Even though digital transformation has been discussed for more than 20 years, many businesses still face significant challenges that either fail or are unsustainable. There are still many enterprises have not yet found a suitable transformation strategy and path.

Take the automobile industry as an example, network intelligence has brought drastic changes to the automobile industry. The cars of the future, no matter what kind of energy drive, will have intelligent characteristics and be built based on network interconnection. Data as the blood of the network and the basis of intelligence, its value needs the organic combination of hardware and software.

REM601 In this process, three different network forms are mainly involved: the first is the network intelligence system in the vehicle body, which is responsible for the efficient communication and collaborative work of various systems inside the vehicle, such as autonomous driving technology and intelligent vehicle entertainment system; The second is the intelligent system of vehicle interaction with people and the environment, through the vehicle networking technology to achieve real-time data exchange and communication between the vehicle and the outside world, improve road safety and traffic efficiency, such as intelligent traffic management system and emergency response system; Finally, the development and evolution of the automotive industry chain, value chain and circular ecosystem, through digital and networking means to optimize the operation of the industrial chain, to achieve efficient allocation and recycling of resources, to promote the sustainable development of the industry, such as digital supply chain management, shared travel services and circular economy model.

At present, many industries are undergoing similar changes to the automotive industry, in the face of the impact of “network” and “intelligence”, are experiencing disruptive changes. For the manufacturing industry, its transformation and development need to pay special attention to three aspects.

From the perspective of direction, worldwide, the future direction of development has reached a consensus. The large-scale application of network intelligence technology is promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, towards the direction of automation, intelligence, efficiency and sustainable development, which will bring greater competition space and growth potential for the manufacturing industry. Today, the market share of Chinese manufacturing in certain market segments is already very high, and the traditional growth model of volume and scale has hit the ceiling.

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From the perspective of growth, in the face of rapid changes in technology and markets, the manufacturing industry needs to break away from the traditional growth path of relying on labor, capital and energy. The manufacturing industry of the future must continue to innovate, accelerate the iteration of products and services, explore new markets and customer needs, leverage the value of data, and create differentiated competitive advantages to achieve long-term growth.

REM601 In terms of value, the value chain of the manufacturing industry is changing from a chain structure to a full ecological value network, a process characterized by de-intermediation and integration of production and marketing. For example, in the traditional manufacturing chain, production, sales and use are independent links, and product power or core competitiveness is mainly reflected in the production and manufacturing links. At the same time, there is a trend of de-intermediation of the value chain network in the manufacturing industry. With the development of artificial intelligence, these characteristics will be further strengthened.

02 Direction of innovation

At present, China’s manufacturing industry needs to recognize its own positioning. Although it is no longer the simple foundry of foreign companies in the early years and has its own brand, in many segments, we still rely on raw materials and production and processing equipment controlled by foreign giants to a certain extent. True innovation should not be limited to product hardware design, but should also cover manufacturing processes and software to achieve industrial upgrading from imitation and foundry to demand and technology leadership.

Innovation is the core of new quality productivity. Enterprise innovation needs to go beyond the traditional economic growth model and development path to achieve high-quality development, which must be characterized by high technology, high efficiency and high quality.

Many companies put a lot of effort into business model innovation. However, for manufacturing, business model innovation is not enough to solve the problem of differentiation and sustained growth. The core competitiveness of manufacturing industry should be driven by science and technology. The old model of growth dependent on labor, capital, and energy is nearing its end.