The "5G+Industrial Internet" empowers the intelligent upgrading of manufacturing industry, and Chinese manufacturing welcomes historical opportunities

Wuhan, November 22 (Xinhua) - The first national level "5G+Industrial Internet" conference closed in Wuhan on the 21st. The conference showcased the latest progress, development prospects, and policy directions of the "5G+Industrial Internet" in China.
Experts attending the meeting believe that for Chinese manufacturing, the "5G+Industrial Internet", intelligent manufacturing empowering new infrastructure and manufacturing industry are historic opportunities for Chinese manufacturing to achieve leapfrog development.
The development of "5G+Industrial Internet" has entered a fast lane
The 2020 China "5G+Industrial Internet" Conference showcases the latest progress, achievements, and experience in the field of "5G+Industrial Internet" to the outside world.
According to Han Xia, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, over 1100 "5G+Industrial Internet" projects have been built in China for over a year, with an investment of over 3.4 billion yuan. There are over 32000 base stations applied to industrial Internet, making good progress.
In terms of infrastructure, over 700000 5G base stations have been built, with terminal connections exceeding 180 million, covering all cities at or above the prefecture level in the country.
The construction of China's industrial internet identity resolution system has been smoothly promoted, with the completion and operation of five top-level nodes in the southeast, northwest, and central regions. 76 secondary nodes have been deployed and launched, covering 22 provinces and 28 key industries. The number of industrial internet identity resolution registrations has exceeded 8 billion.
At the exhibition site of the conference, it can be seen that the integration application of "5G+Industrial Internet" with many industries has made progress. The three major telecommunications operators have created industrial internet platforms and products, promoting the integration of 5G with digital economy infrastructure and new technologies such as cloud, big, physical, intelligent, security, and chain, and continuously improving the industrial ecology.
Implementing remote services through "5G+AR", quality control through 5G+machine vision recognition, remote control of mining cards through 5G network, and control of personnel, materials, and equipment through 5G network... The typical scenario of "5G+Industrial Internet" has enabled data flow in multiple industries. Dongfeng Motors, Midea, Sany Heavy Industry, Changfei Fiber Optics, Huawei, ZTE and other enterprises showcased or introduced 5G+industrial internet application scenarios.
Dong Mingkai, Vice President of the Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute of Sany Heavy Industry, stated in an interview that Sany Heavy Industry has been undergoing digital transformation since 2018. Currently, all production lines and equipment in all parks are identified by industrial visual recognition to identify personnel, equipment, and materials.
China Unicom has assisted Shanghai COMAC in building a 6I fully connected factory, achieving comprehensive collection and perception of products, equipment, tooling, materials, personnel, and tools. It has created nearly a hundred application scenarios that integrate 5G and industrial internet.
The "5G+Industrial Internet" has taken the lead in the development of industries such as aviation, machinery, steel, mining, ports, energy, etc. It has emerged with six typical application scenarios, including data acquisition and perception, high-definition video, machine vision, precise remote control, on-site assistance, and digital twins.
Xiao Yaqing, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said that leading enterprises are constantly increasing their enthusiasm for promoting the integration and innovation of 5G and industrial internet, and their application scope is constantly extending to the core links of production and manufacturing, covering an increasingly wide range of industries and fields.
Enable intelligent upgrading of manufacturing industry
Zhu Yanfeng, Chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group, said that the automotive industry has a high degree of correlation and a long industrial chain. During the epidemic, when Dongfeng Motor restarted its industrial chain, it was discovered that there were 1928 first level suppliers in Hubei Province, directly driving 220000 people back to work and employment. In such a large industrial chain, without the application of the "5G+Industrial Internet" technology system, it is difficult to make it operate efficiently.
ZTE uses advanced technologies such as machine vision, 5G transmission, and cloud scheduling to collect, transmit, and process data at the Binjiang base. The Binjiang base has achieved real-time industrial control of the production process in the factory area, and has built unmanned, intelligent, and flexible production lines.
ZTE Chairman Li Zixue introduced that by combining 5G with industrial internet, the production efficiency of the Binjiang base has been significantly improved. The missed inspection rate of assembly quality has been reduced by 80%, the defect rate of key processes has been reduced by 37%, the number of operators has been reduced by 27%, and the turnover efficiency has been improved by 20%.
The 5G+IoT (Internet of Things) automated assembly benchmark line of Lenovo Wuhan Industrial Base was put into use in June this year, which can quickly adjust the production process and parameters of the production line, achieving free switching between different product models. By introducing the "Quantum Wire" project, the automation rate of the 3C equipment assembly production line has been doubled, and compared to traditional production lines, personnel have been reduced by 45%.
Why can the "5G+Industrial Internet" empower industrial manufacturing? Liang Baojun, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom, believes that the "5G+Industrial Internet" reflects the organic integration of 5G with other cloud computing, data, blockchain, and the Internet of Things. All devices can be connected to the cloud, forming ubiquitous connections. Intelligence has connected the end, network, and cloud, generating valuable data. The flood of data will generate huge value in the industrial Internet.
Xu Xiaolan, President of the China Industrial Internet Research Institute, stated in an interview that the industrial Internet comprehensively connects various links and overall chains through data flow, forming a comprehensive connection throughout the entire lifecycle from the demand side to the supply side. It promotes fundamental changes in industrial production methods and enterprise organizational paradigms, shifting production models from assembly lines to networked production methods.
Zhou Ji, an academician of the CAE Member, believes that the empowerment of "5G+industrial Internet" for production and manufacturing, and the integration of digital, networked, intelligent technology and manufacturing technology will revolutionize equipment, production lines, workshops and factories. But what is currently being promoted is only the digital and networked stage of intelligent factories, and the "5G+Industrial Internet" and more advanced technology upgrades for the new generation of intelligent manufacturing are still ahead.
Zhou Ji believes that China's manufacturing industry is facing unprecedented and severe challenges, and China's modernization path is greatly different from that of developed Western countries. The manufacturing industry of developed Western countries has undergone a series of development processes, and has basically achieved the third industrial revolution, and is beginning to move forward rapidly on the track of the fourth industrial revolution.
Zhou Ji stated that China's manufacturing industry has unique development advantages. If we want to catch up from behind, it will inevitably be a parallel development process. The second, third, and fourth industrial revolutions must be promoted simultaneously, and integrated development will greatly accelerate the process of building a strong manufacturing country. The opportunity for China and developed countries to master the core technologies of the new round of industrial revolution is equal, which provides the possibility for China to leverage its latecomer advantages and achieve leapfrog development.
Policies will promote the development of the "5G+Industrial Internet"
Li Zixue believes that the current 5G industrial application is in the period of exploration and introduction, with large-scale scenario pilot and value verification. The next three years are the golden window period for the layout of 5G industrial applications. Under the strong promotion of "promoting the use of construction" in domestic 5G, a group of "early adopters" will emerge in the industrial application of 5G, and then enter the explosive stage.
At present, there are still some difficulties and pain points in the development of the "5G+Industrial Internet". Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xiao Yaqing said that we need to strengthen policy guidance and enhance policy targeting. Develop an action plan for industrial internet innovation and development, and clarify key tasks and projects in the new stage.
The Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018-2020) is about to expire, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is preparing a new stage of industrial Internet innovation and development action plan. It will promote industrial enterprises to use new technologies such as 5G to upgrade and transform industrial production networks, support enterprises in building 5G fully connected factories, and cultivate industry leaders, public service platforms, and solution providers.
The development of 5G+industrial internet is supported by the construction of new infrastructure. Han Xia stated that it is necessary to promote the construction of new infrastructure for the "5G+Industrial Internet", promote the widespread deployment of new network technologies such as 5G and IPv6 in enterprise internal networks, build high-performance, highly reliable, highly flexible, and highly secure enterprise external networks, and consolidate the foundation of the "5G+Industrial Internet".
Wang Hongtian, CEO of Inspur Group, believes that the "5G+Industrial Internet" is an emerging thing, and the current application scenarios are not clear enough. It is recommended that various departments in various regions combine the regional economic characteristics to sort out the application scenarios of the "5G+Industrial Internet", and collaborate with the industrial internet ecosystem to promote practice based on the application scenarios. Through the construction of public service platforms, we can help enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, access cloud platforms.
Shi Wei, former director of the Industry Department of the Economic System and Management Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated in an interview that the important path to the "5G+Industrial Internet" is to bridge the "data gap" between data systems. The key is to prioritize the selection of smart mines, smart energy, smart transportation, smart steel, smart ports, smart healthcare, smart education, and smart industrial parks as breakthroughs, creating a big environment, foundation, ecology, and chain.
Safety cannot be ignored. 5G has opened up the closed industrial internet environment, posing a greater threat. Qi Xiangdong, Chairman of Qi'anxin Group, summarized that firstly, the industrial control system has many vulnerabilities, large levels, and great risks; The second is high data openness and liquidity, increasing the risk of leakage; The third is to attack industrialization, diversification, and increasingly mature means; Fourthly, there are endless internal demons, and the defense line is easy to break through from within.
Han Xia stated that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the "5G+Industrial Internet" security system, enhance security technology capabilities, build perception platforms, cultivate a security service industry, continuously improve the security system, mechanism, and means of the "5G+Industrial Internet", build a national, regional, and enterprise level protection system, and improve the security guarantee ability and service level of the "5G+Industrial Internet".