The road to manufacturing transformation in 2022: Industrial technology software ushers in an explosive period

China Energy Storage Network: Recently, the Central Economic Work Conference made arrangements for economic work in 2022, which clearly pointed out that it is necessary to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, launch a number of industrial base reconstruction projects, and accelerate digital transformation to promote the upgrading of traditional industries. Accelerating digital transformation is still one of the core points for promoting the development of China's industry in the next step.

China's exploration of digital transformation in the manufacturing industry has been going on for many years. "Under the impact of anti-globalization, China's manufacturing industry needs resilience and needs to enhance its adaptability, and the cultivation and mastery of this adaptability mainly relies on a good modern technology foundation, including network, big data, artificial intelligence technology, etc." Du Ruxu, an academician of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, said in an interview with a reporter from Southern Finance and Economics at the 2021 Greater Bay Area Science Forum held from December 10 to 13.

What is the key to the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry? "The level of intelligent manufacturing in an industry actually depends largely on the relevant software." Li Guojie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of Sugon, said that the most difficult CAD/CAE/CAM software in industrial software plays a decisive role in the level of intelligent manufacturing in my country.

In recent years, the development of industrial software has gradually entered national planning documents. In 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued three planning documents, including the "Industrial Internet Innovation and Development Action Plan (2021-2023)", the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Software and Information Technology Services", and the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Deep Integration of Informatization and Industrialization", to support the development of industrial technology software.

The market size may reach 260 billion in 2021

"In the past, China's industry experienced a stage of super-fast development under the stimulus of the shortage economy, but large-scale production has led to saturation of the current market for mid- and low-end products, so all industries are exploring transformation to break through the traditional development bottlenecks of the industry," said Zhao Wengong, Chief Technology Officer of Dassault Systemes Greater China.

Industrial software plays an important role in the sweeping wave of digitalization. "In our research, we found that in the digital transformation practices of various industries, including manufacturing and construction, core industrial software is the technical foundation of digital transformation." Liu Yufeng, executive vice president of Guangzhou Zhongwang Longteng Software Co., Ltd., said, "A production-oriented enterprise needs to use hundreds of industrial design software, and different industrial software is used in different solutions. Without these software, there is no digital transformation."

Data disclosed in the "White Paper on China's Industrial Software Industry (2020)" show that the scale of the global industrial software industry is expected to reach US$435.8 billion in 2020, with a growth rate of approximately 6.1%. Among them, the scale of China's industrial software industry is expected to reach 197.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%.

"Although the domestic market size is not large, its growth rate is far higher than the global average. The market size is expected to reach 260 billion yuan in 2021. As my country's digital transformation is further promoted, I believe that in the near future, the market size of industrial software will usher in a period of major explosive growth." said Xu Yaqian, director of the Information Technology Research Laboratory of the Institute of Information and Software, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

Currently, the integration of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, new-generation information technology and industrial software is becoming increasingly close, which brings new changes and opportunities to the development of the industrial software industry.

It is worth noting that the development of industrial software is not only the cornerstone of digital transformation, but also a "pathfinder".

Li Guojie pointed out that intelligence is one of the important trends in the development of EDA industrial software. Its ultimate goal is to achieve "fully automatic design" and realize the full process of artificial intelligence chip design, greatly reduce the threshold of chip design, improve chip design efficiency, and realize end-to-end rapid unmanned chip design. "Using machine learning to make chips may be a way to develop the chip industry."

Liu Qiang, vice president of SenseTime, also holds a positive attitude towards the possibility of artificial intelligence breaking through the boundaries of human cognition and empowering industrial development.

He suggested that the machine's guessing ability can be combined with the innovation paradigm of the industrial economy. "For example, the SenseMARS Mars mixed reality platform we launched can perform visual analysis of real industrial videos and life videos based on the high-performance computing and learning capabilities of artificial intelligence software. Through machine guessing, we can find more algorithms and even models to reshape industrial processes and truly enable artificial intelligence to empower industry development."

Industrial software industry and manufacturing industry "symbiosis"

It is worth noting that the industrial software industry, which is swept up in the national wave of digital transformation, also faces many difficulties that need to be resolved urgently.

"There is a shortage of high-end talents in the field of industrial software. At the same time, the industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises. There is no systematic platform and lacks systematic competitiveness." Xie Maosong, director of the China Civilization and China Road Research Center of the National Innovation Association, pointed out, "In addition, there is insufficient integration with industrial technology needs and the degree of industrialization is not enough."

"Looking at the world, industrial software companies and industrial companies, especially leading industrial companies, must grow together." Liu Yufeng said, "In the future digital transformation of China's industrial system, the industrial software industry and the industrial industry must also achieve deep strategic integration and alliance, each doing its own job. Industrial software should do a good job in core technology, and industrial companies should really give opportunities to build a digital platform for enterprises together, thereby promoting the digitalization of the entire industry."

Lu Shu, director of Googol Technology Co., Ltd., believes that the future trend of industrial digital transformation is not just the collaborative cooperation between industrial enterprises and software companies, but the formation of an organic combination of the two through channels such as capital grafting.

"As the front-end business model of the manufacturing industry changes, companies that only do manufacturing will, frankly speaking, gradually be eliminated. From OEM to ODM, moving forward may require the definition and design of independent products, which requires companies to have software capabilities." Lu Shu said that the softwareization of industrial technology is an inevitable trend for the development of manufacturing companies and industries.

"In addition, a number of entrepreneurial companies specializing in industrial software have recently emerged. If these teams want to survive, they must integrate into the industrial scenario. Unlike the Internet enterprise ecosystem, it is difficult for industrial software companies to survive purely by doing software. They must extend to the manufacturing end." Lu Shu said that after development reaches a certain stage, manufacturing companies and software companies will combine to form a full-chain combination.

Like many innovative industries, the development of the industrial software industry also faces the problem of weak basic research. Lu Shu said, "Basic research is difficult to achieve through long-term and large-scale financing from commercial companies. We hope that the government can invest more support in basic research and reduce the development iteration cycle of enterprises."

It is worth noting that at the forum, many scholars and entrepreneurs pointed out that in the process of transformation and development of the manufacturing industry, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has the opportunity to make breakthroughs first due to its special geographical location and complete industrial chain.

Lu Shu said that the manufacturing industry chain in the Greater Bay Area is very complete and the logistics and transportation system is also very good. "With sufficient application scenarios, as long as there are corresponding good policy iterations, a talent reserve echelon, and continuous activation and introduction of new technologies, the development of the industrial software industry in the Greater Bay Area has good development opportunities."

As a major manufacturing province, Guangdong has issued a series of policy measures in recent years, including the "Guangdong Province Action Plan for the Development of Software and Information Service Strategic Pillar Industry Clusters (2021-2025)". It is reported that Guangdong will take this forum as an opportunity to further increase policy support for industrial software, create a good environment for the development of the industrial software industry, promote the construction of an independent and controllable industrial ecology, and strive to become an important pole of my country's core industrial software.