Industry 4.0 is one of the top ten future projects identified by the German government's High Technology Strategy 2020 and has been elevated to a national strategy aimed at supporting the research and innovation of new revolutionary technologies in the industrial sector. Industry 4.0 emphasizes "intelligent manufacturing" and produces highly personalized products on a large scale under highly flexible configuration of production factors. Therefore, digital technology is crucial, and the Internet of Things, data networks, etc. will become the foundation of future industries.
At the industrial 1.0 level, China has become a world production base based on its labor advantage. At the level of Industry 2.0, based on China's relatively cheap research and development costs, the advantages of China's manufacturing industry are gradually emerging.
However, with the disappearance of the demographic dividend and the overall increase in factor costs, the crisis and challenges faced by "Made in China" are lingering. The recent continuous contraction of manufacturing PMI and the closure of some manufacturing factories reflect the enormous pressure and challenges faced by the traditional manufacturing industry during the economic transformation stage. When developed countries begin to move towards Industry 4.0, the transformation of China's manufacturing industry is imperative.
In fact, China has the advantage of expanding Industry 4.0. China is the only country in the world that has all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations Industrial Classification, forming a "complete and independent" industrial system. This large and complete industrial system relies on the agglomeration effect of numerous industrial enterprises and has a high degree of flexibility, effectively laying the foundation for the future realization of "Industry 4.0".
China is not only an important producer of products, but also one of the world's largest consumer markets. This dual role will create stronger interaction between the domestic market and industrial production, promote socio-economic development, and help resist the impact of global economic fluctuations.
At present, with the rapid development of the Internet, Internet of Things, and electronic technology, the expansion of Industry 4.0 in China's manufacturing industry has quietly begun. According to IDC's prediction last year, the internetization of manufacturing will penetrate the value chain links of enterprise research and development, production, logistics, sales, after-sales, etc. In 2018, the trend of internetization of manufacturing will further extend to products.
At the same time, in the context of environmental storms and industrial upgrading, the plastic industry is facing the challenge of transitioning from traditional injection molding to intelligent injection molding. How to plan and build intelligent injection molding factories and achieve intelligent manufacturing has become a challenge for many injection molding enterprises.
