【 Guangming Review 】 Accelerating the Digital Transformation of Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises | Manufacturing | Enterprises
Guangming Review
Author: Liu Zhiyang; Liu Jianyi
At the 21st China International Equipment Manufacturing Expo held recently, a large number of intelligent equipment utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, industrial Internet of Things, and digital twins made a concentrated appearance, demonstrating that digitalization and intelligence are accelerating their coverage in China's manufacturing industry. Accelerating the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is an important part of building a modern industrial system, with the transformation and development of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises being particularly crucial.
Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have launched pilot projects for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises in cities, aiming to reduce the cost of digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises and stimulate their enthusiasm and creativity for transformation. Small and medium-sized enterprises are an important force in promoting the development of the real economy. Utilizing digital and intelligent technologies to comprehensively and comprehensively transform small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises is not only related to the resilience and stability of the manufacturing industry and supply chain, but also to the realization of high-quality economic development in the medium and long term. At present, supporting small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises to overcome the difficulties of digital transformation urgently requires improving the level of digital cognition of enterprise managers, establishing a sound mechanism for the growth and flow of digital talents, and encouraging innovation in digital integration among large, medium, and small enterprises.
Improving the level of digital cognition among enterprise managers is a prerequisite for promoting the digital transformation of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. The 2022 Research Report on Digital Transformation of Chinese Private Enterprises points out that due to inadequate understanding, most enterprises, especially private enterprises, are still in the early stage of transformation. Enterprises are only willing to try digitalization in local areas, and the overall transformation effect is not ideal. There is a lack of endogenous motivation and resource investment to continuously promote transformation. At present, the government can play the roles of "guide" and "motivator", and enhance the digital strategic awareness of enterprise managers through digital transformation demonstration behaviors. For example, effective methods such as encouraging the establishment of digital transformation demonstration zones for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in various regions, supporting and rewarding advanced enterprises in digital transformation, can enable enterprise managers to see the dividends of digital transformation and actively participate in the process of digital transformation. The government can also play a policy role of financial support by actively building public service platforms, providing a "toolbox+service package" for digital transformation, promoting the promotion and application of low-cost, modular intelligent manufacturing systems, and improving the integrated digital transformation public service support system throughout the entire chain.
A sound mechanism for the growth and flow of digital talents is the key to implementing the digital transformation of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. The key to restricting the digital transformation of private manufacturing enterprises lies in the lack of digital talents. On the one hand, there is a lack of professional digital engineers to assist enterprises in technological upgrades and product iterations; On the other hand, there is also a lack of talents who master digital intelligence management knowledge to collect, store, share and mine various industrial Internet data. The aforementioned research report pointed out that nearly 70% of private enterprises have digital talents accounting for less than 5%, and there is a serious gap in digital talents in the private manufacturing industry. Private manufacturing enterprises should attach great importance to increasing the training of internal digital talents, and the government can also play a guiding role in promoting the improvement of digital skills of employees in private manufacturing enterprises. Referring to the rural "science and technology envoy" system, it is considered to promote a group of digital engineers to private enterprises to alleviate difficulties by providing technology purchase services and other means. It is also possible to follow the "Saturday Engineer" model in the Yangtze River Delta and encourage engineers to provide paid deep technical services across industries and enterprises during their weekend leisure time. In addition, more professional digital management talents and high-quality management personnel should be promoted to enter small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, and management consulting services should be provided to help enterprises achieve digital transformation.
Encouraging the integration and innovation of digital intelligence among large, medium, and small enterprises is a guarantee for deepening the digital transformation of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. The difficulty of digital transformation in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises is highly related to their lack of ability to promote the overall digital transformation of the industrial chain. Due to concerns about inconsistent industry standards and technological ecosystems with external partners, upstream and downstream supply chains, most small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises are hesitant to take the lead in digital transformation. For example, a large number of enterprises will use various information technologies during the transformation process, but these information technologies are often embedded in different systems. If the system and architecture are not unified, not only will data and information be incompatible, but it will also lead to information isolation, resource waste, and low efficiency. This is also a major challenge faced by small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in digital transformation. Only by promoting enterprises to actively integrate and innovate with various large, medium, and small enterprises in open innovation development can we comprehensively promote the digital transformation of the industrial chain. It has been proven that the integration and innovation of large, medium, and small enterprises is an effective way to break the ecological isolation of digital intelligence, and the transformation of the industrial chain digital intelligence cannot be separated from the effective support of government policies. The notice issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on carrying out the pilot work of digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises in cities clearly stipulates that reward funds can be arranged to reward typical and efficient "chain" digital transformation products and services of small and medium-sized enterprises, which will help improve the ability of strong chain supplementation and provide opportunities for industrial chain digital transformation cooperation.
Guangming Daily
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