Two divergences in the route of the Industrial Internet

In the moving line design of large shopping malls, in order to maximize the efficiency of indoor passenger flow, "shower-type" design is often used, and entertainment facilities such as cinemas are placed on the higher floors of the shopping mall to reduce consumption. After the customers are guided to the upper floors, the diversion capacity is fully utilized to allow the passenger flow to flow to the stores on other floors like a shower.

A similar design exists for the diffusion route of industrial Internet applications. Yu Xiaohui, president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, once put forward the concept of "hypercurve of enterprise digital transformation and development". Dean Yu divides the transformation curve of enterprises into two types—transformer curve and enabler curve. Enterprises with a low degree of digital nativeness follow the route of transformers and have a long-term transformation process; while enterprises with a high degree of digital nativeness or rapid transformation progress, in addition to their own transformation, they also have the mission of enablers to help Other companies are transforming.

In this route design, the changes in enterprise productivity and production factors brought about by the new generation of information technology, just like the water sprayed by a shower, are passed on to other enterprises through these enablers.

Dean Yu pointed out that there is a big gap between the supply and demand of industrial Internet applications. Compared with the scale and number of industrial Internet applications, platforms and service providers still have insufficient understanding of industries and enterprises, and it is difficult to serve industries and enterprises in a standardized and productized way. Most of them require customized case-by-case solutions, which cost time and capital. High, which restricts large-scale promotion, especially difficult to achieve cross-industry promotion.

And the author believes that it is precisely from here that the first divergence between the official and the people on the route of the Industrial Internet emerged. The two focus on different angles. As the country's most important support unit in the field of information and communication (ICT), the government hopes that the solutions of the Industrial Internet can be standardized, so as to be promoted more quickly and spread the advantages of technology to various industries in the country more quickly. But from the perspective of some private enterprises, they are more concerned about whether there is a personalized solution to solve the specific problems they encounter.

Professor Wu Qingsheng from Shanghai Jiaotong University talked about such a case. A container company that is one of the best in the sub-industry contacted an industrial Internet platform provider out of the desire for intelligent transformation. However, the platform operator believes that there are few similar companies in the container industry, and the demonstration effect cannot be exerted after success. At the same time, the project has low technical content and low expected profit, so it refuses to provide services. If you pursue standardization excessively, this phenomenon of "dislike the poor and love the rich" will easily occur, resulting in some enterprises that urgently need technology popularization not being served, but contrary to the country's original intention of promoting industrial Internet applications.

The CEO of an artificial intelligence company said that the difference between service providers relying on a new generation of information technology lies in the details, which determine the customer experience, and the details come from the understanding of the industry. These experiences take a long time to hone with clients to gain. After gaining such experience, you can achieve differentiation with your competitors, and finally bring a brand premium and form a product value advantage.

From the very beginning of its business, this company is not satisfied with only being an AGV manufacturer, but is positioned as a provider of intelligent logistics solutions. After understanding the concerns of the transformed enterprises about the initial investment, they creatively launched the leasing model, which exempted enterprises from the initial investment and installation costs in hardware, and instead charged according to the number of orders completed by the enterprise after deployment, and transformed into a logistics service operator . After that, the company further introduced the idea of partially replacing the production line with logistics robots, built its own demonstration factory, and used logistics robots to assist in the production of logistics robots, which once again broke through its own positioning.

Dean Yu once pointed out that many small and medium-sized enterprises do not know how to find a platform that matches their own needs. Therefore, the process of providing services and solving problems for enterprises by platforms and service providers is also a learning process for both parties. Han Xu, CEO of Dongsheng Intelligent, strongly agrees with this statement. He said frankly that service providers need to learn from the problems raised by enterprises and polish their solutions to better match customer needs. Dongsheng Intelligent's algorithms and products have only become better after being polished with different companies.

The needs of enterprises make service providers constantly improve themselves, and the breakthroughs of service providers themselves also lead the needs of enterprises. The two interact with each other and promote each other. Such service providers may be small in scale, and their starting point may not be high, but they are also effectively promoting the application of the Industrial Internet.

Top-down Peiyou route

However, this also led to the second disagreement between the official and the private sector on the industrial Internet route. That is to say, the official hopes that the leading enterprises will take the lead and play the role of technology "directors" from the top down; at the same time, some private enterprises hope to break out of another way by promoting the bottom-up style.

Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Xiao Yaqing once mentioned that it is necessary to cultivate ecologically dominant industrial chain "chain-owner" enterprises and support small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their professional capabilities. The proposal on the 14th Five-Year Plan adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee also proposed to "promote the development of advanced manufacturing clusters", "focus on cultivating leading and backbone enterprises in the cluster and specialized, specialized, and new small and medium-sized enterprises around the industrial chain of the cluster", Build a collaborative and shared industrial ecosystem. Local governments have also begun to follow up, and introduced measures to cultivate and support advanced manufacturing clusters.

For these advanced manufacturing clusters, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized that it will provide policy support with relevant departments in terms of financial funds, financial services and business environment, and actively build an innovation system centered on innovation centers. Build and train a group of cities, industries and enterprises that integrate production and education, and establish and improve the system and mechanism for enterprises and educational universities to cooperate in educating people and collaborative innovation.

Taking the leading enterprises as the leader, giving play to their main role in the chain and driving the entire industrial chain or cluster is undoubtedly the most efficient strategy from a macro perspective. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee proposed a new dual-cycle development pattern, combining the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply-side structural reforms. The key to the new development pattern is circulation, that is, breaking the barriers to the free flow of production factors and promoting the fair and free flow and use of production factors. The application of a new generation of information and communication technologies related to the Industrial Internet will help to promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and solve the problem of "impeded flow" of production factors. Using the cluster route to solve this problem can be said to be a logical choice. It can also be said that the design of the cluster route is to achieve more efficient circulation of production materials, and naturally pursues the expansion of scale and the extension of the industrial chain.

A bottom-up counter-attack route

Industry giants want to supplement and strengthen their chains and consolidate their core pillar positions, but small businesses don’t want to realize them through collaborative innovation. counterattack?

The description of "specialized, specialized, and new" enterprises in the 14th Five-Year Plan can be used as a partial reference for SMEs. "Specialized, refined, and new" enterprises are industrial small and medium-sized enterprises with the characteristics of "specialization, refinement, specialization and novelty". Among them, specialization refers to focusing on core business, improving specialized production and service capabilities, and providing supporting products and services for large enterprises, large projects and industrial chains. Refinement refers to the refinement of production, management and service, and has an advantage in the segmented market. Characterization refers to the development and production of products with local or enterprise characteristics relying on characteristic resources (including traditional skills and regional culture). Novelization is to cultivate new growth points and form new competitive advantages through innovations in technology, management and business models.

From the perspective of SMEs, they also have their own considerations. In order to ensure its own independence, it is necessary to find another route that is different from the positioning of followers.

So can SMEs be allowed to explore on their own? Han Xu, CEO of Dongsheng Intelligence, thinks it can't. He argues that businesses are like patients who only know the symptoms, not the root cause of the symptoms. Professional things have to be done by professional people. Only platform and solution providers can guide enterprises from a more professional perspective like doctors, help them identify core problems, and better find a "prescription" that suits them.

Han Xu also felt that in addition to the cluster route guided by leading companies, there should also be a second main chain route. He said that, different from the top-down route, service providers like them choose the bottom-up route: explain the actual benefits of project completion to enterprises, and help enterprises implement projects one by one in different departments. Completed, and then let each project string together, comprehensive benefits. In this way, it is pushed up step by step, and finally it accumulates the authority in the industry and becomes the new chain owner of "counter-attack". Han Xu said that this bottom-up approach also has an advantage, that is, it avoids excessive one-time investment in the transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, making it easier for business owners to accept it psychologically.

The author believes that although the cluster route can enable SMEs to obtain industrial Internet-related technologies more quickly under the demonstration and sharing of leading enterprises, it is conducive to the rapid integration of SMEs into huge industrial clusters and industrial chains. , hitch a ride. However, such an improvement is "too easy" and may not necessarily have experienced the company's self-reflection. The ultimate goal of the application of the Industrial Internet should be the enhancement of the enterprise's own strength, including hard power such as hardware and professional technology, as well as soft power such as operation system and innovation mechanism. Therefore, just installing a set of MES system or just installing a set of digital twins cannot be said to have completed the transformation of intelligent manufacturing. It must allow enterprises to examine themselves, digitize and intelligentize their business and business models, find value from them, and allow investment and output to achieve a virtuous circular transformation, such a transformation can self-sustain. The bottom-up counter-attack route allows companies to deeply examine their own shortcomings and dig out core problems in the process of learning from each other and solving problems. Such enterprises can deeply understand the significance of industrial Internet applications.

Chen Fei, Vice President of Lingxi Weiguang Business once shared his unique experience on the relationship between the industry's leading enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. The core component of AR equipment, the optical engine, has undergone great changes in 2015. Chen Fei recalled that during that low period, the industry finally realized that the entire industry chain was in an immature state in terms of hardware, core components, delivery methods, and access to information. After that, thanks to the continuous investment of giants such as Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple, as well as the cooperation of countless industry companies to complete the development and improvement of the basic and system parts, the AR industry has embarked on a virtuous circle.

In the long run, the maturity of any industry and the prosperity of the market are inseparable from the large investment in infrastructure construction by industry giants, but at the same time, it is also inseparable from the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises who have invested in segmented scenarios. explore. Qu Daokui, the founder of Xinsong Robot, put forward a wonderful metaphor. He believes that in any industrial field, there will be a "boiling point" where water cannot be opened below 100 degrees. The investment of small and medium-sized enterprises has certain benefits for the development and upgrading of the market, and can speed up the speed of "boiling water". As long as the rational use of resources is ensured and vicious competition is prevented, healthy development can be achieved. In other words, the head and small and medium-sized enterprises grow together to create a healthy industrial ecology.