Ten years of ups and downs: Digital empowerment and reshaping of non-standard service-oriented manufacturing industries such as 3D printing and some underlying thinking and prospects

Ten years of ups and downs: Digital empowerment and reshaping of non-standard service-oriented manufacturing industries such as 3D printing and some underlying thinking and prospects

Our generation is also like a bird, bowing into the game and flying to the mountain that belongs to us. In this article, I would like to record the joint struggle, hard work, and exploration of the Day and night to find our own way. It has been seven years since our team's first cooperation; this article is a review, introspection, and summary of the past, as well as a prospect of the fog of the future. It is called ten years of ups and downs, and shared with all the monarchs.

Our team is hiring Java/front-end/testing, and send your resume to [e-mail]> Company Industry: United Tech (B+ round), 3D printing/small batch manufacturing/intelligent manufacturing/industrial interconnect

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Business direction: online manufacturing platform for customers at home and abroad, digital factory cloud solutions, capacity collaboration and supply chain management, intelligent manufacturing data analysis and scheduling algorithm

Technical direction: microservice cloud native (Java/Go + Spring + K8s + Dapr + Serverless + global deployment distributed system), micro front end (React + TS + Qiankun), industrial IoT cloud platform (edge computing, distributed image /Graphics processing, industrial data analysis), intelligent manufacturing assistance (APS, automatic quotation, production feasibility analysis, live broadcast and anomaly detection), Web-based online model processing (THREE.js + WASM), cross-terminal development (PC, App , Applet, Electron)

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Contact Email: [e-mail] / 15851808077 Team Technology Blog: https://www.uniontech3d.cn/) from around 2000. The laboratory stays in the industry.

However, as confirmed by the Gartner curve, the development of the industry will inevitably go through a bubble period; at that time, the entire 3D printing equipment, materials, and processes were still immature, and the appearance, hardness, strength, durability, and cost of the finished products were difficult to truly Ground breaking into the actual industrial production field. Cloud factories, online manufacturing, on-demand manufacturing, and small-batch manufacturing, which have been popular since then, are like rootless trees that cannot be implemented. Our first attempt has also failed. This failure made the author feel deeply that the consumer Internet and the industrial/industrial Internet are two distinct and criss-crossing tracks; thinks that only the so-called (consumer) Internet thinking can be used for industry/manufacturing Refactoring, empowering, and subverting are really idiotic dreams. However, if we abandon the digital landing industry and time limitations, because of its spiral growth and the inevitable setbacks in the upward process, I will sneer , or think that it is just a vase decoration, and I would not agree with the idea of talking about it. .

Over the past few years, the bottom cognition that the author has adhered to includes:

• future is bound to be a 3D world : In the past two decades, with the improvement of hardware capabilities, network communication has changed from 2G, 3G, 4G to 5G, and the way of information exchange between people has also changed from one-dimensional text to two-dimensional The author firmly believes that with the acceleration of 5G and the maturity of technologies such as VR/AR, the future information carrier must be 3D. Many aspects such as 3D design and modeling, VR/AR 3D presentation, etc. will bring about changes. 3D printing is bound to become a bridge between the virtual and the real world. It is the so-called Create Your Imagination.
• Discrete and personalized needs : The world is becoming more and more fragmented, and people's needs are becoming more and more discrete and personalized. In the field of consumer goods such as clothing, C2M has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The supply side uses platform big data feedback information to innovate products, and then feeds consumers back to stimulate demand, while reducing inventory through flexible production (for example, Ali's Rhino Intelligent Manufacturing). In the broader field of industrial products, small-batch manufacturing has also become the consensus of many people, to quickly iterate with a shorter product development life cycle to meet the individual needs of a specific group. Small batch manufacturing needs to integrate a series of capabilities from design modeling, to intermediate product manufacturing, to multiple post-processing collaborations. does not organize production centered on the enterprise, but organizes production centered on the product. As far as the author feels, the integration of the entire supply chain is still rigid. It is difficult to truly realize consumer-oriented flexible manufacturing and on-demand manufacturing by relying on the high adaptability of a single link of 3D printing.
• small-batch manufacturing : In large-scale manufacturing, the marginal cost is continuously reduced through the aggregation of the supply chain and large-scale production. However, 3D printing itself has nothing to do with the economies of scale and can be produced in small batches locally; it is natural It is suitable for scenarios where consumer demand is discretized and personalized. For example, it has reduced the global hearing aid trade by 15%. In more industries, it will be seen in the near future that this kind of distributed, unrelated production with economies of scale will eliminate the trade capacity brought about by large-scale production.

• Distributed manufacturing of the value network chain : Distributed manufacturing is also a consensus. From the perspective of operating costs, supply chain coordination, and local rapid service, the future will inevitably change production capacity from a single point to distributed across the country And even factories all over the world. However, distributed manufacturing does not mean that it is enough to send people to open sites or find suitable franchise factories/partners in other places. I believe that distributed manufacturing should have the following characteristics:

  • multi-factory rapid replication : Just like the distributed system of the software system, the true distributed manufacturing must be able to quickly replicate and quickly expand. The branch establishment of traditional factories is often time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it depends more on the management ability of the leader; of course, any enterprise must rely on strong middle-level management to support it. But how to achieve the compatibility of speed and product efficiency, and how to avoid too many steps to get involved, this is one of the core capabilities that can be truly distributed manufacturing.
  • Multi-factory effective collaboration : Distributed manufacturing requires effective coordination and dynamic allocation of production capacity among factories located in various places. The entire system must be able to be like the nervous system. There is a relationship between each synapse and the core brain. With strong connections and strong interactions, the units are like arms and fingers, scattered and gathered together.
  • Multi-link value synergy : Distributed manufacturing is not only a distributed for its own internal production system, it should be connection, coordination, and symbiosis ; this network includes upstream and downstream partners, and the original The chained/fixed supply has become dynamically scalable, transparent and predictable value network chain with a net-like exponential effect.
  • equal attention to safety and efficiency : The new crown epidemic has made many companies difficult, and it has also made the safety and risk resistance of the entire industry chain particularly important. In the value network chain formed by distributed manufacturing, it turns a single chain into a network chain. Any break at any point cannot stop the entire network, and the network chain can repair and adjust itself.
• and software-defined manufacturing : As mentioned above, small-batch manufacturing and distributed manufacturing are the consensus for the future. At present, many players enter the game from different angles, and they are divided into two contexts: horizontal and vertical. Have invisible champions rooted in subdivisions such as PCB/CNC/injection/mold, and expand to other process manufacturing capabilities through self-employment or franchise; also have the ability to dig deep into a single process, and expand its application scenarios and capabilities to More fields vertically. The common feature of these players is that their outward tentacles are all based on their own software system, through digital twins, industrial Internet, MES systems, digital factory systems, etc., to ensure effective control and effective integration of nodes after extended expansion .

In the past few years, the author is also quite touched by the fact that many people have the same view on the thinking at the bottom of the industry, or the macro narrative at the corporate strategic level. However, it is often difficult for many people to express or lack practice as to how strategies are implemented through tactics, and how to lead from the reached to the ideal side. In layman's terms, many articles about industrial Internet and intelligent manufacturing are a little , and the core relationship of many manufacturing business owners is how to make money with 160c810bd1ae76! Make money! To make money and surface, to be able to combine macro-narrative with practical practice:

1. Discretization, decentralization, and digitization: the
2. software, platform and hard technology: with the right combination, with the odd victory; with the hard wall, fight in a daze
3. Service-oriented manufacturing: transparent service/extreme experience, high throughput and high flexibility of production capacity, predictability and consistency of quality/delivery
4. reduction and efficiency enhancement: the singularity of the digital value-cost curve
5. obstacles, have we proved the value of digitalization?

1. Discretization, decentralization, and digitization: the involution and breaking of industrial manufacturing

This paragraph mainly discusses the future manufacturing trends in the author's mind and some thoughts on how to break through the involution of the manufacturing industry.

In the previous article, we discussed the judgment of demand discretization and manufacturing decentralization. At the same time, we can also see the serious involution of the current industrial manufacturing, which is also evident from the difference between the growth rate of PPI and CPI. Take the 3D printing lever service as an example. Its price has dropped rapidly in the past few years. Many practitioners and rising stars are also the first choice to break through the price war; this has caused many companies to fall into a negative cycle, and the decline in profits has made reproduction The investment and service capacity improvement investment is stretched. However, the price drop is not a bad thing. In recent years, the author has personally witnessed the rapid increase in the 3D printing application industry and scenes. The number of customers served, the number of customer orders, and the total number of orders have all grown exponentially. The small-batch manufacturing industry represented by 3D printing is experiencing an inflection point of volume increase and price reduction; this will inevitably require companies to continuously increase their throughput, reduce marginal costs, and improve single customer service capabilities With added value to improve competitiveness and build a moat.

From the author's point of view, digital transformation is the key for many companies to break the situation; the big wave is scouring the sand, and only by setting off a huge wave can you find a glimmer of opportunity between the waves.

From Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line to large-scale manufacturing pinnacle companies like Foxconn, production management and organization methods are constantly evolving in the running-in of the consumption side and the supply side; we can also foresee the needs of individualization and discretization in the future , And the supply of decentralized and distributed manufacturing, new production models will inevitably be formed under these two major backgrounds. This production model can fully rely on the digital platform brought by information technology to complete the whole process reshaping from digital marketing, digital services, digital production, digital collaboration, and digital delivery. Just as the Internet has changed the way people communicate with each other, the core of digitalization lies in the acquisition, expression, storage, transmission, processing and delivery of information. In the media, it is expressed in different forms, using an efficient calculation to process information to form obtainable knowledge; and with the progress of digitization, everything in the entire society will be digitized.

Digitalization is a summary of a series of information technology, organizational methods, and behavioral norms. It is combined with various industries that we are familiar with to form a digital economy; generally, the digital economy is divided into two parts: digital industrialization and industrial digitalization ( Home, School of Public Administration, Tsinghua University, Xiaojuan: Digital technology will change the economic operation mode 160c810bd1af89):

• Digital industrialization is the products and services brought about by digital technology. Without digital technology, these products would not exist. For example, electronic information manufacturing, information and communication industry, software service industry, Internet industry, etc., are only available after digital technology. industry.
• Industrial digitization refers to the fact that the industry already exists, but after the use of digital technology, it has brought about the increase of output and the improvement of efficiency. If there is no digital technology, there will be no such thing. Digital production can realize the intelligent interconnection of the production process, realize the intelligent interconnection with the consumption chain and the supply chain, and can intelligently interconnect the platforms of consumers and service providers, and can also realize the intelligent matching of social resources.

The problem space faced by traditional large-scale manufacturing industry is mainly divided into three categories: reducing production costs, improving production efficiency, and reshaping production methods. For future personalized C2M small-batch manufacturing scenarios, companies often need to explore the consumer side and interact with users. Establish a direct connection. At this time, the digital solutions we need will span the service, manufacturing, and supply chains. Finally, it should be emphasized that digitization is only a means of , and consumer-oriented externalization of digital capabilities is the practice of service-oriented manufacturing ; we will first discuss the specific product form of digital capabilities, and then discuss the use of digitalization to construct service-oriented Manufacturing goal

2. Software, platform and hard technology: with the right combination, with the odd victory; the hard wall, the silly battle

This paragraph mainly discusses some business models from the perspective of software technology and moats.

When the author first visited Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and other places where manufacturing is concentrated in 2019, I was quite surprised that many small and medium-sized manufacturing business owners have experienced many digital baptisms, either with success or failure, and most of them were unsatisfactory. . Combining the practice of the past two years, there are the following business models or product categories with software as the core:

• For basic software: the so-called hard technology is the general term for high-precision original technologies that are generally characterized by independent research and development, long-term accumulation, high-tech threshold, difficult to replicate, clear application products and industrial foundation; such as CAD/CAE/CAM Such model processing software can build a powerful moat. However, this technology requires a large amount of investment in research and development resources, long-term engineering practice optimization, and long-term operation to gain user trust; and the horizontal scalability of its commercial space is often restricted by its industry depth and user payment Ability and willingness often cannot cover input costs, and it is difficult to have both.
• For business software: The competitor of this track is no longer the manufacturing industry, but the entire ToB/ToM software service industry. The software development department of the vertical industry, objectively speaking, cannot be compared with professional software companies in terms of R&D resources, but the advantage is that software companies do not invest too much resources in a single industry. They value versatility and flexibility. Only software development in vertical fields can deeply understand the characteristics of the industry and meet the needs of the market and customers. For companies in a certain segment, if they only solve their single-point problems, it is difficult to become attractive; only to help them realize the full-process digital synergy and achieve closed-loop production can the value of this type of software be truly reflected. . Similarly, small and medium-sized enterprises are limited by the involution discussed above, and their ability and willingness to pay for software are not high. They are only willing to try software that has successful implementation experience and can quickly reduce costs and improve efficiency; they cannot survive. How can I see the poetry and the distance in the cold winter in front of me.
• For the platform-based model: cold start and long-term operational investment are acute problems that cannot be avoided. If you can't have self-hematopoietic ability as soon as possible and have long-term stable cash flow, it is likely to die after a short period of wind and rain. The platform model also requires long-term and continuous investment, and it is difficult for the platform model to build a moat in the technical field. It can only build advantages in size and capital to open up competitors.

From the perspective of the stage of software landing, it can be divided as follows:

• Digital tools: The software gradually intervenes into the existing production system. The first step is to digitize the process and form a software tool to replace the original paper records or offline collaboration. For example, systems such as MRP and ERP are gradually applied to material management and financial management; the popularization of two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital modeling tools; the use of simulation analysis tools to verify the practicality of process design and improve the success rate of new processes; and to carry out data around the production and manufacturing process Acquisition, analysis, monitoring, etc.
• Networking: Digital tools solve the problem of basic digital twins. The next step is to realize integrated control and collaborative optimization in the digital environment from point to surface, and improve the level of transmission, connection, and sharing of all links. For example, in product data management, data consistency in product design, process design, manufacturing, installation and after-sales links can be realized, and then product design and manufacturing integration can be realized. Through the association, transmission, and sharing of product models, the parallel mode of product development, process design verification, process management, and manufacturing is realized.
• Intelligentization: After networkization, we can break the information islands, gather data scattered everywhere, and realize service-oriented manufacturing based on intelligent products, such as personalized customization, precision marketing, online operation and maintenance, etc.; as well as crowdsourcing design, Cloud design and other new R&D and manufacturing systems. The product mechanism system will also change from simply providing products to providing overall solutions, and the proportion of service elements will continue to increase; corresponding R&D and manufacturing models have also emerged to achieve online and remote collaborative R&D, manufacturing, and application among multiple entities Cloud computing carries out design and production.

2.1 From MES to Industrial Internet: Rooted in industry, not interconnected

As mentioned earlier, a large number of production companies have already launched or are preparing to launch the manufacturing execution system MES. Most MESs on the market include functions such as material warehousing, production scheduling, production execution, quality inspection, equipment maintenance, and warehouse management. However, the single-point, process-solidified MES system is often only a display of some macro data in the production process, so that the various stages from the production order to the product delivery form a digital record. A lot of data may be deposited in various links such as production scheduling, production execution, quality inspection, and equipment maintenance, but how to make good use of these data to make the collection, storage, cleaning, aggregation and processing of industrial data more real-time and in-depth. It has become an urgent problem to dig out a lot of microscopic information that was originally hidden in the production process, such as real-time personnel, material inventory status, equipment status, etc., to make it clearly displayed and become completely transparent and visible.

When companies start to advance their digital transformation in the direction of changes in production methods such as personalized customization and network collaborative manufacturing, they need to obtain more extensive data to achieve real-time insights into the production process and operation management; use data integration or Internet of Things data collection to understand The data from the equipment at the field level to the ERP and other systems of the enterprise management level are all aggregated to the industrial Internet platform. The platform uses big data and AI capabilities to mine and use the data, and finally realize the dynamic perception and intelligent decision-making of production and operation . For example, the six-axis automated arm used in the intelligent production line of an automobile, each axis has multiple IoT connections, and it can measure a lot of dynamic information, and its state in operation can be sensed. The previous automated production equipment was only used for products Only after something goes wrong or the equipment can’t work can it be known that the production line has a problem. In the intelligent production process, its operating status can be sensed in real time through a large number of networked devices, and it can be completely repaired online and remotely shut down and turned on.

The above is an explanation of the value of the Industrial Internet, but the Industrial Internet is not a silver bullet , it is not that the device is connected, and the data is displayed. In fact, many software R&D teams cannot go deep into the manufacturing plant, and cannot understand expert advice. As a result, data mining and discovery that truly bring in-depth value to business operations become difficult to implement. What the Industrial Internet needs to solve most is to be able to truly penetrate into customers, discover needs, sort out needs, and define needs; Industrial Internet is booming, and there is bound to be a bright future, but the road forward is bound to twists and turns and spirals upward.

The foundation of the Industrial Internet is still on the industrial side. The Internet is just a highway of information. How to truly tap its value requires long-term industry intensive cultivation and trial and error.

2.2 Manual, intelligent (semi-automatic) and automation

This section mainly discusses the so-called big data analysis, artificial intelligence and other technologies in the manufacturing industry.

Digitalization does not accomplish the reshaping of the industry overnight. For example, when I got on the car, I thought about using APS scheduling algorithm, AI visual image detection, 3D model automatic processing and other methods to quickly solve some problems, but ignored the tooling and networking. Finally, a series of necessary data accumulation, experience accumulation and knowledge accumulation in the process of intelligentization. Looking back, the implementation of digitalization requires the use of the following steps step by step:

• Digital Twin, Realizing Standardized Management : Manufacturing companies are often labor-intensive and have formed many production management systems. The first thing to do in digital transformation is to replicate equipment, systems, and processes, and digitize equipment and behaviors. Mapping. Of course, this kind of re-engraving must not be based on a gourd, or a thousand faces. It will inevitably form its own methodology in the early stages of growth, and continue to scavenge for nothing, and integrate it with the rocks of the mountains.
• Intelligent, semi-automatic assistance : After having a certain basic process, you can automatically replace some process nodes, and use simple rule conditions or algorithms to extract information from massive data and feed it back to the performer . The typical scenario here is the message notification, which automatically detects the abnormal condition of the equipment and the potential risk of the order, actively analyzes it, and then pushes it to the person to quickly solve the problem.
• uses RPA, robots, headless software, etc. to achieve full-process automation : Automation is a link that can really save labor and improve efficiency. With the accumulation of the above two stages, combined with some basic software, we can automate the entire process To achieve the improvement of efficiency and quality. What needs to be emphasized here is that for many companies doing basic software and hardware technology research and development, in the context of future automation, it is necessary to complete the software service-oriented transformation, so as to integrate into the value chain faster.

2.3 Digital management of the whole process

The author also discussed in the previous article that it is very difficult to achieve leapfrog development just to help companies solve single-point problems separately. Digital management of the manufacturing industry is the application of information systems to carry out the entire chain of management activities in the production and operation process according to business needs and strategies. Specifically, the digital management of manufacturing enterprises can be divided into four aspects: design and manufacturing collaboration, process and quality improvement, resource optimization and collaboration, and supply chain management ( nfoQ: advanced exploration of manufacturing digital development model ).

• Design and Manufacturing Collaboration : The component-centric product development method is the key to achieving design-manufacturing collaboration, which is to implement concurrent design and manufacturing planning through simplified, component-based data sharing. First, the parts delivery manufacturing process, quality planning and work instructions should be defined in a digital way; then, system information such as CAD, PLM, and ERP is connected through PLM; finally, the change information is automatically fed back to all functional area systems to realize the design Collaborate with manufacturing.
• process and quality improvement : Product quality is determined by various variables in the manufacturing process. The application of automatic predictive models and monitoring tools will effectively help us understand the related attributes of product quality. Automated visual inspection, machine learning, blockchain and other technologies can find potential problems in a timely manner than traditional SPC or manual inspection, and will directly help companies reduce labor costs and improve production efficiency. In addition, monitoring consumer feedback in digital channels can also prevent failures, and promptly discover and solve supply chain quality problems.
• Resource Optimization and Collaboration : The combined use of technologies such as the Internet of Things, data analysis, and machine learning will effectively help companies realize resource optimization and collaboration. It is important to evaluate the factors that affect the resource consumption of manufacturing enterprises. These resource consumption can identify the energy distribution of the production process, so that the company can accurately identify the efficiency of resource energy consumption, thereby reducing operating costs, increasing throughput, productivity and profitability, and achieving Low-carbon energy-saving goals.
• Supply Chain Management : Massive supply chain data scattered in different processes, sources and systems is the key to enterprises understanding the supply chain and optimizing supply chain management. In the manufacturing supply chain management framework, data-based information flow has become the key to connecting business, logistics, and capital flows. The supply chain operation platform plays the role of coordination, overall planning, and operation. Based on the understanding of the core enterprise's supply chain plan, coordinate with the upstream and downstream participants of the supply chain; organize various resources to promote the efficient operation of all links in the core enterprise's supply chain.

3. Service-oriented manufacturing: transparent service/extreme experience, high throughput and flexibility of production capacity, predictability and consistency of quality/delivery

This paragraph mainly discusses the manifestations and key indicators of future service-oriented manufacturing.

Throughout the history of the development of the industrial age and the information age, continuous blowout disruptive technologies have driven industrial changes, which in turn affected the reconstruction of the entire economic system. Since the first industrial revolution, the leading industry of the economic system has gradually developed from the machinery and electromechanical industry to the information industry. Not only has the basic science, industrial chain, and value chain undergone major changes, but more importantly, its industrial development logic and the bottom layer The methodology has also undergone a fundamental change. The mechanistic theory with determinism and predictability as the main characteristics has developed to cybernetics, system theory, and information theory. From technological strategy, organizational development to external ecology, the development of industries in the new era has demonstrated new methodology. The underlying ideological connotation. We have seen the deep integration of the Internet and industry, and we can foresee that this process will accelerate in the future.

From the definition of new manufacturing to the service-oriented transformation of the manufacturing industry, it is basically the transformation of the company from a pure product or service provider to a comprehensive solution supplier, which is to increase the proportion of value and increase the added value of products from the input and output sides. And the changing process of brand benefits. Service-oriented transformation often relies on the accumulation of rich knowledge assets, and the realization is a process of service content from simple to complex, from low-end to high-end; it can often be divided into the following stages:

• In the initial stage of the service-oriented transformation of the manufacturing industry, companies generally take installation, after-sales, spare parts and other services as a supplement and extension of product production;
• Furthermore, some companies began to explore to provide users with one-stop solutions, enrich service content and increase user stickiness;
• In the end, the enterprise will gradually increase the innovative value of the service business, subvert the entire business model, and shift to a service-centric organizational structure, thereby driving the development of the enterprise service business;

Returning to non-standard small-batch manufacturing scenarios like 3D printing handles, the author believes that service-oriented manufacturing should include the following features:

• Service transparency/extreme experience 160c810bd1b457: Whether it’s ToB or ToC, customer representatives are accustomed to the online shopping experience of Taobao, Get a good experience. A bit similar to the parallel consumption upgrade and sinking market on the consumer side in recent years, users of 3D printing services have also appeared to a certain degree: we must be able to provide price-sensitive users with cost-effective services, but also need to provide experience/ Quality-sensitive users provide the ultimate service.
• 's high throughput and high elasticity : With the past 3D printing after the hype period, it has been condensed after the silence and shuffling, and it can truly be applied to industrial-grade production capacity. 3D printing technology, materials, processes, etc. Downstream industries have been greatly improved. Because of the characteristics of 3D printing technology, traditional large-scale production increases production capacity to reduce unit price is not feasible. When the number of equipment is growing rapidly and industry applications continue to be enriched, increasing production capacity is an obvious market opportunity. The entire process of 3D printing production is highly digital. The model data produced is three-dimensional data, standardized raw materials, all software controls the production process, and the production time can be accurately predicted. However, the current 3D printing applications do not have good low utilization characteristics. Instead, a large amount of production capacity is lost due to the suitable curing production process. For example, the pre-processing, typesetting, and production scheduling of data in the entire industry currently uses manual non-standardized processing of 3D model data, and the accuracy and processing efficiency are quite low; the initialization of production and timely shutdown after production cannot be guaranteed. , Resulting in a lot of waste of production capacity.
• Predictability and consistency of quality/delivery : We cannot guarantee that the delivery and quality of each customer are foolproof. Pursuing high throughput and high flexibility of production capacity will inevitably lead to certain losses/abnormalities; of course; , We will cover this kind of abnormality, and the main impact is the latest delivery. However, what we have to do is to ensure that the quality and delivery time are predictable and consistent in the process of rapid expansion of distributed manufacturing. In other words, when customers place orders on our side, they can clearly know our capability boundaries, possible abnormal conditions, and bottoming capabilities. This is essential for large-scale and small-batch manufacturing.

4. Cost reduction and efficiency enhancement: the singularity of the digital value cost curve

This paragraph mainly elaborates the author's inevitable detours in the process of digital transformation and landing of the manufacturing plant.

In the past two years, we have also practiced with customers from different industries and backgrounds. It can be regarded as repeated failures and failures. Ryan Holmes, CEO of management system company HootSuite, even jokingly compares big data to "teen XX". ": Everyone is discussing, but no one really knows how to do it; everyone thinks that others are doing it, so everyone says they are doing it. . . When talking about the goal of digitalization, everyone is eager to reduce costs and increase efficiency quickly, and quickly transform digital inputs into high-value output; when it comes to digital capabilities and ways to implement them, everyone has different opinions, but they have different paths to the same goal. Most of them are blind people touching elephants. For example, the primary sense of digitization, industry leading platforms such as Protolabs provide services such as online order placement, which has become the entry point for many people to understand digitization; but they often overlook the strong organizational support behind a single software system. As Conway's Law says, the architecture of the design system is subject to the communication structure of the organizations that produce these designs; if we want to present a new sense of Internet experience to users, what we need is a complete set of organizational changes behind it, supplemented by Suitable software system.

It is precisely because the digitalization of the manufacturing industry is different from the consumer Internet. Consumers only need to open a webpage or download an App to carry out major activities; the implementation of digital transformation in factories is often accompanied by a first increase and then a decrease in the cost curve.

As discussed in the previous article, if a business system wants to play a full value, it must achieve full-link coordination, which means that a lot of roles with different responsibilities are required to work together to maximize throughput and overall efficiency. For small companies, it is a person who has multiple roles, and the handover of affairs between people is relatively small. Therefore, digital transformation is often not as convenient as using Excel directly; instead, they need one or two convenient tools. For medium and large enterprises, the initial stage of digital transformation will inevitably lead to an increase in overall costs; then as the advancement progresses, as the connection of various links becomes smoother, the cost will drop rapidly, and finally the marginal cost will be constant.

Specifically, in the process of digital transformation of enterprises, hardware, software, and operation and maintenance are basic costs that cannot be bypassed; these cost pressures are no longer small under the background of involuteness. But the biggest difficulty and challenge in the process of landing is still the organizational change.

• After the digital transformation begins, in the first stage, due to changes in processes and methods, different teams will need to run-in, which will bring additional costs. Some companies choose gradual reforms to smooth the cost curve, but they often gradually lose the motivation to reform; it is not an urgent life and death juncture, it is better to leave it to the flood in the future. There are also companies that choose to reform across the board, which will cause violent internal turmoil. Digital reform requires the entire management to promote with great courage and courage. In the process, it also requires a tightrope walk, a balance between left and right, and coordination of all stakeholders.
• Top-down management methods such as lean manufacturing naturally curb bottom-up innovation, which makes the digital transformation of manufacturing companies much more difficult than Internet companies; plus many front-line workers are used to repetitive work , The natural resistance to change. After facing internal backlash, or the slow implementation of middle-level implementation, how to promote is also a test of the determination and ability of managers.

The general trend of the world is great and soup; the middle way stands, the capable ones follow it.

5. Postscript

There was originally a section here: all obstacles, have we proved the value of digitalization? will not be released publicly because it involves a lot of internal product introductions. Those who are interested can contact me ([e-mail]) for inquiries.

Faced with the wall for ten years, it is difficult to repay the sea and be a hero; the wind has started at the end of Qingping, welcome all friends to join the Union Intelligent Manufacturing ( https://unionfab.com), let us join hands in the digitalization future. Recruitment link: https://jobs.51job.com/all/co211882.html, covering positions: software development (Java/front-end/testing), 3D printing data processor, sales/customer service/marketing, etc.