How should we understand the industrial Internet? What is the background and connotation of its development? What are the development paths, existing problems, and next steps to focus on? On December 14th, Wang Jianwei, Deputy Director of the Information and Software Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, gave a comprehensive and profound exposition on this at the 30th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the China Association for the Application of Mechatronics Technology.
At present, there are many concepts in the industry, such as intelligent manufacturing, industrial Internet, integration of industrialization and informatization, deep integration of industrialization and informatization, and new ICT technologies, such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G, etc. How to clarify the thinking in the midst of different opinions? Wang Jianwei said that intelligent manufacturing is the main direction of integration of industrialization and industrialization. At this stage, it is the integration of manufacturing industry and the Internet, and the breakthrough is the industrial Internet.
In 2010, China's total industrial output value surpassed that of the United States, becoming the world's largest manufacturing country. This marked China's entry into the middle and late stages of industrialization. During this period, China's industry encountered a wave of informatization, including the integration of industrialization and industrialization, deep integration of industrialization and industrialization, and so on. General Secretary Xi Jinping of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China explicitly proposed to promote the deep integration of Internet big data, artificial intelligence, and the real economy, which marks the expansion of industrialization to the real economy and the focus of informatization on the three major technologies, namely the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence. But in reality, it is still a fusion of the two industries.
On November 27, 2017, the State Council officially issued the "On Deepening; Internet plus Advanced Manufacturing” Guiding Opinions on the Development of Industrial Internet, which proposes that the network is the foundation, the platform is the core, and security is the guarantee of the industrial Internet. In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reviewed and released eight major industrial Internet platforms, which will expand to 10 in 2019, and continue to promote the in-depth application of the platform in specific industries and scenarios.
 
Why Industrial Internet Should Have a Platform
Currently, the transformation of the manufacturing industry has become the core of national strategies in countries around the world, and the digital economy has become the main theme of the times. The transformation of the manufacturing industry and the development of the digital economy have achieved a historic intersection. In this context, the transformation needs of the manufacturing industry and information technology have accelerated their penetration, and the industrial Internet platform has been born. The industrial Internet platform has become the hub of all elements of industry, the whole industry chain and the whole value chain, and is the core of industrial resource allocation. This is the profound background of the development of industrial internet platforms.
Why does the Industrial Internet need a platform? Wang Jianwei stated that this is based on three aspects. Firstly, the explosive growth of industrial data requires new data management tools. Secondly, intelligent decision-making in enterprises requires new application innovation carriers, and data can only generate value through analysis, mining, and re modeling. Thirdly, the new manufacturing model requires new means of business interaction. How do personalized customization and networked collaboration interact? With the development of cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things, these interactive tools have matured.
The key of industrial Internet is data driven industrial intelligence, and mechatronics has made great exploration in it. “ Therefore, collection and exchange, integrated processing, modeling and analysis, decision control, etc. can realize intelligent production, networked collaboration, personalized customization, and service-oriented extension through the industrial Internet platform. ” Wang Jianwei said.
Therefore, the industrial Internet connects manufacturing and the Internet, comprehensively connecting equipment, software, personnel and other production factors, and realizing the connection with the Internet; Drive industrial intelligence, based on massive industrial data analysis, to form intelligent production and operation decisions; Build an open innovation ecosystem, support developers in industrial app innovation through the external opening of platform data and functions. Ultimately transforming the production and manufacturing system.
From the perspective of industrial Internet platform architecture, the edge layer, industrial PaaS, and application layer are the three cores. Among them, the edge layer builds the data foundation of the industrial Internet platform through large-scale and in-depth data collection, as well as heterogeneous data conversion and edge processing. The platform layer is the core, which stacks innovative functions such as large-scale data processing, industrial data analysis, and industrial microservices based on a universal PaaS, to build a scalable open industrial operating system. The application layer is the key, forming industrial SaaS and industrial APP that meet different industries and scenarios, and forming the ultimate value of the industrial Internet platform.
Wang Jianwei believes that, globally, industrial Internet platforms are experiencing explosive growth. Data shows that the number of platform products has continued to increase in the past two years. In 2017, there were more than 150 global industrial Internet platforms. It is expected that the market capacity will reach 1.644 billion US dollars in 2021.
 
Industrial Internet is still in its infancy
The development of industrial Internet is of great significance. Industrial Internet is related to the initiative and voice of China's manufacturing development in the digital economy era. Industrial Internet provides a new path for deepening supply side structural reform and realizing innovation driven, and is an important support for China's high-quality development. As the main body of the real economy, the manufacturing industry is the main battlefield of technological innovation and an important area of supply side structural reform. As the key support for the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and the real economy, the industrial Internet provides an important foundation for promoting high-quality development of the industrial economy.
Industrial Internet optimizes the stock, promotes the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and realizes the optimized allocation of various production and service resources in a larger range, more efficient, and more accurate. It can increase the increment and provide strong support for the development and growth of advanced manufacturing industry, giving birth to new models and formats such as large-scale personalized customization, network collaborative manufacturing, service-oriented manufacturing, etc., which is conducive to achieving the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, as well as large, medium, and small enterprises.
&Ldquo; However, the industrial Internet is still in its infancy, and there is still a long way to go to achieve good economic and support effects. There are many factors that constrain this, especially safety. ” Wang Jianwei stated. It is reported that through research, enterprises are unwilling to use the industrial Internet or go to the cloud, and the focus is still on security issues and trade secrets.
In essence, the industrial Internet platform has the following characteristics:
Firstly, the integration of OT and IT is the foundation. The development of industrial Internet platform should first realize the overall digitalization of enterprises, especially the digitalization of underlying equipment and facilities, and then realize the connection between the upper and lower levels of enterprise data, the integration and innovative application of OT and IT. “ The key is to implement digitization, create models, and finally standardize. ” Secondly, platformization of manufacturing capabilities is key. Manufacturing capabilities that can be traded online are essentially a set of shareable data models. In the future, whoever has more data resources will have greater development potential. Thirdly, the fusion innovation of human and machine intelligence is the core.
At present, manufacturing enterprises, Internet enterprises, software industry and big data enterprises, as well as telecommunications operators are the four main forces in building industrial Internet platforms. Wang Jianwei believes that at present, manufacturing enterprises have more advantages in building platforms. OT comes first before IT. With the passage of time, other types of platforms will also achieve good development. Overall, it is necessary to break down technical and professional barriers, complement each other's strengths, form strong alliances, and engage in cross-border cooperation.
 
Development prospect of industrial Internet platform
The development of industrial Internet platform is divided into three stages, which can also be understood as three stages of enterprise cloud.
The first stage is to promote the platformization of IT capabilities and comprehensively advance the cloud migration of manufacturing resources. Firstly, it is the heterogeneous resource pool of IT software and hardware, which forms elastic allocation, fast delivery, provides cloud infrastructure, and achieves tool cloud and business system cloudification transformation. Thereby reducing the cost of information technology construction, achieving the integration and sharing of digital resources, cloud migration of manufacturing resources, digitization, and networking.
The second stage is to promote the platformization of manufacturing capabilities, facilitate open cooperation and collaborative sharing of manufacturing resources. Online trading of manufacturing capabilities, dynamic allocation and iteration of manufacturing resources, and so on.
The third stage is to accelerate the deep integration of industrial knowledge with big data and artificial intelligence, and enhance the innovation capability of the manufacturing industry. The industrial Internet platform establishes a value sharing mechanism by building an open value ecology.
At present, one of the key points of China's industrial Internet platform application is to create specific industries and scenarios. First of all, the application of industrial Internet platform should be deepened, and the application scope should be expanded based on three types of objects. In the future, it will face four application scenarios, from single point intelligence to global intelligence, and from condition monitoring to complex analysis. These four scenarios are: resource matching collaboration, enterprise management decision optimization, production process optimization, and product lifecycle management.
Of course, as an emerging thing, the industrial Internet platform also faces some problems. First, there is a lack of large-scale applications. In this regard, the digital, modular and platform based manufacturing resources are not rich enough, and there is a lack of killer applications and large-scale applications. Secondly, there is a lack of an open and cooperative ecosystem, constrained by traditional cooperation models and interest patterns; Lack of pathways and mechanisms for building an open value ecosystem. Thirdly, there is a lack of professional cultivation ability. The difficulty of cross industry application is high; In the early stages of development, it is important to avoid blindly pursuing the bigger picture and missing out on opportunities for growth. ”
Wang Jianwei said that focusing on the construction and promotion of industrial Internet platforms, the next step will focus on four directions: first, focus on“ Building a Platform; Support the construction of a batch of industrial internet platform experimental testing environments and testing beds, and cultivate a batch of cross industry, cross domain, specific industry, and specific regional industrial internet platforms. The second is to strengthen; Make up for shortcomings; Implement the Industrial Internet APP Cultivation Project, targeting three types of industrial APP resource pools: basic commonality, industry universality, and enterprise specific construction, to promote the proceduralization of process experience and the explicitization of industrial knowledge. The third is to promote; Using the platform” We will promote millions of industrial enterprises to go to the cloud, use the cloud of industrial equipment to drive the technology iteration and function evolution of the cloud platform, and select a number of industrial Internet platform application pilot demonstration projects. Fourthly, focus on“ Building an ecosystem; We will create a good development environment and create a new manufacturing ecosystem based on the industrial Internet platform through open source communities, holding developer contests, promoting cooperation between platforms, and strengthening cooperation between platforms in industry, finance, and finance. (This article is based on conference shorthand and has not been approved by the speaker)