise. Guangfa Bank Foshan Branch provided 60 million yuan credit through "digital loan" after understanding the capital demand of the enterprise's "servo motor digital workshop" upgrade project. According to statistics from Foshan City, the "digital loan" has accumulated a discount of about 0.15 billion yuan, the loan amount is nearly 4.3 billion yuan, and the investment of enterprises exceeds 18.9 billion yuan.

According to the person in charge of Yubei District of Chongqing, the local area has coordinated four financial institutions in the area to provide digital transformation credit loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, with loan interest rates of only 3% to 4%.

-Clear support object. Keqiao District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, an important city in the printing and dyeing industry, has implemented "N + X" (commonality + individuality) digital transformation for printing and dyeing enterprises with an investment of more than 300000 yuan, and will be rewarded with 30% of "N" application and less than 20% of "X" application according to the actual investment amount (each enterprise shall not exceed 1 million yuan at most).

Anhui Province supports the construction of leading enterprises in key manufacturing industries to build "digital pilot" enterprises. For projects listed in the provincial typical demonstration, according to the purchase amount of project equipment and industrial software, a maximum of 10% will be given, and a maximum of 5 million yuan will be given for a single project.

-- Building a service platform. In order to promote the digital development of small, medium and micro enterprises, the Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology issued relevant policies in 2023 to issue 10000 yuan consumption coupons to 30000 small and medium-sized enterprises across the province free of charge. Enterprises can receive coupons and purchase themselves on the Antelope Industrial Internet platform. The required digital software covers four categories of products: manufacturing, design and research, warehousing and logistics, and management digitalization.

Yubei District of Chongqing was shortlisted for the first batch of 30 pilot cities for digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. "In addition to investing 80 million yuan in the digital transformation of auto parts and other sub-sectors, we also plan to build a digital transformation public service platform, gather a group of high-quality digital transformation service providers, and cultivate a group of small and medium-sized enterprises digital transformation management talents." Yubei District, the relevant person in charge said.

The executive meeting of the State Council pointed out that "it is necessary to increase support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises" and "explore the formation of a long-term mechanism to promote the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises".

"the government should do a good job in top-level design and optimize the digital development environment; enterprises should increase investment in research and development and develop excellent digital 'internal skills'; and financial institutions should innovate service models to inject fresh water into the transformation." Wei Jigang, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that with digital transformation as the traction, we will accelerate the construction of new competitive advantages in my country's manufacturing industry. (Reporters He Xinrong, Lei Min, Zhang Xinxin, Ma Shurui, Huang Xing, Wei Yijun)

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