Review of 2017 Smart Manufacturing Pilot Demonstration Projects and Outlook for 2018

The construction of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects has been completed for three sessions. In 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced 98 intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects. In the past three years, under the vigorous promotion of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and with the industrial Internet pilot demonstration projects including the manufacturing cloud platform that were divested by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2016, the number of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects has reached and exceeded the goal of "cultivating 100 intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration enterprises by 2018" stated by Huai Jinpeng of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2015.
In 2016, the OFweek Industry Research Center stated in summarizing the characteristics of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects that the concept of intelligent manufacturing will expand in breadth and depth in 2017. Here, we review the trend of intelligent manufacturing pilot projects in the past three years.
From the perspective of regional distribution, except for a few provinces, the distribution of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects in 2017 has gradually expanded to the national level. Among them, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hunan and Guangdong provinces have made brilliant achievements in pilot demonstration project construction, with the number of projects increasing by more than 4; Gansu, Jilin and Qinghai provinces have achieved a breakthrough in the number of projects; at the same time, the distribution of projects is concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta; except for Shandong, the number of pilot demonstration projects in the Bohai Bay area is not growing as fast as that in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.
From the industry distribution of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects, it can well reflect the trend of intelligent manufacturing to develop in depth and breadth. In addition to traditional automobiles, food and beverages, chemicals, electromechanical, clothing and textiles, home furnishings, cables and other industries, the projects in 2017 involved the construction of intelligent manufacturing projects in hot industries such as new batteries (lithium batteries), remote operation and maintenance, new materials, instruments and meters, robots and traditional industries such as agricultural deep processing.
From the strength of the construction of intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects in various regions in 2017, it is expected that in 2018, various regions will continue to develop steadily on the construction experience of existing intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects. Among them, around the concept of "One Belt, One Road", relying on infrastructure and high-end equipment, the central and western regions may have a higher development speed than the eastern regions in terms of intelligent manufacturing projects; Guizhou will make breakthroughs in intelligent manufacturing projects around industries such as big data, display, and beverages; Sichuan and Chongqing will break through around industries such as intelligent complete sets of equipment, automobiles, robots, and consumer electronic terminals. In addition, from an industry perspective, the demand for intelligent manufacturing should come from industries with higher personalized and flexible demands, including industries such as food, clothing, housing, transportation, and other scenarios for the C-end, and supply chain scenarios for the B-end. Based on this, OFweek Industry Research Center believes that intelligent manufacturing will be promoted to these industries in 2018.