China News Service, Beijing, September 23 (Reporter Liu Wenwen) "Without visiting the factory floor in person, you cannot truly appreciate the scale, speed and magnitude of China's innovation." said Bertrand Chen, CEO of the Global Shipping Business Network. According to Reuters, in April this year, he participated in a robotics and emerging technology inspection team covering three cities.
Recently, a group of foreign inspection groups traveled thousands of miles to China: they visited Chinese factories and conducted on-the-spot investigation and study. In the past, Chinese companies went overseas to “learn” technology; now, foreign inspection groups enter the workshops of Chinese companies.
During the summer vacation that just passed, "entering the factory" became a new trend in inbound tourism. Data from the international travel booking platform HopeGoo shows that the popularity of summer inbound "factory tour" related travel product bookings has increased significantly year-on-year. Many foreign tourists visit modern industrial plants to experience China’s “intelligent manufacturing” capabilities.
The reporter learned from Xiaomi Group that as of September 17 this year, Xiaomi Automobile Gigafactory has received a total of 330,000 domestic and foreign visitors, and this year’s goal is to receive 200,000 visitors.
In the past, foreign inspection groups came to China to sell products to China and lay out supply chains in China. Li Jin, chief researcher of the China Enterprise Research Institute, told a reporter from China News Service that at that time, technological dominance was basically in the hands of foreign parties.
Now, the plot has been "reversed". Li Jin said that when foreign inspection groups recently visited Chinese factories, what they valued was not low cost, but innovation and industrialization capabilities. They were looking for more advanced manufacturing solutions and intelligent transformation solutions.
From Xiaomi to Yushu, from Haier air conditioners to Astro Boy robots, most of the destinations of these foreign inspection groups are private enterprise workshops.
Li Jin said that today, a group of specialized private enterprises have broken through the "stuck neck" technology in the segmented tracks and formed world-leading processes in the fields of smart equipment, new materials, precision components and other fields. "For some technical solutions, foreign companies themselves do not have mature versions."
"Quartz crystal is a key basic electronic component. In the past, the technology was all in the hands of foreign companies, and we could only stare and worry." Gao Qing, general manager of Shenzhen Jingfeng Crystal Technology Co., Ltd., said that in the past thirty years, Jingfeng has only done one thing, which is to study technology and in-depth research and development. Nowadays, not only has the monopoly of foreign products been broken, but product accuracy and reliability have also reached the international advanced level.
Data shows that private enterprises account for more than 80% of the national-level specialized and new “little giant” enterprises. The four-legged robots in the cloud, the brain-computer interface of Qiannao Technology, and the drones of DJI... The rapidly rising private science and technology enterprises are defining the direction of future technology with their "hard skills".
The pace of smart manufacturing is currently accelerating. "Leading private enterprises are no longer simply applying automation equipment, but are exploring the digitization and intelligence of the entire production process." Cai Wei, president of KPMG China Economic Research Institute, said in an interview.
Many private enterprises have accelerated the pace of intelligence. Jack Technology started as a traditional sewing equipment factory and has grown into a leader in the global intelligent clothing equipment industry. Its industrial sewing machine sales have ranked first in the world for many years. The relevant person in charge of JD Logistics Technology revealed to reporters that the JD Wolf Robot global smart factory will be built in Wuxi to create a "robot-made robot" production model, with an annual output of up to 200,000 units after completion.
In the list of global "lighthouse factories", Chinese private enterprises are becoming more and more dazzling. Li Jin said that the decision-making chain is short, the market is responsive, and laboratory results can be quickly put into production lines for trial and error, and mature mass production solutions can be iterated on. This is the unique attraction of Chinese private enterprises, and it is also an advantage that many large overseas companies do not have.
Cai Wei believes that the frequent visits of foreign companies to Chinese private enterprises are not just for simple visits and inspections, but also to re-understand the position of China and Chinese companies in the global industrial chain. What they saw was not just a factory, but a complete innovation ecosystem.
"The future has already happened here." This admiration used by many overseas bloggers to describe China's technology is the best footnote.
