In 1903, Siemens motor sailed across the sea and was successfully applied to the saccharification pot stirring device of Qingdao Brewery. Up to now, this old motor full of historical massiness can still keep running. It has witnessed the historical development and changes of Tsingtao beer, as well as the century long friendship between Siemens and Tsingtao beer. Today, the cooperation between Siemens and Tsingtao beer has extended from a motor to a broader dimension and deeper level, and we have achieved each other in the process of cooperation. I still clearly remember that Xiao Gang, then assistant director of the brewing Department of Tsingtao Brewery No. 1 in 2012, said: “we chose Siemens because we believe that Siemens can provide high-level solutions, and we also look forward to using more advanced products of Siemens.”

If we are interlinked, we will make progress together. With this trust, Siemens witnessed and participated in every take-off of Chinese industry. In the context of the new era, the differences in digital capabilities and needs between industries, organizations and organizations are becoming increasingly prominent. The digital transformation scene is also more elaborate and complex, which puts forward higher requirements for technology, consulting, integration and other capabilities. We need to build a relationship that breaks through simple business interaction with the majority of Chinese enterprises. This relationship should be a deeper connection, mutual integration and value symbiosis. This is the “digital innovation community” we hope to build.

Digital innovation community is the surging kinetic energy for the comprehensive deepening of China’s industrial digitization process

Today, China’s industrial digitization process has entered a comprehensive deepening stage, and the digital innovation mode is moving from a single point breakthrough of an enterprise to the integration and resonance of ecology. Guangdong Huaxing Glass Co., Ltd. (Huaxing Glass), known as the “king of Asian daily glass”, has begun to explore the road of digital transformation in recent years. Since April 2019, Siemens and Huaxing Glass have jointly investigated, evaluated, combed and discussed, and tailored a proprietary path for digital transformation. At present, phase I of Huaxing Glass’s first digital lighthouse factory has been successfully launched at the end of last year. In the future, Siemens will help its 16 factories across the country to carry out digital transformation.

Last year, on behalf of Siemens, I attended the launch ceremony of Swire Cola’s first digital production line in China. The manufacturing information system (MIS) successfully launched this time is jointly developed by Siemens and Swire Coca Cola based on advanced software and hardware products including mindsphere and automation and digital technology. In the whole process of cooperation, the two sides have made joint efforts in technology, human resources and other dimensions. In the future, as the benchmark and benchmark of Coca Cola’s global manufacturing system information system, MIS system will be extended to its 18 factories in mainland China. However, our co creation with Swire Cola is not over. The two sides are still optimizing the MIS system and deploying digital tools such as energy management, quality management, predictive maintenance and enhanced control, so as to promote the digital process and achieve the goal of low-carbon development.

Of course, the digital innovation community is not limited to enterprises, but also includes a wider range of groups, such as governments, universities, research institutions and so on. In recent years, we have cooperated with local governments in Zhongshan, Guangdong, Chengdu, Sichuan and Taizhou, Zhejiang to establish innovation and empowerment centers, cooperate with local characteristic industrial enterprises to create and serve local industrial clusters. I am proud that these enabling centers have achieved many results and brought practical value to local industrial enterprises. Taking Siemens Taizhou enabling center as an example, with the participation of many partners and the establishment of local teams, we are actively promoting the implementation and implementation of 12 pilot projects to drive the digital transformation of key industries such as local machine tools, automobiles and logistics.

Such a deeper two-way or multi-directional empowerment and rush makes me feel more and more that we need to build a more open and shared digital innovation community, enhance the deep integration between enterprises, upstream and downstream industries, and between industries, so that our joint achievements can help a wider range of Chinese enterprises.

Digital innovation community accelerates the fission of digital technology innovation

The innovation and breakthrough of digital technology has become the core driving force to realize the high-quality development of China’s industry. From the experience of Siemens, innovation resources have increasingly broken through the boundaries of organization, region and country, showing a trend of cross-border integration. The digital innovation community will undoubtedly accelerate the innovation fission of digital technology.

Take artificial intelligence technology as an example. Although we are full of expectations for AI enabled industry, we must admit that AI black box “one click beauty” solutions are often not suitable for industrial scenes. The credibility and security in the process of technology landing are very important for enterprises. Therefore, the focus of artificial intelligence landing industrial scene lies in the integration of people and technology, that is, through the deep participation of customers, jointly create a knowledge model suitable for enterprises and make artificial intelligence play a practical role.

Siemens predictive operation and maintenance system SIEPA is a beneficial practice for us and our customers to implement artificial intelligence in industry through joint creation. Based on the industrial artificial intelligence technology and the industry knowledge accumulated by Siemens deep industry, SIEPA judges the equipment operation risk, fault diagnosis and maintenance strategy through the prediction and early warning module and intelligent troubleshooting and diagnosis module, and gives the recommended scheme. This is equivalent to providing customers with an analysis template. Customers map the actual state of the factory and industry knowledge into the template, solidify it into a model, and then apply it to specific business scenarios. At the same time, SIEPA can also continuously upgrade and iterate with new requirements, realize the whole life cycle management of artificial intelligence model, and form a closed loop of continuous optimization. At present, SIEPA has been implemented in petrochemical, cement, urban water supply, metallurgy and other industries in China, the Middle East, Russia and Europe.

In addition, Siemens has always been committed to bringing together leaders and innovators in various industries in it and ot to jointly define platform based business models and industry applications. Over the past year, we have been working with the industry to shape the future of industrial fringe. At present, Siemens and its partners have jointly created and completed many edge applications, including process optimization, equipment condition anomaly monitoring, quality analysis and prediction, noise anomaly monitoring, machine vision quality inspection and so on. Siemens provides partners and users with different choices of edge devices, edge management systems and open application stores to empower ecological partners and users.

These are just the epitome of Digital Technology Co created by Siemens and many partners. I am very grateful to these partners for their trust and their open and inclusive mind, which provides fertile soil for the rooting and germination of the digital innovation community.

The “14th five year plan” for intelligent manufacturing development (hereinafter referred to as the “plan”) released not long ago clearly stated that by 2025, 70% of China’s manufacturing enterprises above designated size should basically realize digital networking and build more than 500 intelligent manufacturing demonstration factories leading the development of the industry. In early January, Siemens’ first multi-contact, cross channel digital service platform “digital customer journey” was officially launched. This platform will support users’ one-stop access to the insight and practice of Siemens enabling thousands of industries, tens of thousands of industrial products and solutions, as well as the profound accumulation of Siemens Industrial Technology Support Center in the past 25 years, so as to meet multiple needs such as learning, trading and service. The original intention of Siemens to launch this platform is very consistent with the goal in the plan. It will enable more Chinese industrial enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to effectively start digital transformation. This encouraged us and filled us with imagination and expectation on the way to explore the future intelligent manufacturing.

It is difficult for those who lift alone to rise, but it is easy for others to follow. In the future, there is still a longer way to go from independent scattered innovation to collaborative linkage innovation. In this process, the path of technological innovation and the mode of ecological cooperation will continue to be enriched and broadened. Siemens is willing to work with the majority of Chinese industrial colleagues to build a digital innovation community, grow together as a driver and contributor of technology, and work together to inject more vitality into the sustainable and high-quality development of Chinese industry.