In today's rapidly developing society, the level of industrial equipment is advancing rapidly. At what stage has the world's industrial equipment level reached? What is the future development trend? The problem is presented to the world. I don't know much about industrial Internet and can't give you a precise definition. After researching, digesting, and understanding the information, I will organize my thoughts. As a knowledge carrier, what you say may not necessarily be correct. I hope everyone can correct me.

To be precise, there is no standard answer for Industry 4.0, not even the Germans who first proposed it.

Let's first look at three concepts:

Industry 1.0

Mechanization is marked by the steam engine, which uses steam power to drive machines instead of human labor, thus separating handicrafts from agriculture and officially evolving into industry.

Industry 2.0

Electrification, marked by the widespread use of electricity, replaces steam power with machines driven by electricity, leading to the division of labor in the production and assembly of components and entering the era of large-scale industrial production.

Industry 3.0

Automation, marked by the application of PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and PC, has not only taken over most of human physical labor, but also a part of mental labor. The capacity of industrial production has surpassed human consumption, and humanity has entered an era of overcapacity.

These three definitions are all very academic. Don't worry, this is the most academic paragraph I want to talk about. Below, I will explain the following content in a simple and understandable way.

To understand Industry 4.0, we must first take a look at the current situation. As for our company's most advanced equipment, I have tentatively set it as 3. X, or in a trendy way, it is less than the mid to late stage of 3.0. This state is called incomplete automation and partial informatization.

To explain it clearly, we need to start with the business model of the factory.

As a production-oriented enterprise, there are only two purposes: to produce products and then sell them. So in production-oriented enterprises, there are usually two departments: the production department and the sales department. The former is managed through MES (Manufacturing Execution System, not express delivery), while the latter is managed through ERP system.

What is the difference between these two systems? ERP systems tend to focus more on financial information management, while MES tends to focus more on production process control. Simply put, ERP mainly tells you how many products customers need, which day the order is placed, and which day the goods are needed, while MES is mainly responsible for monitoring and managing how every step and process of producing these products is implemented. In many workshops of our country's factories, the interconnection between various production equipment and between production equipment and controllers has been basically achieved. The entire factory of the company has been connected through the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), while the business departments are connected through ERP.

Did you notice the problem?

ERP and MES are not actually connected.

So when ERP issues production plan instructions to MES, MES will adjust according to the actual situation of the workshop if there are deviations from the plan during the production process (such as equipment problems, raw material problems). But ERP is unaware, so it will continue to execute orders according to the plan. Over time, there will be significant deviations between the financial system and the actual situation in the workshop.

As for why they are not connected, there are two reasons. Firstly, the development companies of ERP and MES are two different groups of people, those who work in finance and those who work in production. They not only do not understand each other's professional terminology, but also talk to each other like chickens and ducks. In addition, business departments and production departments are usually operated separately, with their respective leaders having their own preferences.

Of course, the power of the people is endless. No company will see the deviation between the two systems getting bigger and bigger. Workshops usually make a table of MES project data to the business and financial departments on a regular basis, and these departments will manually adjust it in ERP.

The problem of MES and ERP is just a microcosm of the factory system gap. In fact, there are many other systems in the factory, such as design, manufacturing, inspection, procurement, office, and so on. These systems are all isolated islands, and no one knows what each other is doing or where they are going. Some of them have encountered problems, and other departments are unaware of them. Only when the problem arises can they revert back and make changes to each system one by one.

Of course, this kind of thing has not existed for a year or two. In the industrial era, the lifecycle of products is very long, for example, a model of Siemens inverter can be sold for 30 years. The time it takes for one or two years for research and development to go live is not long, and the rest of the problems rely on manual labor. Although there are mistakes, they are still peaceful.

However, the terrifying wolf finally arrived.

This is overcapacity and the Internet. The global overcapacity has led to increasingly fierce competition among enterprises, and the era of selling a product for 30 years is gone forever. You don't run fast, some are fast. The arrival of the Internet era has shaken the foundation of the industrial era. Information is asymmetric. In the industrial era, because manufacturers cannot meet the needs of every customer at a low cost, they can only take a one size fits all approach, that is, combine the performance of various needs to become a product. For example, when you buy shoes, the manufacturer cannot know how big your feet are, so they divide the sizes into 40, 41, 42, and so on. If your feet are too fat or too thin, I'm sorry, but overcome it.

The Internet has changed this situation. People can connect with each other and manufacturers at a low cost. Therefore, everyone's individual needs are amplified, and people increasingly like personalized things. But the demand for personalized things is not very high, which requires industrial enterprises to achieve small-scale production.

As an enterprise, in order to truly enter the information age, the first thing to do is to evolve Industry 3.0 into Industry 3. X. Industry 3. X means completely connecting information systems such as MES and ERP, so that all information islands of the enterprise are indirectly connected. This is an upgrade that is not fully automated and partially informatized, which is the full circle level of Industry 3.0.

Alright, after achieving the 3.0 Great Perfection earlier, we are about to embark on a sci-fi brain burning journey. Simply put, it means marrying complete automation and informatization to give birth to monkeys (children). This process is called Industry 4.0 in Germany, Industrial Internet in the United States, and what is it called in China? According to research, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology refers to it as the integration of digitalization and industrialization, while the brainless fans of the Internet of Things call it the Internet of Things.

There is a language communication problem when MES and ERP are interconnected, just like a Cangpu who doesn't understand English when speaking. Let them all speak a language and need a term called communication protocol. Someone said why not use the current Internet communication mode? That is, the TC and PIP protocols. This is a technical issue, and I don't know what it means for my half bottle vinegar. Simply put, the speed of the Internet is too slow. The precision is not enough and the safety is not good. The requirements for speed, accuracy, and safety in industrial production are not as simple as downloading a movie online. Our company's ultrasonic testing equipment uses computers and communication systems that are close to this super system, requiring high-speed computing and accurate digital transmission. At present, China is proposing the goal of precise positioning, which is the integration of China's two industries and Made in China 2025.

The arrival of Industry 4.0 era heralds the deep integration of automation and informatization, as well as the intelligence of industrial production, product intelligence, and production service. A diverse data era is approaching, and the world will be redefined by software.

Equipment Department: Zhang Haijun