Editor's notes:

The "Cloud Driving and Smart-based Future" 2018 Industrial Internet Summit Forum (referred to as "the Summit Forum") sponsored by the CASIC was held in Chengdu on June 14 and June 15. Gao Hongwei, the Chairman and Secretary of Party Committee of CASIC, introduced the strategic objectives of creating the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters by CASICloud on the main forum on June 15. 

After more than 200 years of industry revolution, the human beings have moved from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, and eventually information civilization. After nearly 70 years of hard work, especially the 40 years of Reform and Opening-up, China has been embarked on an open, self-confident, civilized and prosperous national development path. The contribution of rapid rise of manufacturing industry cannot go unnoticed.

In 2008, the global financial crisis came when we were immersed in the joy of the wide spread of products "Made in China”. As a result, the manufacturing industry of China experienced a cruel reshuffle period. During the past 10 years, some of the enterprises closed down, some of them changed into other tracks, some of them has risen sharply and some of them are still struggling to survive. In this period, the concept of Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet and "Made in China 2025" appear almost at the same time.

History tells us that the main driving force for the leaping development of human civilization comes from two drives: group technological breakthrough (as the break of windows), and fundamental institutional innovation (as the collapse of the wall). Sometimes the two drives come at the same time, while sometimes they come successively.  Only when the two drives work at the same time, the leap of civilization can realize. 

At present, the global manufacturing industry is in a critical period when the two drives are interwoven with each other. The leap of information civilization is on the horizon. On the one hand, the trend of "customized design, single-piece small scale production, and personalized consumption" promotes the rapid development of intelligent, collaborative, and cloud-based manufacturing technologies; on the other hand, it is more and more difficult for the hierarchical "modern enterprise system" that only meets the needs of "standardized design, large scale production, and homogenization consumption" to be adapted to intelligent, synergistic, and cloud-based manufacturing technology requirements. As a result, the global manufacturing industry is about to enter a special historical stage of a new round of production mode change and enterprise system reform under the pressure of global homogenization overcapacity.

There are three optional ways for the new round of production mode change and enterprise system reform:

The first way is, based on the sophisticated CSP, to start from smart equipment, gradually extend to smart production lines, smart workshops and smart factories. and finally achieve Industry 4.0 by creating intelligent manufacturing platforms (hereinafter referred to as the German Model). Through the development in this model, a country that “gradually rises from bottom to top” will finally realize compatibility of intelligent manufacturing, collaborative manufacturing and cloud manufacturing. This model is characterized by the fact that the change of the enterprise system and the operating model can lag behind the change of production modes, and it is more secure.

The second way is, with the vertical supporting system having realized intelligent manufacturing basically, on the basis of the offline work division and layout of global collaborative manufacturing, to build a global online platform for collaborative manufacturing and collaborative after-sales services, and keep on maintaining the leading position in the vertical work division system of the global manufacturing industry (hereinafter referred to as the American Model). Through “grasping the middle to drive the two ends”, this model finally realizes compatibility of intelligent manufacturing, collaborative manufacturing and cloud manufacturing forms. This model is characterized by the fact that the change of the enterprise system and the operating model depends on the depth and intensity of collaborative manufacturing, that is, the degree of change in the enterprise system and operation model is proportional to the depth and intensity of collaborative manufacturing.

The third way is, in the premise that most enterprises do not have the intelligent manufacturing capabilities and have not completed the information transformation of their operation processes, and are impossible to complete the intelligent transformation and information transformation in a short time, to start from the change of the production mode of cloud manufacturing, and adjust and/or reform the enterprise system in the process of gradually implementing the intelligent transformation of manufacturing capabilities and the information transformation of operation processes of enterprises. Based on the development in this model, the transformation from cloud manufacturing to collaborative manufacturing, and from collaborative manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing will be realized finally by “gradually deepening from top to bottom”and could reach the same goal as that of the German Model and the American Model by different means. This model is characterized by the fact that the change of the enterprise system and the operating model is synchronize with the change of production modes and is more suitable for developing countries.

CASICloud selected the third way: establishing the public cloud platform in the industry field at first, starting with creating the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters, focusing on resource allocation of main market players around the country and optimization of business processes, cooperating with the group transformation of the manufacturing industry in China, providing focused services for the transformation of the production modes of small-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, satisfying the need for the transformation of the organizational structure and enterprise system, gradually progressing from perspectives of “saving money, getting money and making money” in respect of cloud enterprises and making every effort to form the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters. CASICloud has always adhered to this development concept for nearly three years since its launch as an industrial Internet platform, and has achieved satisfactory results, which preliminarily prove that the development path of “gradually deepening from top to bottom” for the industrial Internet with Chinese characteristics is realistic and rational.

CASICloud adopts INDICS+CMSS (Industrial Internet Cloud Space + Cloud Manufacturing Support System) to establish and maintain the ecosystem of cloud manufacturing industry clusters based on the industrial Internet. It realizes compatibility of intelligent manufacturing, collaborative manufacturing and cloud manufacturing, integrates and applies big data and artificial intelligence technologies, and third-party commercial and financial resources, and serves manufacturing technology innovation, business mode innovation and management innovation.

Its internal commercial drive is 3 M’s (to save money, to get money and to make money). Its internal commercial logic is to promote the interaction among technology innovation，business model innovation and enterprise management innovation, and further promote the enterprise transformation and industrial upgrading. 

For this purpose, CMSS mainly includes the full-process service support system in industrial product marketing and procurement, outsourcing and cooperation for manufacturing capability and production service, inter-enterprise collaborative manufacturing and project-level & enterprise-level intelligent manufacturing. CMSS provides services for users through "One Brain, One Cab, Two Rooms", which include the enterprise brain, enterprise driver’s cab, cloud business work room, cloud application work room, service station for small-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, and service station for enterprises deploying business on the cloud. The enterprise brain provides support and services for the scientific decision-making level; the enterprise driver’s cab provides services for the management of the enterprise; the cloud business work room provides support for the production-supply-marketing clustered services and peripheral business services; the cloud application work room provides support for customization, design, R&D, test and after-sale technical services; 

Besides, it also provides service station for enterprises deploying business on the cloud and the service station for small-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, which are the two function modules for special Online-Merge-Offline services, and can meet the actual demands of various enterprises further participating in the construction of the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters.

At present, more than 1.7 million enterprises in 179 countries and regions around the world have registered in CASICloud, and they have issued nearly 150,000 cooperation and purchase demands, with an amount of over RMB 420 billion (including internationally issued cooperation and purchase demands with a value of about $ 2 billion); cooperation and purchase transactions with a total value more than RMB 210 billion (including international transactions with a value more than $ 400 million), in which over 50% of the transactions are less than RMB 22,500, and 80% of the transactions are less than RMB 1 million; nearly 900,000 sets of equipment are linked to the cloud platform, with approximately 200,000 sets on line; there are nearly 1.4 million data collection points. CASICloud APP adopts CMSS (Cloud Manufacturing Support System) as a carrier to thoroughly support three types of manufacturing, namely intelligent manufacturing, collaborative manufacturing and cloud manufacturing. It can provide supports for the entire manufacturing chain in respect of the overall production elements, the entire process and the whole life cycle, and various industrial services and solutions. At present, there are nearly 1,600 CASICloud APPs in total.

Data from sample enterprises shows that the total business scale of more than 1.7 million registered users is about RMB 11 trillion. The average business scale of enterprises is about RMB 6.3 million.  More than 85% of the registered users are small-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises (35%+50%)。 Considering the typical business scale of RMB 22.5 thousand/deal, it means that small enterprises can grow and develop with more than 360 deals in the cloud (an average of more than one deal per day). Besides, the operating rate will be improved from 50% to about 85% if the enterprise choose to increase their business volume through cloud collaboration and the revenue of cloud enterprises will be improved by about 30% without increasing investment. After the "One Brain, One Cab, Two Rooms" as well as "service station for small-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises" and "service station for enterprises deploying business on the cloud" of CASIC are deployed, the supply chain, R&D and manufacturing process management, marketing and after-sales service of the enterprises can take advantage of the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters. Excessive and inefficient internal management and service organizations will shrink or even disappear, and the changes in organizational structure and enterprise system will happen naturally.

We will devote ourselves to the construction of the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters and add new luster to "Made in China"; International enterprises are welcomed to join construction of the ecosystem for cloud manufacturing industry clusters and jointly create a new era of global manufacturing!