Expert Roundtable: Talent Management in Smart Manufacturing

Moderator/Sun

At present, Chinese enterprises are in the stage of transformation and upgrading of intelligent manufacturing. In the process of intelligent upgrading, in addition to building technical barriers in the field of hardware, Chinese enterprises are also facing severe challenges - due to the large difference between intelligent manufacturing and traditional production models, the requirements for talents are generally high, resulting in the intelligent manufacturing industry facing Huge employment gap.

The manufacturing industry is a large demand for talents, and the demand will further increase, especially for technical and management talents. For enterprises to promote the planning, implementation and implementation of intelligent manufacturing, they need to build a team of high-caliber professionals in the software field, and cultivate high-end talents with both technology and management in the operation field. What is the status of China's intelligent manufacturing talent market? How should Chinese manufacturing enterprises face and solve the "talent crisis"? The cover topic of this issue will interview well-known experts Wu Xiaobo, Qiushi Distinguished Professor of Zhejiang University and Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education, Huang Binquan, Dean of CUHK Consulting Research Institute and Director of CUHK Consulting, and Lei Zhijun, Co-founder and General Manager of Grand Strategy. Interpretation and analysis for readers to learn from.

"CEConline": In the context of the era of intelligent manufacturing, the focus of talent capabilities has changed. What do you think is the biggest difference between traditional manufacturing talents and intelligent manufacturing talents? What are the requirements for the latter?

Huang Binquan: Traditional manufacturing talents focus on product technology, and focus on improving product quality, saving production costs, and expanding market scale; intelligent manufacturing talents focus on user value, focusing on product innovation and upgrading, and service experience. Personalization and customization of lifting and production. Intelligent manufacturing does not aim at large-scale production to achieve rapid market expansion, but aims at innovating user experience to achieve sticky customer acquisition. Therefore, the core competencies of talents centered on user value usually include perception and analysis of market demand. and judgment ability, responsiveness to product and service demand, data analysis and IT application ability, etc.

The core of the difference lies in the talent structure. The previous majors can be copied by many people to a greater extent. Due to the large gap of intelligent manufacturing talents, such as software, such as its own equipment, such as information management, these aspects are currently lacking in China as a whole.

"CEConline": The current intelligent manufacturing industry is facing a huge employment gap. For Chinese manufacturing enterprises, how to solve the demand for intelligent manufacturing talents?

Huang Binquan: To solve the talent gap of intelligent manufacturing enterprises, internal and external linkages should be strengthened, internal empowerment and incentives should be strengthened, external recruitment and cooperation should be strengthened, and talent supply should be created through multiple channels and methods. Among them, through the internal platform construction and mechanism improvement to empower and motivate talents, the activation of existing talents and the attraction of incremental talents are very effective. Since 2005, Haier has promoted the deepest organizational and management model change within the company, and creatively implemented the "Rendanheyi" win-win management model, which has established a dynamic contractual relationship between employees and users, as well as group and independent management. The profit accounting mechanism of the enterprise has promoted Haier's transformation from "selling products centered on the enterprise" to "selling services centered on users", and has established more than 2,000 self-operated entities in the whole group within 8 years.

Lei Zhijun: The current talent structure can only make partial changes, not system integration. It is definitely not a single person. The cultivation of talents requires multi-professional complementarity. The talent structure should be composed as follows: The company's business lines and product lines are very familiar and can be composed of experts within the company; the second is software talent; the third is equipment talent; the fourth is information integration talent. These people all need a line to be able to piece together, and then become a systematic organization.

Generally speaking, the solution is: the first is to recruit professional talents from colleges and universities, and the second is to recruit from the market. There are still some talents in a single sector, but the requirements are very high. For retaining this kind of talent, the most important thing is "enough money". The third is the introduction from outside, you can poach people from software companies or equipment manufacturers to come to the enterprise. I suggest that if the annual revenue is less than 500 million yuan, you should not explore it yourself. A more reasonable approach is to integrate or poach people. The groping cycle is too long, and when you grope out, your competitors have already surpassed you.

"CEConline": How do Chinese manufacturing companies build a team of high-caliber professionals in the field of software engineering?

Huang Binquan: In the current core competency system of software engineers, in addition to professional skills, system thinking ability, demand understanding ability and demand response ability are crucial. Chinese manufacturing enterprises can learn from Dingding's "customer first" and "one step forward" concepts in the process of building a high-quality professional team in the field of software engineering. First, software engineering talents cannot research and develop for the sake of research and development, but It is necessary to find application scenarios for its research and development and find a market for its software products, so that the products can truly solve the problems of users; second, software engineering talents cannot engage in research and development behind closed doors, but actively contact customers externally, and increase production and marketing internally. and other departments to improve the efficiency of software development.

Lei Zhijun: To build such a team, it is best to select a person who has had such successful experience in the core executives and let this person lead the entire team. Without this leader, the entire team would not be able to lead. Because in the end everyone doesn’t know where they are going, and they don’t know what to do to achieve their expectations, so it is said that such a person must be found first. With such a person, he can decompose the business process. After decomposing it, divide a lot of work into segments and let the team accumulate in segments. Among them, he can stratify the personnel, such as assistant engineer, junior engineer, intermediate engineer, senior engineer, chief engineer, and set it through this. After setting it up, it will be done slowly after a long period of accumulation in practice, so it is actually not that complicated. The most fundamental thing is that the core of software development lies in system integration. The person who is the chief engineer should preferably be a person with a relatively high level of system integration and a person who has the final need to contact customers. These two key points can be grasped. When cultivating people, it will be much faster, and it will be better to settle. This method is an internal training method, and the other method is that you are short of people in some sectors, and you can recruit people at designated locations, such as poaching people from peers, competitors or cross-fields.

"CEConline": In the field of operation, how do Chinese manufacturing companies cultivate high-end talents with both technology and management?

Wu Xiaobo: This kind of talent with both technology and management is very much needed by enterprises. We look at the leading companies, they all attach great importance to the management of engineers. It is typical for engineers to take various management courses.

As a kind of adult training, it was relatively lacking in the past. But in the past two years, we can see that, like the growth of Zhejiang University Engineering College, the state has also attached great importance to it. Now the training of master of engineering has started to increase, and then there will be doctor of engineering. These are compound talents for mid-to-high-end manufacturing industries. This kind of training system is also rapidly being established.

Huang Binquan: Technology and management have their own professional training programs and are self-contained. However, in the current operation and management process of intelligent manufacturing enterprises, decisions related to product technology, information technology, data technology, etc. will occupy a dominant position. Therefore, high-end operation and management talents of manufacturing enterprises must master the ability of enterprise operation and management. , but also to understand the relevant technology. At present, a large number of manufacturing enterprises are in short supply of such talents, and there are many "breakpoints" at the knowledge level. Regarding the cultivation of such talents in enterprises, we can discuss and learn from the "Embedding Plan" and "Key Liaison Officer Plan" implemented by the US military in 2003. They had Army Special Forces, SEALs, and intelligence analysts exchanged between teams so that operational warfighters could see the entire war from the perspective of other teams, which created a powerful horizontality in the U.S. military. Contact, but also improve the systemic capabilities of individual soldiers.

Lei Zhijun: What was the biggest difficulty for him when he was transformed from technical background to management? Actually changing roles. Because the characteristics of technical talents are sharp, and the characteristics of managers are synergy. How to choose? I think it's a question of how sensitive this person is to people. There are many people who are very skilled and good at solving problems, but there is only one thing in their head, that is, they feel that they can handle things well, they are not interested in people, and they have no time to pay attention to these things. So explain that the composition of this person's thinking, including his focus, is all about things, not people. So if you have this idea, you need to reverse it.

I think the most important thing is to teach him how to "pass". From doing things to doing important things, and then from important things to focusing on people, and then from focusing on people to how to choose, use, keep, cultivate, and position, he has to change every stage of the transition. Pass. As his leader, he should assist him to pass the test. This is the key point, otherwise he will grope for a long time.

"CEConline": From the perspective of talent training, how do Chinese manufacturing companies transform existing talents into intelligent manufacturing talents?

Wu Xiaobo: It needs to be pointed out that there is no unified standard for enterprises to cultivate this new type of talent. It is also based on the needs of the enterprise itself. But the general direction is clear, that is, to go towards compound talents. A considerable number of MBA students are now engineers in companies. In the past, it is a typical situation that talents who were engaged in a relatively closed functional job joined the ranks of training compound talents.

Huang Binquan: First of all, manufacturing enterprises need to analyze the changes in job requirements in depth, and optimize the training mode and training plan for intelligent manufacturing professionals and management talents around the technical and management capabilities required for development. Second, strengthen the "middle stage" construction of manufacturing enterprises and provide the resources and services they need for the development of high-end talents. Third, establish a career power system and a belief power system for the development of enterprise talents, strengthen the spiritual incentives for talents and build a corresponding corporate culture. Fourth, in the process of talent development, innovative methods such as "embedded plans" can be tried. Enterprises should provide reasons for the self-stimulation of talents, but also introduce catalysts for them.

"CEConline": Chinese manufacturing enterprises need to increase the training of intelligent manufacturing talents to face the greater demand in the future. In your opinion, how should Chinese enterprises maximize the concentration and application of existing intelligent manufacturing talents?

Wu Xiaobo: The application is more specific, or it is limited by the actual conditions, that is, it depends on the enterprise's own informatization, networking, and intellectualization process. The faster it progresses, its needs the bigger. Because it will replace the original talent structure, it is a headache for enterprises. My original talent structure cannot adapt to artificial intelligence, and what should I do if it cannot adapt to the employees in the new environment of intelligent manufacturing? On the other hand, from M2C to C2M, what is the realization of C2M? Rely on the new organizational form, the new organizational platform to achieve. Therefore, for talents, they can no longer be cultivated according to the division of labor as in the past. They have to cross, interact and run in.

Speaking of the underlying capabilities, I think it is the development of human creativity, which is becoming more and more important. Because in the past, from an idea to the realization of a product, it had to go through a very long chain, from an idea to an invention, and then a little bit from design to manufacture. This is a very long process. Now, from an idea to the realization of a product or service, thanks to some new intelligent manufacturing systems, it can be realized soon. So in this process, human creativity becomes more and more important. So at present, it is typical to find from two ends, one end is science, the other end is humanities and arts, and these two ends need to be integrated.

Huang Binquan: In order to maximize the concentration and application of existing intelligent manufacturing talents, it is necessary to coordinate the multi-faceted main bodies such as the government, universities, and enterprises to solve the contradiction between insufficient total supply and structural mismatch. First, to strengthen the integration of production and education, universities and enterprises need to carry out reforms and innovations in innovative talent training models and mechanisms, professional curriculum settings, and school-enterprise cooperation, learn from the German dual system and other excellent vocational education models, and cooperate with relevant government departments to build a group of A vocational training base aimed at meeting the needs of enterprises. Second, build an intelligent manufacturing talent service platform, fully combine human resource services with Internet technology, and build a group of service platforms or institutions with the main goals of matching market supply and demand information, talent employment services, and skill improvement services.

Lei Zhijun: The best way is to copy. Copying can play a greater role. Secondly, people have two directions. The first direction is to become an expert. The second direction is to become a person who replicates an expert. The way to maximize the value of an expert’s field is that the longer the time, the more professional and the more accumulated it is. When the time comes, you can let him do high-quality projects, or let him participate in the review of more excellent projects, which can maximize the value. Another way is to take the management route, largely copying one's own successful model to N individuals. The key here is the question of structuring his experience so that his value becomes replicable.

"CEConline": How should Chinese manufacturing enterprises transform their talent management concepts in order to adapt to the development of the era of intelligent manufacturing?

Wu Xiaobo: In the past, talent management was to manage talents according to their professions, such as engineers, mechanics, etc. Relatively speaking, the technical path in the past was relatively narrow. There should be a shift now, maybe a broader or interprofessional talent. However, professionals who have been specializing in only one skill are also needed, but I don't think the demand for such talents is too great at present.

I think the management mode of compound talents cannot overemphasize hierarchical and mandatory management as in the past. Under the industrial revolution in the past, people were regarded as a kind of machine, and they only needed to do a certain job well. The talent management model of the new generation is different. The management concept that emphasized hard work like a screw in the past is no longer suitable for our new generation of talents. Their interests may be more important. Therefore, as managers of enterprises, as long as their interest in work is stimulated, they will be very engaged and do very well.

Photo/ Wu Xiaobo, Huang Binquan, Lei Zhijun