People's Daily Observation: How Manufacturing Plants Blockchain

Source: "People's Daily" (18th edition, December 11, 2019), the original title "How to implant blockchain into manufacturing (Sankei Observation)

Author: Han Xin

When you bring up the blockchain, what do you think of first?

Is it a virtual currency represented by Bitcoin, or a peer-to-peer transaction in cross-border payments?

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As a digital technology, the first blockchain to land in the financial field has been extended to many industrial fields such as the Internet of Things, intelligent manufacturing, and supply chain management. In the opinion of Chen Chun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the most important application space of future blockchain technology in China is industrial manufacturing and other fields.

So, what exactly can blockchain technology bring to manufacturing? And how to combine it with manufacturing technological transformation? Recently, the reporter went to Guangdong to investigate and interview.

Data can be traced and reports can be verified to build a "credit network" for the manufacturing industry

Into the production workshop of Xinou Machinery Co., Ltd. in Huangpu District, Guangzhou, several large-scale hydraulic motor testing equipment is "physical examination" for the car-through the connected pipeline, more than 20 sensors are densely distributed around the testing equipment. Data such as pressure value, flow rate and temperature are collected in real-time on the parallel network chain, and are firmly recorded in the cloud for customer inspection.

Quality inspection is an integral part of the industrial production chain. As a third-party testing service provider, whether the test results are fair and reliable is crucial to facilitate transactions.

"In the past, we did equipment testing. Customers didn't trust the testing center, and they often sent people to the site to supervise. Some buyers even flew to Guangzhou from a long distance from other places. It took a long time, high costs, and low efficiency." After taking orders from hundreds of manufacturers and listening to a lot of customer opinions, the chairman of Xinou Machinery Co., Ltd., Wang Qixin, talked about the blockchain.

After the equipment was connected, Xinou Machinery launched the blockchain technology this year. "Now not only can you collect real-time inspection data, but more importantly, the original data can be traced and reports can be verified." Wang Qixin pointed to the running inspection equipment and said that buyers can now get credible reports at the terminal while sitting at home. Establish a cross-temporal, low-cost, high-efficiency mutual trust mechanism between the device supplier, the equipment tester, and the end user.

How can a blockchain be a relief for device manufacturers?

Yang Xuecheng, deputy dean of the School of Economics and Management of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, gave the answer, "The core of blockchain technology is distributed data storage, peer-to-peer transmission, consensus mechanism and encryption algorithms. These technical characteristics can promote supply chain collaboration and empower manufacturing development of."

"Overall, manufacturing industry is driven by information flow for actual logistics, but it is difficult to share information between the various links in the industrial chain, and the asymmetry of supplier and distributor information is serious, making physical logistics a great resistance." In his view, The blockchain is based on distributed network bookkeeping, enabling peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a third party, greatly reducing transaction costs between various links in the industrial chain, and improving collaboration efficiency.

It is not just Xinou Machinery. In the interviews with blockchain companies, "credit" has become a high-frequency word often heard by entrepreneurs. In fact, the application of blockchain technology on the industrial Internet platform is building a huge "industrial credit network" for the transformation and development of traditional manufacturing.

"Credit is the prerequisite for a deal, and lack or lack of credit is one of the main reasons for the friction of the transaction." Yang Xuecheng pointed out that the realization of intelligent manufacturing, the Industrial Internet solves the problem of equipment "on the Internet", and the blockchain technology is through cracking Information asymmetry and data reliability have solved the problem of data "credit".

In the view of Du Shusheng, deputy general manager of Guangdong Zhongshe Zhikong Technology Co., Ltd., the Industrial Internet is essentially an industrial credit carrier, and blockchain is a technical support means. The establishment of "industrial credit" can be said to be the life of a manufacturing enterprise. "By constructing 'industrial credit', the information asymmetry between the supply and demand sides will be greatly reduced. When buyers choose products, the process level and usage and maintenance conditions reflected in the data are true and reliable, while suppliers do not need brand promotion to obtain Brand value, thereby shifting energies from advertising to manufacturing and research and development, focusing on improving the overall industrial level. "

Anti-tampering of data, “locking” the device, and speeding up intelligent transformation

As the manufacturing industry transitions to digitalization, a large number of smart devices will form massive information flows. How to ensure the security of online data is of concern to more and more manufacturing companies.

In October last year, CIMC Intelligent Control carried out the intelligent control transformation of the Internet of Things for the Beijiang Dike Project in Qingyuan City. In the past, monitoring the operation of sluice equipment relied on manual inspection and manual recording, which was inefficient and the error rate was high. After the equipment was connected to the network, automatic data collection and real-time transmission were realized. The completion rate of inspections increased from 70% to 98%, and the failure rate of sluices dropped by about 80%.

But the good times didn't last long. It didn't take long for the company to have new troubles.

"After Lianyun went online, enterprises began to worry about the security of data. If key data is tampered with in the cloud, it will likely cause misjudgment of decisions." Du Shusheng said that blockchain technology has the advantages of high transparency and immutability, which happens to be Achieved effective control of smart devices. With the "blessing" of the blockchain, the security of the project system has increased by more than 70%.

According to Du Shusheng, in the age of intelligence, the security of equipment is reflected in operating data. Through the application of blockchain technology, data is guaranteed to be "honest" and "transparent," and to a certain degree a reliable "lock" has been put on the device.

With the blockchain to meet corporate data security demands, Beijiang Dike is just a microcosm. Today, more and more manufacturing companies are showing strong demand.

It is precisely because of the unique advantages of blockchain technology in security management and transparent management that Mingye Automobile has accelerated its intelligent transformation.

"At present, Mingye Equipment is advancing the construction of an intelligent system to seek opportunities to connect with the corresponding mature blockchain technology, and to effectively control and control every link of equipment operation, maintenance, and supply chain transactions." Chairman of Mingye Automotive Equipment Co., Ltd. Yao Weibing pointed at the display next to an intelligent production line and said that all the operational data of real-time monitoring of equipment in the future will be all on the chain, establishing a full-process traceability and management system.

"The establishment of an efficient and low-cost industrial Internet is a key link for enterprises to build intelligent manufacturing networks." Said Anyan An, economic and trade director of the Industrial Economics Research Center of the China Industrial Economic Association. However, under the traditional networking model, all devices Communication must be realized through a centralized data center, which not only increases the cost of networking, but also has poor scalability and stability. Blockchain technology can disperse computing and storage requirements among various devices, which not only significantly reduces the maintenance cost of data centers, but also effectively prevents the risk of any single node being maliciously manipulated, and achieves transparent and traceable whole processes.

Yang Xuecheng analyzes that the raw materials of many products are extremely important. Changes in production and processing and logistics and transportation will greatly affect the final value. The traceability and immutability of the blockchain ledger records are convenient for enterprises to find and solve problems, making such enterprises There is a strong demand for on-chain.

The potential needs to be tapped, integration must be accelerated, and more application scenarios to be explored

In terms of integration with the manufacturing industry, many companies try first, and the application scenarios of blockchain technology have already begun to emerge, which has become a new driving force for enterprises to improve their digital operation capabilities and accelerate transformation and upgrading.

A number of industrial parks dedicated to the development and application of blockchain technology have sprung up like mushrooms. According to the research report of "Development Map of China's Blockchain Industrial Parks", there are currently more than 20 blockchain industrial parks in the country, of which the Internet of Things, intelligent manufacturing and other fields have become the main development direction. To empower the company's growth.

"It should be seen that 'manufacturing + blockchain' has full potential." Yang Xuecheng explained that the integration of the two industries is accelerating in China, and the industrial Internet is leading the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. The future manufacturing industry should be "data-driven, intelligent control At the same time, the manufacturing data is not only large in volume, but also precise and controllable. Such data characteristics are more conducive to direct conversion into productivity. In addition, there are many manufacturing links, the participants are complex, and multi-agent interaction is required. Therefore, it must rely on collaborative mechanisms. These have made it possible for manufacturing and blockchain to work together.

How can we seize the development opportunities, let the "child" of blockchain grow faster, and fully release the potential of blockchain to empower manufacturing?

In the short term, policy guidance should be used to support enterprises to accelerate the pace of digital transformation.

"The premise of applying blockchain is to complete the intelligent transformation. Under the background of increasing economic downward pressure, it is a short board for many small and medium-sized enterprises." Gan Bo, General Manager of Guangdian Yuntong Landa Jinfu Technology Co., Ltd Frankly, some manufacturing companies are willing to try the blockchain transformation, but it is difficult to bear the continuous investment in the early intelligent transformation. "Digital transformation is a long-term and systematic project. It is recommended to increase policy support for technological innovation of SMEs, and lay the foundation for enterprises to use blockchain technology to explore model innovation."

At present, the digital transformation of China's manufacturing enterprises continues to accelerate, but the space is still huge. According to estimates, the overall level of the integration of industrialization and industrialization has reached 53.9, and the penetration rate of digital R & D and design tools for industrial enterprises and the numerical control rate of key processes have reached 68.9% and 49.2%, respectively. "The next step is to rely on the special funds for the development of the Industrial Internet to support enterprises in the development of blockchain technology in platform construction projects in 2018 and 2019 to accelerate breakthroughs in key core technologies," said the person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Software Services Industry Department.

In addition, as a new technology, blockchain also faces the problem of insufficient awareness in the process of promotion and application. Yan Xing, general manager of Anxin Digital Technology Co., Ltd. told reporters that there are some misunderstandings about blockchain technology in the immature market. Some companies have the ability to apply blockchain technology, but have given up using it because of doubt about its value. "It is recommended that relevant departments, while strengthening guidance on industry supervision, actively encourage compliant blockchain business development and gradually establish the public's correct understanding of blockchain."

In the long run, cross-industry data sharing should be encouraged to open up the "data island."

"The digital economy requires multiple parties to participate. To transform industrial ecological partners into blockchain nodes and achieve mutual empowerment between nodes, digital assets need to be open to all partners." Yingsheng Zhichuang Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. Person in charge Huang Jin pointed out that from the perspective of the industrial chain, only members in different links can go on the chain to release greater benefits. This requires the gradual realization of cross-industry digital sharing and integration.

Compared with developed countries, China still has a gap in the underlying core technology of the blockchain, and the degree of integration of technology and scene is not enough. He An suggested that at the policy level, blockchain developers should be encouraged to develop independent and controllable platforms and applications, encourage domestic key enterprises, scientific research institutions, universities, etc. to strengthen cooperation and accelerate the consensus mechanism, programmable contracts, distributed storage, The research of key core technologies such as digital signatures has gradually promoted the domestic substitution of encryption algorithms in the blockchain, in order to create an autonomous and controllable blockchain platform that is more in line with national security requirements, and promote the escort of numerous applications.

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