The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Standardization Management Committee recently issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of National Intelligent Manufacturing Standard System (2024 Edition)", aiming to build a standard system that meets the needs of the development of new industrialization, guide all intelligent manufacturing work in my country in the next stage, and lead the manufacturing industry to accelerate intelligent upgrading and digital transformation. At present, the digital transformation of my country's manufacturing industry is showing an accelerated development trend, and is evolving from concept popularization to large-scale promotion.

my country has always attached great importance to the digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing, and has continued to work hard in policy guidance, standards and specifications, financial support, talent training, etc., to guide digital factors to gather in manufacturing enterprises and continue to improve its level. Data shows that as of February this year, more than 30,000 basic-level smart factories, more than 1,200 advanced-level smart factories, and more than 230 outstanding smart factories have been built nationwide, representing the leading level of digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of my country's manufacturing enterprises. Many provinces have taken active actions and achieved significant results in the transformation. For example, Liaoning Province promotes digital transformation through the "one group, one policy" model, builds an advanced manufacturing highland, and realizes that 22 industrial clusters such as fine chemicals, software and information technology services, aviation equipment gather more than 3,500 industrial enterprises above the designated size, and promotes more than 2,000 industrial projects; Zhejiang Province takes "industrial brain + future factory" as the benchmark, focuses on industrial clusters, key industries and large, medium and small enterprises, combines "points, lines and surfaces", and achieves a digital level of 1.0 of more than 90% of industrial enterprises above the designated size, and the industrial digital development index, manufacturing digital transformation index, and manufacturing high-quality development index are all among the top in the country; Jiangxi Province was the first in the country to issue the local standards for the "Guidelines for the Evaluation of Digital Development Level of Manufacturing Enterprises" to form the "four-level and ten-level" evaluation division of the digital development level of enterprises. As of January this year, 10,900 enterprises in the province have implemented digital and intelligent transformation.

At the same time, the policy system continues to be improved, providing solid guarantees for the digital transformation of manufacturing. The "Action Plan for Digital Transformation of Manufacturing" reviewed and approved by the State Council Executive Meeting in 2024 proposes to explore typical scenarios based on the diversified and personalized needs of manufacturing, accelerate the research and development of core technologies and the promotion and application of results, and increase support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Not long ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other departments issued the "Implementation Guidelines for Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Enterprises", giving opinions on the overall requirements, implementation steps, scenario keys, and policy guarantees of digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises, emphasizing demand orientation, implementing policies in a classified manner, and propose differentiated transformation strategies for different enterprises, so as to promote the formation of digital transformation paths and models with their own characteristics. The introduction of a series of policies has made efforts from different angles such as exploration of enterprise transformation models, research on key core technologies, and solving the difficulty and high cost of financing, creating a good development environment for the digital transformation of manufacturing.

It should also be noted that my country's digital transformation of manufacturing industry still faces some bottlenecks and constraints. For example, there is a deviation between the large-scale supply of digital solutions and personalized demand, which is difficult to accurately meet the unique needs of manufacturing enterprises, and the support for transformation factors such as capital, talents, and technology is still insufficient. In response to this, we must give full play to the synergy between the government and the market, adhere to overall planning, implement precise policies, and systematically and gradually promote the digital and intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry.

Improve the top-level design. Improve the more refined and differentiated digital transformation policy system for manufacturing, and promote the formation of a transformation model that adapts to local conditions and implements policies based on enterprises by formulating implementation guidelines for digital transformation in subdivided industries and establishing differentiated regional policies. The central and local governments have jointly issued a series of policies, launched a "combination punch", strengthened overall coordination and resource integration, strengthened a policy system of departmental coordination and connection between the upper and lower levels, formed a policy synergy to promote transformation, and improved the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the transformation.

Guide both supply and demand sides to make efforts. Focus on cultivating system solutions and service providers to improve supply quality. Cultivate standardized, low-cost, and reusable solutions, build a resource pool for service providers, and at the same time accelerate the cultivation of internationally competitive transformation products and solutions, and gradually reduce the dependence of digital transformation of manufacturing on foreign technologies, products and services. Guide manufacturing enterprises to clarify their transformation positioning and determine differentiated transformation paths. Enterprises should clarify the direction and focus of transformation based on their own scale, development stage and other characteristics, find the right entry point for transformation, and promote digital transformation steadily and orderly.

Strengthen the cultivation of talent team. Deepen the development of school-enterprise collaboration and the integration of industry and education, cultivate professional and technical talents and management talents for digital transformation through joint training and joint construction of laboratories, guide university researchers to strengthen the concept of market-oriented and enterprise-oriented, enhance the awareness of "industry questions, colleges and universities answer questions", and closely combine the digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing to carry out research. Strengthen digital skills training for industrial employees and enhance employees' digital literacy and business capabilities. Establish and improve talent selection, training and incentive mechanisms in the field of digital and intelligent transformation, create a good talent development environment, and cultivate a compound talent team. (Dong Lei and Chen Chen)

[Editor in charge: Zhao Qiuyue]