The fourth industrial revolution came to call China's "Industrial Android"

Cover of the 8th issue of China Economic Weekly in 2017

"China Economic Weekly" reporter Yao Dongqin | Beijing report

(This article was published in China Economic Weekly, Issue 8, 2017)

The trains of previous industrial revolutions have dropped a considerable number of passengers: there are still 1.3 billion people in the world, about 17% of the population have no access to electricity, and the second industrial revolution has not yet been fully realized; the third time marked by computer applications The industrial revolution has dropped more than half of the world's population, and 4 billion people still cannot access the Internet.

The fourth industrial revolution train that screams in front of you, who will be in first class, who will be left behind by the train?

Professor Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, wrote in the book "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Power of Transformation" that the fourth industrial revolution achieved virtual and physical production systems on a global scale by promoting the development of "smart factories". Flexible collaboration. "Technology and digitalization will change everything," Schwab said.

The spindle was the symbol of the first industrial revolution. It took 120 years to go out of Europe and go global. In contrast, the Internet, the hallmark of the third industrial revolution, took less than a decade to reach all corners of the world. In the fourth industrial revolution, due to the explosive emergence of breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, and CPS (cyber physics system), the speed of development and the breadth of influence far exceeded the previous revolutions. For the opportunities and challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, a positive and consistent understanding is formed with strategic urgency.

The manufacturing powers have taken the lead. From Germany's "Industrial 4.0 Strategy", the US "Industrial Internet" to "Made in China 2025", "Intelligent Manufacturing" became the main theme of the fourth industrial revolution. It is important to point out that countries have focused on "informatization of industrial technology."

Germany's "Industry 4.0" pointed out that "Industry 4.0" is a revolutionary transformation of modern information and software technology and traditional industrial production interaction. "Software has become the primary driving force for innovation in the industrial sector, its importance has risen, and its development momentum is rapid," and will become the next new industry.

The US "2016-2045 Emerging Technology Trends Report" clearly states that "software defines everything." For companies in all industries, "having powerful software is an important factor in achieving competitive initiative."

In China, in May 2016, the “Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Deepening the Integration of Manufacturing and Internet Development” was released, raising the strategic significance of software to an unprecedented level, namely “strengthening software support and defining the fundamental role of manufacturing”. .

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said at the Industrial Internet Summit in 2017 on February 21 that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is studying the development of the industrial Internet and will further form the top-level design of China's industrial Internet development.

"China's manufacturing transformation and upgrading, 'Made in China 2025', promoting 'Internet +', and even promoting supply-side structural reforms and other policies, reflects the consensus of the industry, software is a bull nose, is the engine, it is a new generation of information The core and soul of technology.” Xie Shaofeng, Director of the Information and Software Services Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told China Economic Weekly.

In the opinion of industry experts, "industrial technology software" is an important weight for China to seize the opportunity in the fourth industrial revolution, and even overtake the curve. Bai Jinfu, former deputy director of the Economic Affairs Bureau of the Central Policy Research Office and president of the China Economic Research Institute, pointed out to China Economic Weekly that both Internet and intelligence are defined by software, and industrial technology software drives industrial change. .

More importantly, on the basis of industrial technology software, global industrial giants have begun to compete for industrial platforms to create "Android in the industrial field." If Android and iOS turn mobile phones into smart phones and bring about a golden decade of mobile Internet development, then from the manufacturing to the smart manufacturing, the Android platform in the industrial field is also needed.

Li Yizhang, chairman of Beijing Suowei System Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Soowei Company”), who has been deeply involved in the industrial software and industrial technology software field for 18 years, bluntly told China Economic Weekly that the international industrial competition situation is left to China’s gold. The window period is not too long. "If the next two to three years, China's own industrial platform and standards cannot be established as soon as possible, Chinese companies use the German and American platforms, and they will not connect China's 'industrial body' to other people's 'industrial brains', core data. Technology, knowledge are deposited on other people's platforms. Once this day, our lost opportunities may not be recoverable in 30 years."

Global industrial giants quietly "soften"

Software is becoming the most important part of smart manufacturing, the global industrial giant crazy merger software company

Who is the world's largest software company? Is it Microsoft? In fact, if you look at the number of lines of code, the military industry Lockheed Martin has already surpassed Microsoft to become the world's largest software company. As the world's largest defense company, Lockheed Martin is known as the F22 and F35 fighters. However, about half of the company's 2007 revenue of $39.62 billion came from software and related IT industries. "Lockheed Martin has 120,000 people, of which 20,000 are engaged in software-related industries, which is equivalent to 20,000 people who have made software to earn 100,000 people to make money from airplanes." Ning Zhenbo, chief consultant of AVIC Information Technology Center told China Economic Weekly.

In 2013, AVIC Group took the lead in the Sysware engineering middleware and knowledge automation technology of the company, and took the lead in fully launching the software technology construction of the aviation industry.

As a leader in the aviation industry, Boeing is the most frequently cited case in the industry when talking about "industry technology software." The Boeing 787 development process uses more than 8,000 kinds of software, of which less than 1,000 are commercial software, and the remaining 7,000 are proprietary software that Boeing has built into decades of engineering, knowledge and experience. Boeing's core competitiveness has been protected and Boeing's leading position in aircraft manufacturing has been established.

"With the 7000 kinds of software, no one left will affect Boeing's aircraft development level; instead of the 7,000 kinds of software, even if COMAC invited Boeing's chief designer, it could not create a Boeing aircraft." For the company's chairman Li Yizhang told reporters that foreign industrial giants are doing a lot of software development work, putting people's skills, skills, and experience in the software, replacing the human ability through software. This situation is very common among foreign industrial giants. In 2015, the industrial giant GE proposed to become one of the world's largest software companies in five years. Heavy-duty industrial enterprises such as GE are developing into light assets and are becoming "software companies."

"One day, it is possible to put these software in a suitcase, and take advantage of the software to somewhere in the world, you can control an advanced factory and manufacture it instantly." Li Yizhang said.

Siemens Industrial Software Platform

Aeroengine design is completed in one day - industrial technology software brings wings to industry

In the new round of global industrialization competition, industrial software has been repositioned, and the auxiliary tools developed from the informatization of manufacturing industry have been promoted as the weapon to promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial intelligence. Of course, the "software" mentioned here is not a single-function tool software, such as CAD, CAE, PDM, etc., but a series of intelligent software that integrates industrial knowledge and technology.

In traditional manufacturing, industrial software mainly refers to software such as design, simulation, process, test, management, such as CAD, CAE, CAM, CAPP and industrial control software. However, as far as the development of industrial software is concerned, whether it is Germany's "Industry 4.0" or the US "Industrial Internet", it is inseparable from industrial knowledge and technology. By softwareizing these industrial knowledge and technology, it is possible to realize intelligentization. R&D, design, manufacturing and operation management.

For example, in the factory, if you want to inspect a machine, you must go to its location to observe. When the knowledge and technology of equipment operation management are softwareized, we can remotely monitor the machine and analyze big data. A bridge for communication between machines, machines and people.

The industrialization of industrial technology can make industrial technology better protected, run faster, and be applied on a larger scale, thereby magnifying the effects of industrial technology ten times, allowing engineers and technicians to do more innovative. jobs.

Li Yizhang gave an example. "We have made the layout design and strength analysis of the civil aircraft for China Commercial Aircraft Corporation. It only takes one week. It takes four months to do it in the traditional way."

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), together with GE, Pratt & Whitney and other companies, after 20 years of development of NPSS software, embedded a large number of engine design processes, methods and parameters, one day to complete a round of aviation engine design, to ensure that the United States Absolute advantage in engine technology. The digital transformation that GE is pushing is to software and integrate GE's industrial technology with its industrial Internet platform Predix to connect and control every machine connected to the world.

It is not difficult to understand why Boeing, GE and other century-old industrial enterprises have laid out large-scale software. "These industrial enterprises are not to become IT companies like Microsoft, not to provide software to others, but to accumulate industrial knowledge accumulated over a century. Industrial technology is transformed into software, which inserts the wings of software for its own industrial manufacturing," Li Yizhang said.

Siemens Industrial Software Platform

Frequent acquisition of software companies such as GE and Siemens

On February 8, Schneider Electric, one of the world's top 500 companies, announced the acquisition of 3D real-time technology software company MWPowerlabs.rl. Schneider said the acquisition will bring advanced virtual reality and augmented reality technology to its industrial software portfolio.

In fact, not only Schneider Electric, in recent years, GE, Siemens and other industrial giants have stepped up their acquisition of software companies to strengthen their core competitiveness in the era of intelligent manufacturing.

In August 2016, GE acquired Shipxpress, a well-known supply chain software developer. In November 2016, GE acquired three other software companies, namely cloud service company ServiceMax, two artificial intelligence startups, Bit Stew Systems and Wise.io. GE's goal is to expand its industrial Internet platform, Predix. GE Global CEO Jeff Immelt once said, "We hope that the accumulation of more data will make Predix gradually become the industry standard." GE hopes to achieve $15 billion in software sales by 2020, ranking among the top 10 software companies in the world.

In Germany, Siemens has dominated the development of industrial software platforms. In 2007, Siemens spent $3.5 billion to buy UGS, which has an annual profit of only $110 million. However, this acquisition has earned it three important chips: 3D design software UG-NX, product lifecycle management software Teamcenter, digital factory assembly system Tecnomatix.

In 2008, Siemens acquired Innotec in Germany, representing the plant layout planning of the virtual plant and the operational simulation of the actual plant.

Since 2013, Siemens has attempted to implement human-computer interaction in virtual design industrial software using virtual reality (VR). It has acquired LMS, VRcontext and Tesis software.

At the end of 2014, Siemens successfully acquired Camstar, which provided it with powerful analytical capabilities for on-site data.

In April 2016, after GE launched its industrial Internet platform Predix, Siemens also launched an industrial platform called MindSphere.

In November 2016, Siemens announced that it will acquire Mentor Graphics, one of the world's three largest EDA (Electronic Design Automation) companies, for a total price of US$4.5 billion to expand its existing industrial software portfolio and enhance Siemens' digitalization. Manufacturing capacity.

An insider at Siemens said that it has acquired a number of more competitive software companies and strengthened its core competitiveness in Industry 4.0. Siemens' latest investment is to work in this direction.

GE Industrial Medical Internet Platform

GE Industrial Medical Internet Platform

The era of "software defines everything" comes

"Boeing, GE and other traditional manufacturing companies are all developing towards software. In fact, according to the thinking of software, they carry out enterprise transformation and transformation, and promote product upgrading and technological progress." Xie Shaofeng, Director of Information and Software Services Department, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Say, SDX (SoftwareDefined X), the concept of "software-defined everything" has been deeply rooted in the industry. For a simple example, such as a mobile phone, the previous mobile phone is a phone; plus the video app is a TV; plus the navigation software is the navigator. What is the app and what APP is, the era of "software defines everything" has arrived.

Xie Shaofeng said that software's role in empowering (adding functionality), assigning (increasing value), and adding intelligence (increasing intelligence) is irreplaceable. Take the automobile as an example. Now the value and function of a car are mainly from software, and the level of intelligence depends on the software.

It is estimated that in the 15 years from 2010, the share of software in the automotive industry will increase from 15% in 2010 to 30%.

Alto Brockman, an expert in the field of advanced manufacturing technology in Germany, wrote in the book "Intelligent Manufacturing: Subversion and Reconstruction of Future Industrial Models and Business Formats", "The success of a company is not based on hardware such as machinery and tools, but Based on its software, "in this technical field, the company will lose its competitiveness."

In Bai Jinfu's view, software is not only a "product development basis", but also has considerable market value. Experts estimate that the current market share of pure industrial software has reached hundreds of billions of euros, and the index will grow at an annual rate of 8%.

As China's action plan for implementing the strategy of manufacturing a strong country, "Made in China 2025" proposes to accelerate the promotion of the integration and development of a new generation of information technology and manufacturing technology, and to focus on the smart manufacturing as the main direction of the integration of the two technologies (Editor's Note: refers to industrialization and informationization). . Break through the core technologies of high-end industrial software such as intelligent design and simulation and its tools, manufacturing object and service, industrial big data processing, develop independent and controllable high-end industrial platform software and application software in key areas, and establish and improve industrial software integration standards and safety evaluation. The system promotes the systematic development and industrialization of independent industrial software.

The industry believes that it is important for Chinese manufacturing companies to smoothly realize intelligent transformation and realize the independent independence of industrial software based on "embedded software" deployed in all aspects of manufacturing.

Haier Jiaozhou Interconnect Factory

Either have a platform or be owned by the platform

Foreign industrial software giants conceal what

"Industry 4.0" can be regarded as the track built by Germany. The "Industrial Internet" is the track of the United States. If China wants to catch up with Germany and the United States in the fourth industrial revolution, what path should it choose?

At the moment, Chinese manufacturing companies are keen to go to Germany to investigate smart manufacturing. In Li Yizhang's view, Germany “missed” very important information when promoting its “Industry 4.0” strategy.

“Industry 4.0, proposed by Germany, believes that industrial software and cyber physical systems (CPS) are the core of intelligent manufacturing. However, even if a complete smart factory is built through industrial software and CPS, if there is no industrial technology to drive these tools, The so-called smart factory is just a beautiful 'body', unable to operate efficiently and intelligently. It is like replacing the paper and pen with a computer and Word. If there is no corresponding knowledge reserve and writing skills, we still can't write a good article. Li Yizhang said that industrial software and CPS tools can be standardized, commercialized, and can be spread all over the world with the "Industry 4.0" number, but industrial technology is the artisan skill behind the tool, and is the "product formula" on the production line. It is impossible to publicize and export on a large scale.

German and American industrial software accelerates penetration into China

With the promotion of industrial software, smart factories, industrial Internet and industrial big data by countries such as Germany and the United States, the software and equipment of Siemens, SAP, Dassault, GE, PTC and other companies have also quickly entered China's military equipment, civil manufacturing, etc. In various industries, accelerate the occupation and penetration of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, especially high-end manufacturing industrial software platforms.

Li Yizhang told reporters that Haier's latest Jiaozhou interconnection factory, for example, has realized full value chain integration and automated production. Users can customize products and even order production, demonstrating the shape of a new generation of smart factories. But the factory's back-end core system, one from Siemens, one from SAP, and one from GE. Since engineering technology and engineering data are locked in Siemens, SAP, and GE systems, subsequent technological improvements must rely on these foreign companies for secondary development. Haier's core technologies and data are actually controlled by these foreign companies.

Not only does the civilian industry have such a dilemma, but the person in charge of the information technology department of a military industrial enterprise also told reporters that “the former military industry, now engaged in information technology, has long been led by foreign manufacturers, our knowledge has long been solidified in their software. The transition is very difficult."

I worked in a foreign company that produces industrial software for 8 years. I found that foreign companies can sell software to China and even use industrial platforms for Chinese companies. However, industrial knowledge, methods, and engineering databases are never sold. Li Yizhang decided to establish the initial motivation for the company.

"Chinese companies have not paid attention to the construction of independent industrial technology software systems in the past. Enterprises even include some governments. They may think that advanced software and equipment can be bought back to achieve advanced manufacturing, but this is often not the case." Li Yizhang told reporters, such as Chengdu An aviation company bought software for hypersonic pneumatic calculation abroad. "This software was sensitive at the time and sold very expensive. However, the database (engineering knowledge base) did not give this enterprise to Chengdu. The company used that software at all. I heard that it is useless now."

China has its own industrial platform to have an equal dialogue with Germany and the United States.

What worries the industry is that industrial software giants such as Siemens and GE have expanded into a full industrial chain through continuous mergers and acquisitions, and have established a closed ecosystem. These companies are pushing the platform strategy of industrial software and using their monopoly advantages in basic software and equipment to promote their industrial software platform to China.

In 2015, GE announced the opening of its industrial Internet platform, Predix, to all industrial companies and software developers. The platform's core functions include security monitoring, industrial data management, industrial data analysis, cloud technology applications, etc. It is a completely open system.

GE developers said: "If you are a non-professional, you can think of the Predix platform as Google's Android system or Apple's iOS system, but it is not installed on the phone, but hidden behind the data center, connected to Big data stored in the form of 'data lakes'. Like the Android and iOS systems, Predix is ​​like a well-decorated room with a full suite of software services to help people quickly develop software applications for industrial environments.

Li Yizhang analyzed that with the rise of the new round of industrial revolution, the strategy of developed countries has shifted from simple control technology to controlling the global industrial ecosystem. “In the past few years, companies like Siemens, GE, and IBM have opened their platforms to the world. They want global companies to use their platforms to conduct business. What are the purposes of these industrial giants to open platforms? In fact, they want to build them. Industrial ecosystem."

“This is the commanding height of the smart manufacturing strategy and the battleground for corporate competition. There is a very vivid image, either with a platform or owned by the platform. For Chinese companies, it is owned by Siemens and GE platforms, or is it built in China. Our own platform? We believe that China must build an independent industrial software platform." Li Yizhang believes that only with its own industrial software platform can it carry China's own industrial knowledge and technology system, and at the same time it has equal rights with Germany and the United States. The right to dialogue.

On the other hand, if we further connect factories and products to the industrial software platform of foreign companies, it means that our “industrial bodies” are connected to their “industrial brains”, and industrial technology and industrial data will be deposited on others' platforms. In the end, their "industrial brain" will become more and more intelligent, and our manufacturing industry will become more and more hollow.

China Telecom has docked GE platform

"At present, in the military industry, Dassault has penetrated into the aircraft, ship, and electronics industries. Siemens is gradually controlling the engine, aerospace, weapons, and nuclear industry, which seriously threatens the safety of China's defense industry." Authorities in the industry warned.

Gao Xinmin, vice chairman of the China Internet Association, told China Economic Weekly that it is very important to build China's independent industrial software platform, and relevant departments must speed up in this regard. He noticed that China Telecom, Weichai and other companies have already connected to GE's Predix platform. Among them, in July 2015, GE and China Telecom Group announced cooperation, GE Industrial Internet big data software platform Predix and China Telecom's telecom infrastructure and value-added services docked to form an industrial Internet overall solution to promote industrial Internet in aviation, medical, Applications in energy, industrial manufacturing and other related industries.

In addition, Chinese companies and institutions such as China Telecom, Haier, Huawei, and the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences have joined the Global Industrial Internet Alliance (IIC) promoted by GE.

China Economic Weekly-Economic Network copyright works must be authorized and dated when reprinted, and offenders will be held liable.

China’s “industrial body” cannot be connected to foreign “industrial brains”

How does China build its own "Industrial Android"

In September 2016, at the 18th China Association for Science and Technology Annual Meeting, Huai Jinpeng, then deputy secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and now deputy secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee, said that China is both a big Internet country and a big manufacturing country. This is us and the world. Faced with an important basis for the same competitive starting line.

He believes that the softwareization of industrial technology is the only way for China's manufacturing industry to become a strong country. The realization of industrial Internet and industrial cloud is an important foundation for us to build a platform to achieve global integration and promote industrial development.

"Our national software industry foundation is relatively thin. In the past, we always said 'follow-up', but we always have to look for a chance to overtake the corner. Traditional system software, tool software, we have no chance, but in the platform application field Under the current situation, we maintain the same starting line with foreign countries. This field provides us with an opportunity to overtake the corner.” Xie Shaofeng, Director of the Information and Software Services Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told China Economic Weekly.

The industry professionals interviewed by the reporter almost expressed a common concern: if China does not build its own industrial platform as soon as possible, domestic manufacturing companies will inevitably choose to join the industrial platform provided by foreign industrial giants free of charge. This means that China's "industrial body" is connected to the "industrial brain" of foreign countries.

China's biggest advantage in building an industrial platform: manufacturing countries, with large amounts of data

In August 2013, AVIC decided to adopt Sysware's engineering middleware and knowledge automation technology in the “unified IT architecture” group strategy. As a unified framework for integrated research and development of AVIC, it fully launched the digital integrated development of aviation products. Platform construction.

"This platform is an important platform to support our 'Dayun' rapid delivery," said Ning Zhenbo, Principal Consultant, AVIC Information Technology Center. “Dayun” refers to China’s 200-ton air force military aircraft. From the establishment, development, delivery, and installation, “Dayun” has created a new record for the development and delivery of similar aircraft in the world after 9 years. The delivery of "Great Universiade" marks China's entry into the club of large aircraft. Prior to this, China's aviation industry system was a "small aircraft" system. The fighters and transport aircraft manufactured were all dozens of tons, the largest was 60, 70 tons, and suddenly it was to develop 200 tons, and the existing research and development experience and The manufacturing system is not matched. On the other hand, usually a new model needs to be launched, and it takes more than 10 years to conduct key technology pre-research before it can be established. The "Great Universiade" is urgently needed by the state, and there is not enough time for pre-research. In the first three years of the project, the state invested heavily in the development of key technologies, which laid the foundation for the later "Great Universiade."

Ning Zhenbo believes that in building an industrial Internet software platform, "we have caught up with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and must design the architecture in the top-level design. Some people may say that our top-level design is very different. In fact, not only are we wide, GE There is also a huge gap between Siemens and the industrial bus (a collection of common signal lines that communicate information between modules or devices, and communicate with each other). There are more than 120 in the world, and there is no standard. We are a little late, but The international advanced gap is not big."

In Ning Zhenbo's view, China's manufacturing industry has the largest volume in the world, with huge industrial data, including application data, customer data, operation and maintenance data, etc. This is the biggest advantage of our construction of industrial platforms. "The large amount of data is too important. Take Huawei as an example: 20 million people in a country in Europe, and 20 million in Huawei in Zhejiang. It has been running for several years. It has mature market verification and can be used immediately in European countries. The operators in the United States and Europe have a maximum of 2 million users. To be used in the market of 20 million users, they must undergo a lot of testing."

Li Yizhang also believes that China has great advantages in this regard. China's industrial system is very complete and the market is very large. There are about 30,000 manufacturing enterprises above designated size in China, and the top 500 manufacturing enterprises involve 21 industrial categories. "If we can build China's own industrial knowledge and technology system, and build it on its own platform, form China's standard norms, which in turn allows others to recognize our platform and support our platform to realize the industrial technology software system. Self-controllable."

"Dayun" military aircraft

In fact, there are already many leading manufacturing companies in China that are exploring and practicing industrial platforms. Chen Lucheng, vice president of Haier Group, told China Economic Weekly that after implementing the mass customization transformation, Haier Connected Factory hopes to contribute this model and make it a platform to use the most concentrated resources and the least cost. Class companies achieve transformation.

"We have been working with the company for a long time. Now we have some initial results. There are more than 10 value-added services. Now we have begun to export. Many companies in Ningbo and Qingdao have already started trials." Chen Lucheng vs. China Economic Weekly said that while the company is trialing, the platform is also being iterated, which in turn promotes the exploration of Haier's internal interconnected factory model. "To promote internal and external cooperation, and strive to build this platform into a Chinese version of the industrial Internet platform. Haier has this pursuit and has this feeling. From a global perspective, we also want to seize the new opportunity of intelligent manufacturing in the world. Have the right to speak and be able to occupy this commanding height."

It is not just Haier that has the pursuit and feelings. Qiu Yanmin, deputy general manager of the Development Planning Department of China Ordnance Industry Corporation, also told China Economic Weekly, "We have a dream to build a third-party industrial collaborative manufacturing platform." "We deeply feel that for many years, the military industry has hidden A large number of cutting-edge technologies. We hope to release them and make some contributions to the country's economic and social development. We also hope that civilian high-tech can be transformed into military, and we have interactive needs."

"If we don't engage in the platform ourselves, we will definitely enter other people's platforms in the future, just like if we don't enter Taobao, we will definitely enter Amazon. If Chinese industry does not study this issue again, it will not seek to catch up, in the future competition, the market advantage. There is no more." Qiu Yanmin said.

How does China build its own "Industrial Android"? In Zhou Min, general manager of CSIC Information Technology Co., Ltd., it is very important to concentrate on tackling strength. "We must construct a kind of socialized and cooperative ecology from the concept. All military industry and military enterprises, each investing and fighting each other, the waste is actually huge. From the national level, future investment should focus on sharing assets. ."

Li Yizhang also believes that the industrialization of industrial technology, the government should take the lead in solving some of the common things. "For example, whether it is aviation, aerospace or weapons, the shipbuilding industry, there are some common core knowledge and software requirements for core technologies, which can be used by all walks of life."

Standardization is another important aspect highlighted by industry experts. "We engage in equipment to promote the three-way, serialization, generalization, and combination. The basis of the three-way is standardization. The same is true for industrial technology software. Standardization is very important, including language, interfaces, etc. It can't be used in another place." Liu Yongcai, a famous expert in flying missile technology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said.

Xu Jianping, deputy director of the Department of Economic and National Defense Coordination Development of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that it is necessary to provide institutional guarantees for the construction of China's "Industrial Android." Enhance the supply capacity of core software development, highlight reforms, and eliminate a series of institutional and institutional problems, structural contradictions, and policy issues that constrain core software development.

On February 20th, Li Yizhang, Chairman of the company, attended the “2017 Industrial Internet Summit” organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and gave a keynote speech. Photograph by Xiao Wei, Chief Photojournalist of China Economic Weekly Vision Center

"Developing manufacturing with the software industry"

——Interview with Li Yizhang, Chairman of Beijing Suowei System Technology Co., Ltd.

"China Economic Weekly" reporter Yao Dongqin | Beijing report

In the field of industrial technology software for 10 years, Beijing Suowei System Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Suowei") has been more famous than its own customers.

As the company's C919 layout and strength analysis for China Commercial Aircraft Corporation, it will take time from the original 4 months to a week; with Yuchai, it can take two or three weeks to make it in one or two days. The diesel engine design scheme also has application cases in aircraft, helicopters, missiles, tanks, vehicles, ships, aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and other fields. Due to the confidentiality of the military industry, it cannot be disclosed.

On February 21st, at the 2017 Industrial Internet Summit, Haier COSMO platform officially released and provided social services to the outside world. This is China's first and largest independent industrial Internet platform for independent research and development and independent innovation. The platform is also built in cooperation with Suo.

Recently, Li Yizhang, chairman of the company, said in an interview with China Economic Weekly that industrial software software can not only stand in the software industry to see problems, but is currently the golden window for China to promote the industrialization of industrial technology. The important path to achieve overtaking in corners in the fourth industrial revolution.

The global industrial APP market will exceed US$225 billion in 2020, while the China Industrial APP market is still almost blank.

China Economic Weekly: Industrial technology software is seen as an important path for China to deal with the fourth industrial revolution. In the actual industrial enterprise production, where is the necessity of industrial technology software?

Li Yizhang: We know that the core of Industry 3.0 is to use information technology and digital technology to help products improve efficiency from research and development, design, process to manufacturing. Although these new tools have made great progress, the tools are advanced and require people to operate and use them. This has led to some problems now: First, many companies have bought advanced software and equipment, but they can't be used, and they are not good. Second, these technical tools require a lot of manual operations, which makes the phenomenon of “80% labor and 20% creation” of engineers and technicians is very common. Engineering and technical personnel are largely more like manual workers. The work intensity is very large. Smart people still have to do low-level things. If you want to innovate, there is still a lot of work to do. Third, due to the long-term neglect of software technology construction of industrial technology, many core technologies and intellectual property rights generated in the process of industrialization cannot be continuously accumulated, effectively protected and fully utilized. These core technologies and knowledge experiences are scattered in various enterprises, locked in the minds of technicians, unable to accumulate, integrate and reuse, and continue to be dissipated and lost as people flow.

The core of industrial technology software is to make the methods, knowledge and technology in the human head explicit, modular, and modeled to form industrial APP to operate those new tools. In the future, industrial intelligence still needs people to participate, machines do transactional and executive work, and people make advanced intellectual work such as decision-making and analysis.

GE made a prediction early last year that by 2020 the global industrial APP market will exceed $225 billion.这个规模相当于再造一个全球数控机床市场，目前全球数控机床市场大概是2300多亿美元。而工业APP市场在中国几乎是一片空白。

《中国经济周刊》：国际工业巨头在工业技术软件化方面一个新的趋势是平台化，并将这样的平台类比为工业领域的安卓平台，如何理解平台化发展的重要性？

李义章：我们先通过一个案例来解释，过去10年，移动互联网取得了非常大的成功，构建了非常庞大的产业。移动互联网行业的成功，实际上是软件业的成功，安卓、iOS这样的平台屏蔽了很多硬件细节。移动互联网行业从业人员不用了解详细的硬件的细节，掌握Java语言就可以开发一个很大的系统。

反过来看制造业，制造业工程师做产品研发设计要面对几十种、上百种工具，难度可想而知。

软件业一个高级工程师，3个月可以做好一个大的系统，同样复杂度的系统放在制造业可能需要3到5年时间。因为软件业做一个大系统60%~70%都是用“重用模块”，编程序调用函数库就可以。而制造业做一个新的产品研发，几乎每个零部件都是从头设计，很少有像软件行业的重用程度。再有就是软件业通过互联网，可以将很多成熟的模块按不同的价值快速组合在一块。这就是为什么这几年移动互联网发展很快，一个新兴公司用不到一年时间就可以搭一个很大的系统，包括各种后台系统、前台系统、物流系统等等。

我认为中国制造业完全可以借鉴软件业的方法走自己的路径，在工业领域需要一个类似安卓的工业平台，把工业领域的设备、软件、硬件统一在一块，在这个平台上由统一的语言来描述定义工业知识和技术，类似软件行业的Java语言。我们还需要建立工业领域的函数库、模块库，将来研发产品就会比现在快10倍。再通过工业互联网，把整个价值链快速重构。这是我的观点，用软件业的方法干制造业。

《中国经济周刊》：10年前，您就进入工业技术软件化这一领域，当时您看到了什么样的发展契机？

李义章：我最初创业，想法其实很朴素：国外能卖给咱们的，其实都不是最核心的东西，比如波音公司，那7000种私有软件才是最核心的，但是人家不卖，我们能不能做出中国自己的7000种软件？从2006年到2010年，我们只做飞机总体设计这一件事，做了1000种软件，这个工程非常浩大。

从2010年开始，我们进入航天、兵器、船舶这些行业后发现，不光是飞机制造有7000种软件的问题，其他行业都有这个需求。所以这10年，我们一方面结合具体的行业去做工业技术软件化；另外，我们在开发一套类似于工业安卓的平台，通过这个平台把工业领域的各种软件、硬件、设备整合在一块；第三，在工业安卓这个平台的基础上，我们研发了图形化的语言，让工程师可以把他的工程设计、仿真、工艺、制造的知识和技术，转化成APP。最近这两年又研发了互联网的平台，让知识和技术能够流通，我们把它叫做知识和技术的互联网。

如果单纯搞概念，在军工行业是行不通的

《中国经济周刊》：索为公司是军工二级保密单位，具备承担机密级项目科研生产任务的资格。去年11月，索为公司还参加了由中央军委装备发展部会同教育部、工信部、国防科工局、全国工商联举办的第二届军民融合发展高技术成果展。作为一家民营企业，是怎样“打入”到门槛高、相对封闭的军工行业的？

李义章：我原来在外企工作，就是和航空、航天领域的企业打交道，后来创业做索为，自然而然就想到先为航空、航天领域服务。

航空、航天等军工行业的特点是，技术非常复杂、周期非常长、门槛非常高，相对而言也比较封闭，所以要做这个行业的业务，必须要沉下心来去做，必须得拿出过硬的东西。如果单纯搞概念，在军工行业是行不通的。

《中国经济周刊》：在与军工企业的合作中，工业技术软件化发挥了哪些效应？

李义章：通过工业技术软件化，首先带来的是效率大幅度提升。举个例子，我们在中国商飞做大型客机的总体设计，用原来传统CAD、CAE去做，做一遍大概3周时间，用我们的平台，一到两天就可以完成。其实把人解放出来了，让人可以做更多创新性的工作。

另外，通过这样的系统，还解决了规范性可追溯性的问题。原来工程师要用几十种工具来工作，每种工具就是个“黑盒”，做完了得到的就是结果，中间过程保留不下来。通过我们的平台，设计员的整个设计活动都在这个平台上进行，每一个参数、每一个模型都有来龙去脉，提供了产品研发的证据支持。比如，上海商发（中国航发商用航空发动机有限责任公司）在研制航空发动机时，要求工程师全部工作在索为搭建的平台上完成，因为产品要拿到美国试航，需要研发各阶段的数据支撑。再比如，上海728院（上海核工程研究设计院）也应用了我们的系统。核电装备是安全性要求特别高的产品，中国核电601985 ,股吧装备现在要出口，客户要求必须要带一套软件系统，研发过程中的各种数据必须要放在软件平台上，对产品的安全性、规范性提供支持。

《中国经济周刊》：2月21日，在2017工业互联网峰会上，海尔COSMO平台正式发布。这对互联工厂会带来什么革命性的改变？

李义章：互联工厂已经成为海尔的名片。海尔希望将成功经验与模式复制到中国其他的企业，帮助这些企业进行转型升级。海尔COSMO平台采用的就是工业软件化技术。我们在这方面找到了用武之地。

把海尔的工业实践包含的知识、技术软件化，变成工业APP，通过这样的互联工厂APP去改造其他企业，包括海尔自己的工厂。过去海尔建一个互联工厂投资10亿，花两年时间，现在通过互联工厂APP改造一个工厂可能只需要半年的时间，5000万就可以实现。

除了企业研发、设计、运行，索为还把海尔的供应商、产品和服务、资源模块化，也放在云平台上。企业只要运行这个平台，就可以利用海尔的供应链和资源。打一个形象的比方，有一个厨师做的菜非常好吃，过去要想吃到这个菜，得厨师做，现在把厨师做菜的方法形成APP，你在家里就可以做出好吃的菜。做菜用的原材料、调味品，通过平台可以提供。

我认为与海尔的合作在中国的智能制造领域是非常前沿的探索。这种模式如果能够成功，我们和德国、美国是可以并肩的，甚至赶超他们。

建立知识和技术的流通交易机制， 激活工业技术领域

《中国经济周刊》：过去10年，你在工业技术软件化的实践中，遇到的最大的难点是什么？

李义章：过去10年，索为做的很多探索是比较超前的，花了大量时间、精力是在做科普，很多企业甚至政府领导曾经觉得要先解决工具、软件、设备、硬件的问题。不过现在是个很好的机遇，国家创造了很好的舆论氛围。

第二，工业技术软件化门槛非常高，得懂工业、懂工程，还要懂信息化。跨界其实是很难的，要找到跨界的人才本身就比较难。

第三，中小企业缺人才缺资源缺资金，一开始做起来确实非常难。我们最难的时候，经常是下月的工资不知道从哪儿发。也曾有西门子等公司找到我们要合作，对我们来说，跟这些外企合作，可能更容易一些，生存也没有那么艰难，但是对我们来说，去代表这些国外软件公司的利益，跟我们的理想是冲突的。

《中国经济周刊》：为了让新技术的潜力得到有效、全面释放，搭建合理、完善的制度性框架非常必要。同时，社会在多大程度上接受技术创新，也是决定技术进步的主要因素。推动工业技术软件化，还需要从哪些方面进行努力？

李义章：工业技术软件化，是全行业的事。索为只是其中一家小公司。如何把这件事真正推动起来，我觉得有几件事非常重要：

第一，要建立我们自己的标准，至少先有行业标准，将来有国家标准。

第二，要形成我们自己的工业平台。工业平台应居于战略性位置。索为已有的实践可以发挥很多作用。

第三，工业技术和工业知识的软件化，特点是非常分散，专业性非常强。 按照过去主要靠企业自发去建立，难度很大，无法避免重复建设、重复投入。需要政府牵头，解决一部分共性的东西，需要有总体性的规划。

第四，一定要建立知识和技术的流通交易机制。应当从政策层面，允许工程技术人员把他多年工作所形成的知识和技术，转变成APP，允许流通和交易，允许个人在其中享有一定的收益。只有这样，才能调动科技人员的积极性，把知识和技术这个领域激活。

(Editor: Song Amy HT004)

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