Smart Manufacturing Takes Off in 2017

There have been several initiatives in recent weeks to promote China Manufacturing 2025.

On February 9, the MIIT Equipment Department held a meeting at the Dongguan Smart Manufacturing Pilot Zone with representatives from other local governments including Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenyang, Changsha, and Chengdu where they discussed needs and goals for each manufacturing pilot zone. Local governments are taking initiative and as a result they are getting policy support for the pilot zones at the national level.

On February 10, the China Strong Manufacturing Nation Leading Group released the China Manufacturing 2025 "1+X" System. The 1 refers to the China Manufacturing policy and the X refers to one of 11 supporting implementation guidelines for the national level policy, including the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center Development, Powerful Industry, Intelligent Manufacturing, Green Manufacturing, High End Equipment Innovation, 5 Engineering guides, among others.

The research and guidance for the system was provided by an expert group established by the China Strong Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee. They work and research plans and have submitted 3 to the State Council on new materials, IT, and attracting talent. The overall goal is to increase the baseline for manufacturing quality and ability while focusing on improving quality. If manufacturers are held accountable for producing higher quality goods, we expect to see upgrades in the production process.

On the same day, MIIT also made an announcement that in the last year they have seen great progress made on the 13th FYP Informatization Guidelines. After one year of work, 28 different programs covering the areas of Manufacturing, Communications, and other critical industries have been established. The 28 programs include China Manufacturing 2025, as well as 11 industry plans in areas such as IT and software services, and 17 thematic plans in the areas of big data, robotics, and new materials.

The next step will be to focus more on China Manufacturing 2025, particularly in the area of the equipment manufacturing industry. MIIT will promote special automation projects and plans to choose 9 pilot projects and write more than 50 standards for smart manufacturing. The long term strategy is to decrease dependency on imports and industries' urgent need for equipment. Lastly, the  Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII) Summit will take place on February 20 in Beijing. AII is a CAICT established alliance that develops standards and oversees development for smart manufacturing.