Strengthening the foundation is the fundamental way for manufacturing to become stronger

In the third 30 years after the founding of New China, China’s manufacturing industry must “become bigger and stronger” and enter the forefront of the world’s manufacturing industry. It must put the development of manufacturing basic technologies and key basic components to a more prominent position.

In March of this year, "Made in China 2025" entered the "Government Work Report" and "Strengthen the Foundation" as an important principle for the development of a powerful manufacturing country in the future. The first time it was mentioned at the national level, it attracted much attention. In the first 30 years after the founding of New China and the second 30 years after the reform and opening up, China’s manufacturing industry has always followed the path of “whole machine-driven parts and components” to promote the Chinese manufacturing industry from scratch. "Development from small to large", but under the guidance of this idea, the scale has developed, and the development of basic technology and basic components has not been driven. In the third 30 years, China's manufacturing industry has to “go from big to strong” and enter the forefront of the world's manufacturing industry. It must put the development of manufacturing basic technologies and key basic components to a more prominent position.

The basic components of high-end equipment in China are often subject to people

In 2014, China’s manufacturing output value ranked first in the world for five consecutive years, and most of its product output ranked first in the world. One large, overweight, ultra-wide, and ultra-high major technical equipment was developed to encourage people's confidence, but ultra-precision, ultra-micro products have always plagued China's equipment manufacturing industry. For a long time, the development of China's equipment manufacturing industry has been characterized by a strong “implantation” and lack of independent basic research. The basic technical support of the underlying technology and supporting industries is weak and the development is not balanced. The major technological equipment breakthroughs achieved through “the power of the entire nation” are mostly Stand-alone, unable to achieve the entire industry chain layout. A valve with low density, a non-uniform weld, has already produced disastrous consequences for people's production and life.

When we dismantle the equipment that we are proud of, the more we move down, the more problems we discover. In the case of industrial robots, robotic joints use RV speed reducers, and more than 90% of them are monopolized by Teijin Seiki Co., Ltd. Some people say that Japanese people say that there are few global robots that can stand... Now, the basis of high-end equipment in China Components, especially moving parts such as valves, servomotors, engines, speed reducers, and automatic transmissions, are almost all dependent on imports. Most of us are able to produce stationary parts, which ultimately leads to the sale of equipment prices based on the weight of the machines. Product profits are squeezed by the price of raw materials, products that lack technological innovation are weak in bargaining power, and often subject to people.

At the beginning of this century, the state changed the importation of “parts and components without tax exemption, whole machine exemption from tax” to “exemption of parts and components, tax exemption for whole machine”, which made the domestic part companies’ living environment worse, and the weakest link in the industry needed to face imports. The impact of the product. When we want to develop key components and parts again today, we can hardly find supporting companies that can undertake key national tasks.

In the 1950s, Japan vigorously developed the manufacturing industry and began to take the development strategy of “whole machinery drives parts and components”. However, by the 1960s, they felt that this path was inconsistent with the industry’s own development laws, so it was changed to a strong one. Support basic technology and basic components, starting from the bottom. So far, the Ministry of Economy and Trade of Japan has to support more than 200 basic technologies each year to support the development of Japanese manufacturing.

Nowadays, many large companies in the equipment manufacturing industry in Europe, Japan, and the United States are gradually extending from the extractive industry to the smelting industry, and then gradually evolved into the manufacture of metal products, and finally become the key component manufacturers and complete machine manufacturers. The natural evolutionary process of this industry chain has made the foundation of equipment manufacturing companies solid, and the internal forces are “long”. Even a very general product can inject long-term accumulated experience and technology and eventually produce high-end products.

In recent years, Japan still has a number of “monster-level” long-lived companies (about 3,000) in key parts and components, and a group of experienced artisans. Japan still has absolute technological advantages in global technology convergence industries such as electronics and materials. It is not Japan's "rice cooker" and "toilet cover" that we see in the eyes, but the advanced technological strength of the control components and raw material industries hidden behind these consumer products. Germany is also relying on its thousands of stealth champions, which focus on the development of parts and components, to withstand the impact of the international financial crisis and to strengthen the international competitiveness of its manufacturing industry.

The developed countries, relying on their own technological and capital advantages, firmly control the key components and technologies that are at the core of the global industrial chain. This has a profound impact on the development of China's equipment manufacturing industry. One is to control the production rhythm of China's own products and it is difficult to guarantee industrial safety. For example, the Great Japan Earthquake almost led to the suspension of production of some complete machine manufacturers in China. Another example is that foreign companies can derive the output of China’s defense products based on the parameters of the key components that they have commissioned. The second is that product profits are conducted abroad along the component industry chain. For example, in the fierce automobile competition market, some foreign companies proposed price cuts, but the Chinese side did not agree because the Chinese can only make profits in the final vehicle sales, and foreign companies have already earned enough cash on key components. The third is to control the safety and reliability of products. Such as the machine tool industry, foreign reliability up to 5000 hours without failure, an average of 2000 hours, and China's products from the average hours abroad there is a certain gap. The main reason for the lag in the development of key parts and components in the machine tool industry is that the domestically-made functional components cannot meet the matching requirements of the host in terms of variety, quantity, and grade.

The state should encourage enterprises to play

Full value chain innovation

At present, the time for us to catch up is not much. In recent years, the emergence of new rules in the development of the manufacturing industry has hindered the catch-up of domestic basic components and parts. For example, the trend of highly integrated information technology and traditional manufacturing is becoming more and more obvious, and the modularization trend of modern manufacturing is becoming increasingly apparent. The electronic components make parts more integrated and “black boxed”. Facing this trend, the traditional imitation method has failed and reverse engineering has become more and more difficult. Future companies must have a “positive development” capability that better understands the internal mechanisms of product operations and accepts more sophisticated design strategies. This positive design capability must be the result of the accumulation of long-term experience and the coordinated development of the entire industry chain.

The state should encourage some enterprises with competitive advantages to play full-value-chain innovations. It needs a stable contractual relationship between the upstream and downstream companies, a sense of honor and discord, and coordinated development. Chinese companies have not yet realized the importance and urgency of establishing such a full value chain system. With the continuous increase in pressures on the environment and security and the development of intelligent and green products, China's whole machine companies have undergone transformation and upgrading once. A large number of small and medium-sized suppliers face a life and death choice. For example, in order to enhance product intelligence, a well-known air-conditioning company has held more than 60 supplier conferences to force suppliers to upgrade the information of parts and components, or they will be eliminated. On the one hand, the positive factor is the transformation and upgrading of parts and components companies. On the other hand, the negative aspect is that Chinese suppliers may be replaced by foreign companies, and the overall development of the industry will face the crisis of hollow parts and components. As in the 1960s and 1960s, the US automobile market has been dominated by local auto companies. However, local companies have not responded to the improvement of emission standards in a timely manner, providing Japan with huge space for the automobile to enter the US market.

In the future, we must establish a new manufacturing development model. To achieve the transformation from a “top down” management model to a “bottom up” open collaborative governance model, give priority to the development of basic technologies, common technologies and materials, and key components; and build a manufacturing innovation system that focuses on enterprises. Give full play to the bottom-level wisdom and experience of enterprises in innovation; actively promote the development of custom-made special products for users by joint small and medium-sized enterprises and whole machine factories; and gradually form a supporting industry supporting the continued health of the manufacturing industry with basic technologies and key components and components. A new pattern of steady development. "Made in China 2025" has given the answer.