Betting on smart manufacturing, Shenyang’s operations are amazing!

Text/Duoyu

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the whistle for revitalizing Northeast China has been sounded. As China's old industrial base, it was once considered the "barometer" of China's economy. Central leaders have also visited Northeast China for many inspections and researches, and have presided over many special seminars to plan and promote the comprehensive and all-round revitalization of Northeast China.

In early autumn this year, when the national leaders once again visited Jinzhou and Shenyang in Liaoning, they said with deep expectation: "The status of Northeast China is very important. The people of Northeast China made great contributions in the War of Liberation. Northeast China is an important base of our country in socialist revolution and construction. After reform and opening up, Northeast China has also made great contributions."

He stressed that: "The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the revitalization of Northeast China. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, a series of strategic deployments have been made, which have achieved remarkable results. New deployments will be made after the 20th CPC National Congress. Although Northeast China has encountered some practical problems and difficulties, the prospects are very good. We are full of confidence and expectations for the revitalization of Northeast China."

The "long-standing problem" of the Northeast Industrial Base

The importance of the Northeast Industrial Base in the new era is self-evident, but as the economic downturn enters a new stage, the economic pressure in the Northeast region has further increased. In particular, the old industrial base has been suffering for a long time, and how to promote local development and meet the needs of industrial upgrading has become a difficult problem facing governments at all levels.

At present, the Northeast region is facing two major problems: first, the lack of new driving forces for economic growth; second, the structural contradictions of the weakening of old driving forces are prominent. The main manifestations are that the integration of science and technology with economic development is insufficient, the industrial structure and product structure that are biased towards resources, traditional industries, and heavy chemical industries are not adapted to market changes, and the development of emerging industries is slow; resource depletion, industrial decline, and structurally single regions (cities) face many difficulties in transformation, etc.

In fact, in the final analysis, it is nothing more than a problem of mechanism, industrial structure and economic structure. To solve these problems, comprehensive and in-depth reforms must be carried out. The series of targeted measures launched by the Shenyang government are worth learning from.

As the capital of Liaoning Province, Shenyang is not only an important central city in Northeast China, but also a base for advanced equipment manufacturing. Its transformation and upgrading initiatives have attracted great attention from major industrial bases in Northeast China and even across the country.

Shenyang bets on intelligent manufacturing for industrial transformation and upgrading

In order to deepen reforms and help the transformation and upgrading of local industries, Shenyang focuses on the three aspects of "old", "original" and "new".

Shenyang is an important old industrial base in the country with manufacturing as its main body. The "old brands" have a solid industrial foundation, important status, and prominent role. Their strategic position in ensuring national security is irreplaceable, but they are also facing the problems of low digitalization level and slow structural adjustment. To this end, transformation and upgrading have become the key to solving the "old brand" problem, and the focus is on promoting the development of the industrial chain of automobiles and parts, general machinery and equipment, petrochemical heavy mining and special equipment, machine tools and functional components, and power equipment, improving the level of intelligence of "old brands", and creating an advanced equipment manufacturing base with international influence.

The "original brand" industries mainly include metallurgy and building materials, petrochemicals and deep processing of agricultural products. In 2020, there were 549 industrial enterprises above designated size in Shenyang's "original brand" industries, with a total industrial output value of 119.65 billion yuan, accounting for 22.3% of Shenyang's above-designated industries.

As a "new brand" supporting the future development of Shenyang, it is highly expected on the basis of the previous two. "New brands" represent the development direction of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, are an important force to enhance industrial competitiveness and seize strategic commanding heights, and are the key increment for the revitalization and development of Shenyang. Accelerating the development and growth of high-end equipment, new energy and new energy vehicles, integrated circuits, biomedicine, new generation information technology, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection and other industries, enhancing the supporting role of "new brands" industries in economic development, and cultivating new driving forces for industrial economic growth have become the top priorities of the Shenyang government.

From the specific planning point of view, the Shenyang government focuses on promoting the construction of the robot industry system, with product iterative development, research and enterprise collaborative innovation, and public platform support as the main line. It will cultivate and support a group of high-growth enterprises to become bigger and stronger, promote the coordinated development of upstream and downstream industrial chain enterprises, and create a robot ecosystem that coordinates innovation, industry, and finance.

As the birthplace of my country's robotics industry, Shenyang not only realized the landing of my country's first industrial robot, but also won more than 20 first honors in the country. At present, Shenyang's robotics industry product line concentrates on five major categories of products: industrial robots, mobile robots, clean robots, special robots, and service robots. It has formed an industrial layout with Hunan as the core and supported by other districts and counties such as Tiexi. It has robotics companies such as Shenyang Siasun Robot Automation Co., Ltd., Shenyang General Robot Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenyang Zhongtuo Robot Equipment Co., Ltd., and has built public platforms such as the National Robot Innovation Center. In 2021, the city's robotics industry enterprises above designated size achieved sales revenue of 12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%.

Among them, the upstream industrial chain of Shenyang Robot includes key components and supporting products of industrial robots, mainly servo motors, reducers, controllers, servo drives, encoders, etc.

The midstream industrial chain is a major highlight in Shenyang, especially in the research and development and manufacturing of robot bodies, where the city is particularly strong. It is also at the forefront of the country in terms of scientific and technological research and development, production and manufacturing, and supporting platforms.

In terms of scientific research institutions, the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the cradle of China's robotics industry, has created more than 20 firsts in the history of China's robotics industry, leading the research and development of China's robotics technology, and is the supporting unit of 9 national and provincial key laboratories and engineering centers such as the "National Engineering Research Center for Robotics" and the "National Key Laboratory of Robotics". The "Underwater Helicopter", a key project of the National Key R&D Program "Key Technologies and Equipment for Deep Sea" participated by the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has filled the gap in domestic underwater mobile detection.

In terms of manufacturing enterprises, the overall strength of the leading enterprise Shenyang Siasun Robot Automation Co., Ltd. ranks among the top in the domestic industry. In 2021, Siasun won the title of the first artificial intelligence industry innovation winner of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and its "edge-side industrial software platform project for intelligent manufacturing" was selected into the list of "2020-2021 IoT key technology and platform innovation, integrated innovation and integrated application demonstration projects" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and its autonomous driving robot was selected into the "Liaoning Provincial Pilot Task for a Strong Transportation Country" plan.

In terms of industrial development platforms, Shenyang's robotics industry has national innovation platforms such as the National Engineering Research Center for Robotics, the National Key Laboratory of Robotics, and the National Robotics Innovation Center, inspection and testing platforms such as the National Robotics Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, talent training platforms such as the School of Robotics Science and Engineering of Northeastern University and the Sino-German Siasun Education Group, and collaborative platforms such as the Shenyang Robotics Industry Alliance.

The downstream industrial chain, relying on Shenyang Siasun Robotics Co., Ltd. and the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has initially formed intelligent manufacturing system solutions for the entire process of digital and intelligent manufacturing throughout the product life cycle. It has formed mature intelligent manufacturing system solutions in the fields of electronics, medicine, automobiles and parts, aviation, military industry and basic equipment, and has built smart factories, digital workshops, and automated production lines/production links and carried out application promotion.