The hottest intelligent manufacturing era is comin

The era of intelligent manufacturing is coming: adidas automatic chemical plant will be started in Germany.

the era of intelligent manufacturing has begun to take shape. Following the closure of adidas' direct factories in China in 2012, this year, as an industrial 4.0 project supported by the German government, adidas' automatic chemical plant will be started in Germany, and the core of the plant is to replace human labor with industrial robots

the trend of Adidas represents the trend of manufacturing industry. This trend is not only held by China, but also by Vietnam, where labor prices are cheaper. The special situation in China is that the technology wing of China's manufacturing industry is not yet full when the low-cost advantage of labor force cannot be relied on and cannot be retreated. In this case, China's manufacturing industry seems to suffer from transformation anxiety

compared with Vietnam, India and other late developing countries that have almost nothing, as a global manufacturing power, we are more afraid of losing. This is the macro background of Chinese manufacturing suffering from transformation anxiety. However, after a close study of the current situation of China's manufacturing industry, at least three major symptoms of transformation anxiety are emerging. First, China's manufacturing transformation anxiety is first and foremost the anxiety of small and medium-sized enterprises in traditional industries. Some experts pointed out that, according to the industrial 4.0 standard proposed by Germany, China's manufacturing enterprises of new materials represented by polyurethane, carbon fiber, aramid fiber and fluorosilicone materials in Shandong Province are scrambling for opportunities recently. The industry as a whole is in the stage of industrial 2.0 and the stage of 3.0 to be fully popularized. It is in this case that industrial 4.0 is a myth for most small and medium-sized enterprises in the downstream of the industrial chain

for traditional small and medium-sized enterprises, transformation lacks both foundation and direction, as well as necessary support. Objectively speaking, the elimination of a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises that lack competitiveness will become an inevitable reality. Under the current situation of macroeconomic downturn and overcapacity in the low-end manufacturing industry, it is unrealistic to require all enterprises to realize transformation. For small and medium-sized enterprises with weak strength, intelligent manufacturing is too far away from them. However, some excellent enterprises can survive only by observing that the oil delivery valve moves closer from extensive manufacturing to refinement. This elimination competition will inevitably breed a lot of anxiety

secondly, the anxiety of China's manufacturing industry is also reflected in the overseas M & a tide that ignores risks and is too enthusiastic. Some enterprises do transformation in a down-to-earth manner, which is often unknown. Other enterprises are keen on capital operation and concocting concepts, placing too much hope on epitaxial growth, or just playing the arbitrage game of fishing in troubled waters in the capital market, which to some extent also reflects the transformation anxiety. From the perspective of M & a market, since the scale of M & A by Chinese enterprises reached a historical record in 2015, in the first quarter of 2016, all of the ten largest M & A transactions in Asia had Chinese enterprises

this kind of fanatical acquisition goes against the economic situation. From a positive point of view, it is an instinctive move of industrial capital to find new opportunities under the domestic economic downturn, and a shortcut for enterprises to break through the development bottleneck. However, from a negative point of view, the risks and opportunities of M & A are the same, especially overseas M & A. in addition to the Cheap Book Valuation, there are many legal, political, market and other costs to be considered. Although M & A of Chinese enterprises is a kind of positive letter to the upstream of the value chain. Recyclable multi-layer composite flexible packaging films - such as pet/polypropylene, pet/polyethylene, and metal plastic composite materials - are too keen on M & A, which often leads to less prudent decisions, but it actually contains the anxiety of transformation

thirdly, the transformation anxiety of manufacturing industry is also reflected in the entrepreneurial tide as frenzied as the M & a tide. At present, entrepreneurship has become a hot industry in China. It is an industrial chain in which concepts and capital fly together. There are both joys and sorrows. For the manufacturing industry, the entrepreneurial threshold of intelligent manufacturing is very high. It is more difficult for start-ups to reach the height of advanced technology in the industry. Take robot manufacturing as an example. In the past two years, there have been nearly 1000 robot enterprises in the domestic market. At present, the number of industrial robots in China has accounted for one quarter of the world. Relevant policies and venture capital are also very keen on relevant concepts. In contrast, due to the lack of core technology, China's industrial robot products are mainly concentrated in the middle and low end, and up to 70% of the enterprises' ontology business is in a state of loss. Obviously, this rush of entrepreneurship is far from the real needs of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry

the key to resolving the anxiety of manufacturing transformation is to clarify the transformation logic. From a strategic perspective, the connotation of China's manufacturing transformation should be to vigorously tackle key problems in core technology on the premise of holding the bottom line of employment and preventing the hollowing out of the manufacturing industry. For the entity enterprises undertaking the transformation of the manufacturing industry, the transformation of the manufacturing industry depends on innovation, and the real innovation must be a high-risk and high return thing. For this, small and medium-sized enterprises should do what they can, but should not be afraid of the risk. The over enthusiastic tide of mergers and acquisitions and entrepreneurship should be more rational. Only in this way, the moderate anxiety about transformation can be transformed into a real industrial driving force

(the author is a researcher of China's financial think tank, and this article only represents the author's personal views)