BIZ DIALOGUE
Editor’s note:
Global manufacturing is undergoing a profound transformation. Major manufacturing countries have developed government initiatives and visions for fueling manufacturing leadership. The Chinese government also announced several important initiatives in 2015, including “China Manufacturing 2025” and “Internet Plus,” and made it clear that smart manufacturing will be the nation’s major direction. The Global Times reporter Tu Lei interviewed Blake D. Moret, CEO of Rockwell Automation, a leading company dedicated to industrial automation and information solutions. Moret shared his opinions and understanding of “China Manufacturing 2025.”
GT: How do you see the process of “China Manufacturing 2025” now compared with other countries?
Moret: I think it’s a good vision of the basic steps that manufacturers must take to be most competitive. It recognizes the importance of converging information technology with traditional operational technology. The Chinese government recognizes the role of good communications between the various pieces of equipment in one factory and across multiple factories, and the importance of software and data analytics to help workers be able to make the best possible decisions about how to continuously improve their processes.
It’s a relatively high amount of manufacturers who would be taking that next step, to take manufacturing to the next level of productivity.
“China Manufacturing 2025” recognizes that is not enough just to be big, it’s more important to be strong and to be flexible, and that’s the key to being a sustainable competitive nation.
GT: How can companies be strong? How do you describe “strong”?
Moret: There are a few key points: One is the ability to integrate the supply chain. It’s not just the physical act of being able to produce the product, but also to be able to integrate. For instance, you can control your amount of inventory in your working process. But it’s very difficult to do it – to be able to have a more accurate forecasting model, to be able to truly integrate that with your manufacturing processes, so that you’re not building to stock as much as you’re building to order. And that reduces a lot of waste throughout the entire process.
The other related point is flexibility: to be able to produce multiple products, to go from mass production to mass customization.
The flexibility that automation can provide, to reduce setup time, which is very often the biggest enemy of a faster footprint in a production process.
So I would say forecasting integration – the integration of the overall supply chain, and the flexibility of the actual manufacturing process are two of the keys to being strong.
GT: Which industry do you think will have the biggest opportunities to achieve “China Manufacturing 2025”? Can you give some suggestions to help accelerate the process?
Moret: One industry that is currently growing quickly and will have great opportunities for implementation of “China Manufacturing 2025” is the set of consumer industries. That will include food and beverage making, home and personal care products, and life sciences products. A second area would be the transportation sector of manufacturing, including automobile manufacturing.
For Chinese manufacturers to achieve smart manufacturing, connecting operations technology with information technology has become a business imperative. Rockwell Automation’s The Connected Enterprise connects information from the plant floor to the rest of the enterprise. This delivers unprecedented business value in productivity, global competitiveness and sustainability.
The Connected Enterprise is how companies will realize tangible business value. For example, it will enable pharmaceutical companies to comply with stringent regulations; the consumer industry to be more flexible to changing market trends; and bring greater efficiency to heavy industry.
GT: What do you think of Chinese companies adopting The Connected Enterprise?
Moret: The Connected Enterprise is a future- proof vision available today that is perfectly aligned with the Chinese government’s “China Manufacturing 2025” and “Internet Plus” initiatives, to help China transition to smart manufacturing. We think it is a winning approach.
It starts with having a solid foundation, a product that can communicate, carefully evaluating the production process, so that you understand what the greatest resources of productivity are.
Combining information from across various parts of your enterprise, being able to present the data to people, because people are the main part of the process.
And then continually optimizing and iterating the implementation.