As the global manufacturing industry enters the deep-water zone of intelligent transformation, industrial automation has completely broken away from the traditional positioning of “machine substitution” and has become the core cornerstone for improving the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing industry and upgrading the industry.
Driven by the fading demographic dividend, upgrading of industrial structure and digital technology innovation, my country’s industrial automation industry has completed a leapfrog development from blank follow-up, large-scale popularization to intelligent iteration.
Local automation companies bid farewell to the extensive expansion model and embarked on refined, technical, and scenario-based transformations. However, compared with top international products, they still have core shortcomings.
Clarifying the context of industry changes, the status quo of enterprise transformation and the gap between China and foreign countries, and exploring the path for domestic products to break through and transcend are key issues for my country to move from a manufacturing country to a manufacturing power.
Throughout the development history of the industry, the iterative changes in domestic industrial automation are clearly identifiable.
In the early days, my country’s automation market was monopolized by European, American and Japanese companies for a long time. Products relied on imports and technology was passively followed. Automation equipment was only used in a few high-end manufacturing fields such as automobiles and heavy industry, with low penetration and single application scenarios.
With the implementation of the manufacturing power strategy and the deep integration of digital economy and manufacturing, industrial automation has entered a period of rapid development.
Today’s automation is no longer a simple equipment replacement, but a full-process intelligent management and control system integrating the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and big data, covering the entire industry chain scenarios such as electronic manufacturing, new energy, food processing, equipment manufacturing, etc., realizing intelligent upgrades in the entire process of production, control, and operation and maintenance, and completely reconstructing the production model of the traditional manufacturing industry.
Market changes have forced local companies to accelerate their transformation, and domestic automation companies have embarked on a unique upgrade path.
In the past, most local companies relied on equipment assembly, low-end OEM, and price competition as their main business models, and their core technologies were highly dependent on foreign countries.
At present, local manufacturers represented by leading industrial control companies are fully launching differentiated and high-quality transformations, covering multiple subdivisions such as industrial control systems, industrial communications, and intelligent IoT, building a complete echelon of the domestic automation industry.
At the market service level, leading companies rely on the advantages of local scenarios to build a rapid response service system, with an extreme delivery cycle of 2 to 4 weeks, customized solutions to adapt to the diverse needs of domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, and accurately explore vertical tracks such as new energy, semiconductors, and lithium batteries, gradually eroding the market share of foreign capital in the mid-range market.
Specialized new enterprises focusing on industrial communications and intelligent industrial control have embarked on a unique and specialized route. They have been deeply involved in the fields of industrial bus, embedded control and industrial IoT for many years. Focusing on mainstream industrial Ethernet technologies such as EtherCAT and Profinet, they independently develop core products such as master station controllers, industrial communication cards, remote IO, and protocol gateways. They are supported by a self-developed embedded automation development platform to form an integrated solution from underlying hardware, control software to cloud IoT platform.
This type of solution is widely adapted to high-end equipment, precision manufacturing, industrial Internet and other scenarios, and makes up for the domestic shortcomings in the domestic industrial communication segment.
At the level of technology layout, major leading companies continue to increase investment in R&D, abandon the simple integrated assembly model, and focus on self-research of core products such as servo systems, mid-range PLCs, and industrial control systems. In fields such as general AC servo systems, core algorithms and encoder technologies have no generational gap with Japanese giants, achieving large-scale domestic substitution in the mid-range market.
At the same time, many companies have completely broken away from the single equipment sales model and transformed into overall intelligent manufacturing solution service providers, creating integrated software and hardware service systems, greatly improving the core competitiveness and market voice of local companies.
Although local companies have achieved remarkable transformation results, there is still a structural gap between domestic automation products and top international products, and shortcomings in the high-end field are prominent.
At present, the industry presents a competitive pattern in which “foreign capital dominates the high-end and domestic products are deeply involved in the mid-range”. International giants such as Siemens, ABB, and Mitsubishi have built a complete technical system and industrial ecology with decades of technology accumulation.
The core gap is concentrated in three major dimensions: First, the shortcomings of high-end core components are obvious, such as high-end PLC, precision RV reducer, high-precision sensor, industrial control chip and other key components. Domestic products have significant gaps in accuracy, stability, service life, and environmental adaptability. More than 70% of the domestic high-end market is occupied by foreign capital, and there is still the risk of “stuck neck” in core areas.
Second, industrial software and the underlying ecology are weak. International companies have mature industrial operating systems, simulation software, and complete sets of algorithm systems. The software and hardware are deeply adapted and highly compatible. However, domestic industrial software is seriously fragmented, the underlying architecture is imperfect, and system integration and stability are insufficient.
Third, product consistency and brand accumulation are insufficient. International products have been proven by the market for a long time and have outstanding advantages in stability and failure rate control under extreme working conditions. The quality control consistency of domestic products after mass production needs to be improved, and there is still a gap in brand recognition in the high-end market.
Based on the general trend of industrial development, if domestic automation products want to achieve the leap from following to leading, they need to take the road of transcendence through precise breakthroughs, ecological co-construction, and iterative upgrades.
First, focus on core technologies, pool industry resources to overcome stuck areas such as high-end controllers, precision components, and industrial underlying software, and delve deeply into underlying technologies such as basic materials, precision processing, and core algorithms to get rid of the dilemma of following technology and achieve independent control of core components.
Secondly, we insist on scenario-based technology iteration and rely on the advantages of the most complete domestic manufacturing scenario in the world to polish high-precision and high-stability products for high-end manufacturing scenarios such as new energy, high-end equipment, and semiconductors. We will use massive scenario data to feed back technology optimization and narrow the performance gap of high-end products.
Furthermore, we need to build an industrial collaborative ecosystem, promote the deep integration of industry, academia, and research among leading enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutes, open up the entire chain of technology research and development, achievement transformation, and batch application, unify the technical standards of domestic products, and solve the problems of software fragmentation and poor software and hardware adaptability.
Finally, abandon the low-price competition model, build a domestic high-end brand with quality upgrades and service upgrades, rely on the advantages of fast service and customization, continue to penetrate the high-end market, and gradually break the monopoly of foreign capital.
Industrial automation is the core lifeblood of the manufacturing industry. my country’s industry transformation has achieved phased results, and domestic substitution in the mid-range field is unstoppable.
In the future, only by adhering to technological independence, deeply cultivating scenario innovation, improving the industrial ecology, and continuing to make up for high-end shortcomings can domestic automation products completely achieve overtaking in corners, help China’s manufacturing industry achieve high-quality upgrades, and reshape the global automation industry pattern.
