With the continuous integration of digital technology, communication technology, network technology and manufacturing industry, the exploration of intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry has moved from individual to group, constantly breaking through the restrictions of scenes and factory boundaries, and seeking subversive changes in the supply chain, industrial chain and even the entire manufacturing organization ecology. Germany’s “Made-X” plan began in early 2022, and in August this year, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action issued the “Research and Development project funding guidelines”, and the first research and development project will be officially launched at the end of the year. “Manufacturing-x” has now become the top priority of Germany’s Industry 4.0 strategy, the plan to promote the digitalization of the supply chain, through the construction of data space, stimulate the value of data elements, promote manufacturing enterprises to achieve more extensive and profound changes, and reshape the competitive advantage of manufacturing industry.

I. Purpose and background of the “Manufacturing-X” program

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“Manufacturing-x” is the network expansion of Industry 4.0, based on building an independent and controllable data space, creating a digital supply chain, and promoting the digital transformation of industry “from the point to the surface”. Based on the Industry 4.0 platform, “Made-X” is a cross-industry industrial policy initiative that aims to build a decentralized and trusted data ecosystem for German and European industry to promote a broader and more comprehensive industrial digital transformation, reshape the supply chain and value chain, and maintain the competitive position of German industry. “Manufacturing X” seeks to achieve three basic objectives: First, the digital transformation of the supply chain to achieve rapid response to supply chain disruptions and restructuring, strengthening supply chain resilience. The second is sustainability, which is based on data space to create new sustainable economic business models such as circular economy and carbon footprint; The third is competitiveness, which ensures German industry’s position as a global leader by helping smes fully integrate into digital transformation.

Germany proposed the “manufacturing-X” plan, on the one hand is the natural evolution of industrial 4.0 strategic planning, on the other hand is based on the risk of international industrial competition and the strategic consideration of the path to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing industry. Since Germany proposed the Industry 4.0 strategy in 2011, it has made continuous progress in standardization, basic common technologies, and application scenario exploration. With the continuous maturity of digital technology and the improvement of standards, large-scale networking of manufacturing industry has already met the basic conditions for realization. As early as 2021, Germany began to implement the Catana-X project in the automotive industry to build an open and collaborative data ecosystem, promote data interconnection and supply chain digitization, and lay a feasibility foundation for the proposal of “Manufacturing-X”. On the other hand, in recent years, the complex and volatile geopolitical environment and the mysterious globalization crisis have constantly impacted the global industrial chain, bringing great uncertainty to the development of the German manufacturing industry, which is “both outside”, and Germany’s leading position in the global industry is constantly weakening. In the face of risks and challenges, empowering the supply chain with digitalization, giving full play to the competitive advantages of the German manufacturing industry in the key links of the industrial chain and the influence of large leading enterprises on the industrial ecology have become the strategic driving force for the implementation of “Manufacturing-X” in Germany.