As a major manufacturing province, Jiangsu creates about 13% of the country’s industrial added value. Among them, the textile cluster with complete categories and complete industrial chain has contributed nearly one trillion yuan in output value, and its total industrial volume ranks among the top in the country.
To become a strong manufacturing province, how can Jiangsu further expand its leading advantage? What are the trump cards?
At a garment company in Changshu, Jiangsu, the staff started the template machine and the entire garment piece passed through the automatic sewing machine. Every piece of equipment in the factory is coordinated through the intelligent production system. A down jacket, which requires more than 200 production processes, can be rolled off the assembly line in as little as 4 minutes.
According to Hu Guangjie, Vice Governor of Jiangsu Province, our workshop has implemented an intelligent hanging system transformation. The transformation of this system is a small part of the entire intelligent manufacturing system, which can realize intelligent production scheduling and personalized customization, so that these products can achieve “the best-selling products are not in stock, and the slow-selling products are not scheduled.”
By keeping best-selling products out of stock and slow-selling styles out of production, the transformed factory can not only produce more than 130 styles and more than 1 million pieces of down jackets every year, but can also analyze sales data in real time, predict market demand, and respond quickly to precise production. And this is just a microcosm of the upgrading of Jiangsu’s traditional manufacturing industry.
Hu Guangjie said that in recent years, traditional manufacturing industries, especially leading key enterprises, have implemented intelligent and digital transformation. Intelligent manufacturing has been integrated into the industry, and total factor productivity has been greatly improved in all aspects of design, manufacturing, sales, circulation, and service. This is the real effect of intelligent transformation.
Smart manufacturing can improve production efficiency, but it also requires real money investment. Up to now, Jiangsu Province’s finances at all levels have allocated more than 7 billion yuan to carry out awards and subsidies for key intelligent manufacturing projects and loan interest discount support, and plan to provide free intelligent upgrade and transformation diagnostic programs for 22,000 manufacturing companies. Data shows that the current numerical control rate of key process manufacturing equipment in Jiangsu Province reaches 60%, and the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools is close to 90%.
Hu Guangjie said that for traditional manufacturing industries, digital transformation is no longer a multiple-choice question, but a must-answer question related to its survival and development. There are indeed many difficulties in the transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, including technology, talent, capital, etc. Jiangsu Province has issued a series of policy support documents. Allocate 1.27 billion yuan every year for a total of three years to provide incentives and interest subsidies to help and support the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises.
In Jiangsu, companies tracking smart manufacturing upgrades will find that this is a cost-effective deal. According to statistics, after the implementation of intelligent transformation, the average energy consumption level of enterprises has been reduced by more than 10%, comprehensive costs have been reduced by more than 20%, and production efficiency has been improved by more than 30%. The difference between rising and falling reflects the increasing competitiveness of enterprises and a report card of the high-quality development of Jiangsu’s manufacturing industry.
Hu Guangjie told reporters that at present, Jiangsu Province is still concentrating its efforts to increase core technology research in industrial software, CNC machine tools, industrial robots, etc. These are the foundation for Jiangsu Province to promote intelligent manufacturing. Hu Guangjie said that in the next three years, Jiangsu Province plans to achieve full digital transformation for 57,000 designated (industrial enterprises above designated size). Through hard work, Jiangsu Province will surely be able to significantly improve the digitalization, networking, and intelligence levels of the manufacturing industry, and significantly enhance new models, new business formats, and new momentum. Jiangsu’s advantageous industries, especially high-end textiles, biomedicine and new electric power, will truly be built into the main position of a world-class advanced manufacturing industry cluster that cannot be crushed, moved or dismantled.
</p