Surviving in a Lost World - How to Choose Manufacturing Industry

China has also proposed to implement "Made in China 2025", accelerate the transformation from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing powerhouse, and elevate it to the level of a component of the "Chinese Dream". This is China's Industry 4.0 version, but the question is, where is our Industry 2.0 and Industry 3.0? China is a relatively unique society. We did not emerge from a developed capitalist economic form, but from a semi feudal and semi colonial society. Without the baptism of the industrial revolution, our productivity is far behind. Since the reform and opening up, we have directly advanced from an extremely backward agricultural civilization to an industrial civilization. On the surface, it is a great prosperity of production, and Made in China is popular worldwide. However, in essence, this prosperity comes from our great country's abundant cheap productivity and various resources. What we export is only cheap productivity and the most basic production manufacturing. For the pursuit of more advanced productivity, our foundation for Industry 4.0 is unstable. We have gone through the reform by mixing manual work, Industry 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 together. Over the past 30 years of openness, we have not been involved in Industry 2.0 The sufficient precipitation and accumulation in Industry 3.0 are the foundation of Industry 4.0.

At present, in the mid to low end manufacturing industry, we have the problem of overcapacity. Production lines from developed countries are gradually relocating to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar, where productivity is cheaper and local preferential policies to promote industrial development are more attractive; Compared with developed countries such as Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea, we still have a considerable gap in the high-end manufacturing industry with independent property rights. The reality is that China's industry is currently in a middle ground, with both ends being squeezed. In Cantonese, there is a saying that goes' neither end reaches the shore ', which is the most uncomfortable state. In this state, the promotion of Industry 4.0 is destined to take shape but not its essence. Therefore, what we see most about Industry 4.0 in China is the replacement of humans with robots, the intelligence of production lines, and the increase in productivity. This is just the form. What is that 'god'? God is what you produce.

The background for Western developed countries to propose Industry 4.0 is that they used to have insufficient basic labor or high labor costs, so they moved their production lines to China because there was sufficient and cheap labor here. After many years, it was found that the price of labor in these places gradually increased (although Vietnam, Myanmar and other places are still transitioning, the labor price in these places will inevitably increase over time). In addition, the production lines are too far away from themselves, the controllability is too poor, and there are occasional troubles such as hiring child labor and excessive pollution, which have been criticized by human rights organizations and environmental protection organizations. Since Industry 4.0 can now achieve mechanical automation and intelligent production without requiring too much manual labor, it is better to move the production line back to China, which not only saves money and effort, but also helps the government improve the unemployment rate. They have considered both the future industry leadership and the current productivity improvement, which is the reason why they are so vigorously promoting Industry 4.0.

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However, what does Industry 4.0 mean for China? In the past two decades, China has achieved remarkable development, largely due to the demographic dividend. Since the reform and opening up, foreign capital such as Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan has entered, and the processing and manufacturing industries in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and other regions have risen on a large scale. At the same time, with the development of urbanization, a large number of rural populations have flocked to cities and entered factories. For a considerable period of time, cheap labor has become a symbol of China.

In fact, the contradiction between this is already very obvious. On the one hand, China takes the demographic dividend as the driving force for development, and on the other hand, developed countries hope to achieve intelligent production lines, reduce labor scale, and improve productivity. What does this contradiction mean? Simply put, once the implementation of Industry 4.0 in developed countries takes effect, it means we can no longer manufacture iPhones and can only manufacture Xiaomi in the future. But what are Chinese companies like Xiaomi? How far can the Xiaomi model without innovation drive go?

More importantly, where will the people replaced by machines go? According to media reports, Foxconn Kunshan factory has invested heavily in automating its workshops since 2010, using self-developed robotic arms for online production. In one of the production processes, 15 devices can produce 1.3 million intermediate products in a day under the supervision of 3 workers, whereas in the past, hundreds of workers were required to work 24 hours a day on the same production line. Since the launch of the automated production line, Foxconn Kunshan factory has laid off a total of 50000 people.

Industry 4.0 will be a long evolutionary process. To maintain a calm mind and prevent the growth of seedlings.

To grasp the laws, we must follow the logic of technological development. For example, 4.0 evolved from 3.0; When physical labor is completed by machines and operators become the "control unit", the construction of unmanned factories becomes relatively easy; On the contrary, renovation is necessary.

To promote Industry 4.0, we need to learn how to calculate economic accounts. To estimate labor costs, equipment and software costs; To analyze whether maintenance costs and energy consumption have changed, and whether research and manufacturing efficiency can be improved. Advancing Industry 4.0 requires a combination of industry characteristics: industries with large scale, high added value, stable product structure, and high automation level often have better economic viability and are more likely to become breakthrough points.

China attaches great importance to Industry 4.0 not only to catch up with international trends, but also for profound social reasons: in the 10 years starting from 2022, the total labor force in China will decrease by about 100 million. This is a serious challenge, but it also provides a driving force for the transformation and development of enterprises.

In the era of globalization, recognizing the current stage and development direction of a company, and choosing calmly will lead the company to a new level!