Impact of Industry 4.0 on China's construction machinery industry

        According to data released by the German Federal Bureau of Statistics on the 4th, new orders in the manufacturing sector in Germany increased 4.6% in July compared to the previous month, while the data for June was negative 2.7%. According to data, orders received by the German manufacturing industry from abroad increased by 6.9% in July, with new orders from the euro area increasing by 1.7%.

          Dani Irenkate, a market expert from the German Federal Foreign Trade and Investment Agency, told reporters that the main areas driving the growth of manufacturing orders are capital goods, machinery, and engineering manufacturing, indicating that demand from foreign markets such as the European Union and China is likely to offset weak domestic demand and the negative impact of sanctions against Russia. According to the data in the first half of the year, German construction machinery exports fell by 0.9%. Given the strong euro, a 20% decline in exports to Russia, and reduced demand from emerging market countries during this period, this has been a good achievement. He said that the German economy is likely to resume growth in the third quarter, which is a positive signal for the entire Europe.

          Perhaps in the near future, Don't be too surprised when you see this scene: "A modular production line is producing business card boxes. Unlike traditional production lines, all information about making this business card box is input into the product parts themselves, which communicate information with production equipment and command the equipment to produce themselves. This autonomous production mode allows each product to have personalized characteristics, fully meeting the customized needs of each user."

          Creating "Industry 4.0" German Manufacturing Speeds up Digital Construction

          On August 20th, the Cabinet of the Federal Government of Germany adopted the "Digital Agenda 2014-2017", which aims to boost economic growth by strengthening the construction of digital technology facilities and thereby provide impetus for the construction of the Industry 4.0 system.

          The focus of Industry 4.0 is to combine information interconnection technology with traditional industrial manufacturing. In the future production process, it will not only be the communication between people, but also the formation of digital interconnection between machines for information exchange. According to the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, Industry 4.0 can increase the production efficiency of enterprises by 30%.  

          Industry 4.0 has become a strong development trend in German industry

          The Digital Agenda was jointly launched by the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure Construction. Hanno Kempelman, an expert in the field of digital economy and regional analysis at the consulting company of the Cologne Institute of Economics in Germany, said that the digital agenda specifically adopted this time is crucial for the development of the German economy. Germany's traditional strengths are industry and production technology. To truly promote Industry 4.0, network infrastructure also needs to meet high requirements.

          Industry 4.0 has become a strong development trend in German industry, which has received a lot of support from the government. The government recognizes that in the process of building Industry 4.0, digital construction will bring sustained economic growth and boost employment in Germany.   

          Famous companies such as Siemens and Bosch have taken steps in the intelligent industry. German Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Energy Gabriel also mentioned at the press conference on the 20th that traditional manufacturing enterprises such as Volkswagen have also participated in this year's Hannover International Information and Communication Technology Expo, which is also a model for the integration of information technology and traditional manufacturing.

          In addition to Industry 4.0, digital development can also bring richer digital business models to enterprises, such as online stores and remote maintenance. According to a survey, at least one-third of German companies have recognized today that the Internet is an important component that can support successful business operations. Digitalization can promote the upgrading of business models. Taking remote maintenance services as an example, enterprises will no longer just sell machinery, but can also provide security for the operation of machinery through the network, making their business methods more diversified. As a result, enterprises can sell more value-added services along with the goods.

          The current network situation in Germany is far from meeting the huge development needs in the future

          Industry 4.0 requires complete networking between all enterprises, and the real-time nature of networking is very important. This is a huge challenge for the existing network situation in Germany, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have the ability to build their own networks, which also need to be included in this network system.

          Kempelman said that the network construction situation in Germany varies greatly between urban and rural areas. In large cities, the network coverage is good and there are more operators. But the situation in the countryside is far worse, and about two-thirds of Germany's industrial enterprises are located in the countryside. This is very troublesome for enterprises to integrate into Industry 4.0, because if rural enterprises do not have good digital networking, it will in turn have an impact on other enterprises in the Internet of Things. In other words, these rural industrial enterprises cannot enter the value chain of the entire Industry 4.0 system.

          According to the ideal state of Industry 4.0 in the future, a truck can directly tell a machine when and what kind of goods it will deliver, so that the machine can plan the most suitable working hours and be ready on time. To achieve such a vision, it is necessary to provide prerequisite guarantees for the construction of a solid digital infrastructure. Kempelman emphasized that speed, security, real-time, and speed symmetry are the four characteristics of a network.

          In the context of Industry 4.0, looking forward to the future, the growth of information technology will be even faster. By 2018, the amount of digital information used by industrial and service enterprises will double from 2013, reaching 60 billion bytes per month.

          However, such a large capacity network is expensive. Some institutions estimate that if fiber optic networks were installed throughout Germany, the cost would reach 80 billion euros. Even if not all optical networks are used, there is no specific conclusion as to where the high investment comes from.

          At the same time, the long-term nature of the goals proposed by the government has also been questioned. "The proposal in the digital agenda to build a network speed of 50 megabits per second (50Mbit/s) will not be sufficient. Although 2018 may be the first step of the plan, such a network speed may be able to meet the demand, according to our research, by 2020, the network speed needs to reach 100 megabits per second, because the future growth of information volume is very rapid."

          How to ensure the security of huge network data has attracted the attention of enterprises

          Trust and security are also one of the core goals of the proposed digital agenda. According to regular surveys conducted by the Cologne Institute of Economics on large enterprises, 2/3 of the 1000 or so enterprises interviewed this year believe that in the context of Industry 4.0, network security issues are crucial. "If enterprises believe that they cannot securely communicate with each other, this will be a serious problem. Enterprises' information and sensitive data are their 'treasures', and they are unwilling to bear the risk of theft of such information," Kempeman said

         Olaf Siemens, Vice President of the Information Security Department of the German product quality testing company Rheinland Group, stated that the requirement of Industry 4.0 is that all production links be fully networked, including the networking of offices, information infrastructure, and production infrastructure, as well as the networking between enterprises, suppliers, and customers. In other words, networking will be more thorough than today. This poses more challenges.

          "The security issue is one of the most important issues," Keppelman pointed out. "A series of surveillance scandals have caused people to lose trust in information security. I believe that the federal government should take political measures in addition to technical standards. As mentioned by Merkel, 'friends should not be monitored' should also have institutional safeguards, such as sanctions and legal safeguards. Currently, the government has not done enough." In terms of legislation, it is mentioned in the digital agenda, An important step towards achieving information security is the introduction of the Basic Regulations on Information Protection by 2015 at the latest.

          According to reports, Bavaria has now launched relevant research projects, such as how to achieve secure network connections, encrypt data end-to-end, and prevent information from being monitored. In this regard, the federal government has not yet proposed specific measures.

          Kempelman believes that the positive aspect of the digital agenda is that the government has recognized the importance of this issue and pointed out key issues that need to be addressed. However, at the same time, the agenda has not yet given a specific way of operating. It is understood that the preliminary implementation of the "Digital Agenda" will be announced at the National Information Technology Summit in Hamburg, Germany, in late October.