Industry 4.0: Global industrial transformation is gaining momentum

As a long-established industrial power, in order to seize the initiative in the new round of industrial revolution, in April 2013, at the Hannover Industrial Fair held in Saxony, Germany, the German "Industry 4.0 Group" formally proposed the strategic concept of Industry 4.0 for the first time. Subsequently, this concept has aroused widespread heated discussion around the world. Soon after, the United States, the leading manufacturing country, also released relevant information on "Accelerating America's Advanced Manufacturing". At the same time, Japan also proposed the "New Japanese Robot Strategy". As the world's factory, China is not to be outdone and has transformed this concept into "Made in China 2025".

As the four major manufacturing countries in the world have given a new interpretation to Industry 4.0, a global industrial revolution is gathering momentum. The world's industrial development will gradually move towards a new stage characterized by emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, big data, and cloud computing.

Against this historical background, the domestic manufacturing industry has ushered in new development opportunities. In addition to the country's release of the intelligent manufacturing development strategy, local governments have also successively introduced a considerable number of incentive and subsidy policies. Large, medium and small enterprises and institutions are also actively promoting automation transformation. The ensuing wave of replacing people with machines is in full swing in many companies. However, due to the large proportion of traditional manufacturing in my country, both management level and technical capabilities need to be improved. There are many difficulties and misunderstandings in the process of promoting automation. For example, some companies have blindly introduced automation without establishing automation technology and equipment management and maintenance teams, and found that the equipment is difficult to start; some companies produce products with low added value, or the production requirements are not strict, and ordinary non-standard automation equipment can be used to complete production, but they have to purchase expensive high-precision equipment from abroad. In addition, some media have exaggerated the publicity of industrial robots in order to catch the hot spots, which has led to some companies unilaterally believing that the use of industrial robots is equivalent to achieving automation and realizing Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 has had a bright future since it was first proposed, but the road ahead is still long. So far, it is more like a conceptual thing. Currently, most companies should proceed from their own actual conditions. On the one hand, they should keep up with the trend of industrial upgrading in the manufacturing industry, plan and implement automation technology transformation in stages, strive to fully realize Industry 3.0 and automated production as soon as possible, and then move towards Industry 4.0. On the other hand, they should focus on the construction of multi-level professional talents and technical teams, which is the premise and foundation for enterprises to promote automation and upgrade the level of intelligent manufacturing.

A large number of employees in enterprises have grown up from within the enterprises. The implementation and promotion of replacing people with machines will inevitably attract people from other industries or society to switch careers and positions to the automation industry. Therefore, in order to avoid the uneven quality of the industry's technical groups, it is necessary to rely on education and training to strengthen the knowledge reserves and capabilities of employees. However, my country started late in the design of automation mechanisms, and it is difficult to find a practical and down-to-earth textbook on the market. There is a cognitive gap between traditional school theories and corporate applications that is difficult to cross. It is also difficult for students trained in schools to get started as soon as they join the company. A connecting knowledge bridge is needed between schools and companies. This is the purpose of our training in automation mechanism design.