Many enterprises have lost their way amidst the flood of concepts such as "Industry 4.0," "Intelligent Manufacturing," and "Internet+", unsure of where to start. In reality, both intelligent manufacturing and smart factories have their own implementation conditions and pathways—there are no shortcuts. Different industries and different enterprises will take different routes.
Generally speaking, the following ten pathways are the essential routes for China's industry to transition from manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing. Although different industries and enterprises vary in market demand patterns, product processes, and management foundations, they can always identify several viable paths toward intelligent manufacturing.
1. Lean
Lean production was originally designed to meet the personalized needs of high-mix, low-volume production, with its two pillars being "Just-in-Time" and "Jidoka" (intelligent automation).
To date, lean has evolved into a comprehensive value-chain management philosophy and methodology covering marketing, R&D, supply chain, production, processes, and even entrepreneurship. It has driven the transformation of global industries, from manufacturing to services. Its philosophy, methods, and tools—centered on "creating value and eliminating waste"—have promoted the optimal allocation of production resources, leading to rapid improvements in quality, efficiency, and responsiveness.
2. Standardization
Standardization is the foundation of automation and a prerequisite for intelligent manufacturing.
Domestic enterprises often marvel at the high level of automation in the automotive industry, wondering why such a complex product as a car can be automated while simpler products like home appliances cannot. One key reason is standardization.
3. Modularization
The automotive and computer industries were among the first to achieve modularization, from modular design and procurement to modular production. Modularization is also the key to whether intelligent manufacturing can meet personalized consumer demands at low cost. Once achieved, personalized products become possible—for example, smartphones: every individual's phone could be unique, and people could assemble their preferred phone like building blocks.
Modularization reduces the complexity from design and procurement to production. Standardized interfaces and connection methods increase universality, lower manufacturing costs and lead times, and make automated production, logistics, and information communication easier to implement. For instance, in the past, chargers differed by phone brand, and switching phones meant discarding all old chargers, causing significant waste. Now, improvements have been made.
4. Automation
Automation is one of the most discussed aspects of intelligent manufacturing. Many local governments and enterprises vividly refer to it as "replacing workers with machines" and have made continuous attempts, with both successes and failures.
Through independent innovation, enterprises can integrate the original discrete processing methods for raw materials, connect previously independent processes through automated production lines, and implement lean continuous production. This eliminates intermediate loading/unloading, storage, and handling, thereby improving production speed and efficiency.
