At the 2022 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference held recently, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that in the past decade, China has deeply implemented intelligent manufacturing projects, and the scale and level of intelligent manufacturing applications have entered the world's leading ranks.
The density of robots in the manufacturing industry increased by about 13 times to 322 per 10000 workers. The application scale of key technologies of intelligent manufacturing such as 5G and artificial intelligence has been among the top in the world.
In the past ten years, 110 factories have reached the international advanced level of intelligent manufacturing, and nearly 2000 high-level digital workshops and intelligent factories have been built to lead the development of the industry.
In the past decade, the scale of China's intelligent manufacturing equipment industry has reached nearly 3 trillion yuan, and the income of industrial software products has exceeded 240 billion yuan. The number of intelligent manufacturing system solution providers with a main business income of more than 1 billion yuan has reached nearly 100, covering more than 90% of the manufacturing industry.
Next, we will adhere to the main direction of intelligent manufacturing and accelerate the creation of an "upgraded version" of intelligent manufacturing, which is mainly divided into four aspects:
Focus on building an efficient innovation system, strengthen basic research, application basic research and research and development of key technologies, and lead the evolution and upgrading of intelligent manufacturing.
We will focus on building a high-level industrial system, promote the innovative development of intelligent manufacturing equipment, industrial software, and system solutions, and strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and industrial Internet.
We will strive to form a high standard application system, continue to carry out intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration actions, create more intelligent factories and smart supply chains, accelerate the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and encourage the construction of intelligent manufacturing pilot areas.
We will strive to build a high-level security system, focus on landmark products, key enterprises, talents and industrial clusters, optimize the intelligent manufacturing promotion system, implement the intelligent manufacturing partnership plan, and carry out multi-level and cross field exchanges and cooperation.
The demand for industrial robots in China will increase by another 3 million in ten years
At the end of last year, the Fourteenth Five Year Plan for Robot Industry Development jointly issued by 15 departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that by 2025, the average annual growth rate of robot industry revenue will exceed 20%, and the density of manufacturing robots will double. In 2020, the density of robots in China's manufacturing industry will be 246 sets/10000 people, which means that it will reach about 500 sets/10000 people by 2025, and there is still huge room for growth.
At present, the aging trend in China continues to intensify. The reduction of labor force and the increase of labor costs have increased the pressure on the development of the manufacturing industry. It is urgent to accelerate the development of automation applications represented by industrial robots.
The United Nations forecast shows that China's population aged 20 to 64 (most of the workforce) may have peaked and will decline sharply after 2030.
In fact, China's manufacturing industry has shrunk, services have continued to expand, and fewer and fewer young people are willing to work in factories. According to the data of the International Labour Organization, the number of manufacturing employment in China will be 147 million in 2021, 22 million less than that in 2012. During the same period, the number of service industry employment will increase by 32% to 365 million.
Many economists believe that China's working population is no longer growing rapidly and can no longer rely on the continuously expanding labor force to promote economic growth. Automation is the most reliable way to improve the productivity of its existing workers.
In addition to relieving the pressure of labor shortage, China's industrial structure has accelerated its transformation, and the proportion of high-end manufacturing industry with high added value has continued to increase, which also requires accelerating the application of robot automation. The requirements of high-end manufacturing in precision, stability and other aspects are what robots are good at.
The changes in the labor market and the economic benefits brought by the improvement of robot technology will push China into the boom period of robot application. At present, the operating inventory of China's industrial robots is about 1 million. The Wall Street Journal estimates that by 2030, the number of industrial robots on China's production lines will reach 3.2 million to 4.2 million.
Accelerating the automation process of the manufacturing industry is not only to ease the pressure of the reduction of the working population, but also to help the development of high-end manufacturing. The Wall Street Journal said that this is the only way for China to develop into a higher income country. At present, China accounts for 29% of the global manufacturing industry, which is undoubtedly the world's manufacturing factory.