Tianjin Rockcheck leads the way in innovation

China's privately-owned steel companies are proving to be more innovative and more productive than their State-owned counterparts, especially in the adoption of intelligent management and execution systems for cutting costs.

The government had recently launched the Made in China 2025, a 10-year action plan, to upgrade and transform Chinese manufacturing by improving manufacturing innovation and integrating information technology and industry.

Tianjin Rockcheck Investment Holding Group Co Ltd, a steel producer, expects to cut production costs by 200 million yuan ($30.17 million) every year since it started intelligent steel manufacturing on Jan 1 this year, said Li Xinchuang, president of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.

The intelligent management and execution system, created by CMIPRI and Rockcheck, comprises of a data acquisition system, a production execution system, a production management system and a planning and scheduling system.

"The new system has helped improve the efficiency of resource utilization, increased labor productivity and boosted profits. Adoption of such measures could be the way forward for the manufacturing industry," said Zhang Ronghua, chairman of Rockcheck.

The system has also resulted in the creation of a top-notch talent pool and preservation of manufacturing technologies. "As we go forward, there would be further system optimization and more advantages."

"By focusing on the production process, business operation and enterprise decision-making, the system is expected to provide an intelligent manufacturing paradigm that can be used, operated, duplicated and promoted for the iron and steel industry," said Li.

CMIPRI and Rockcheck signed a strategic cooperation agreement in 2015 to promote digitalization of production and usage of intelligence in decision making.

With the development of big data and cloud technologies, many Chinese experts have urged the steel industry to upgrade and adapt these technologies. However there is still a gap in the development of intelligent production processes compared with that in developed countries.

"China's steel-making equipment is advanced, but in automation and intelligent techniques it is still lagging behind some others," said an industry insider, stressing that more research needs to be done in these aspects.

CMIPRI, which closely tracks advanced intelligent theories, methods and technologies, caters to the demands of the steel industry with its unique cooperation platform.

With over 8,000 employees and total assets exceeding 13.8 billion yuan, Rockcheck was ranked 55th among the top 500 private manufacturing enterprises in China in 2015.

In addition to the iron and steel industry, Rockcheck is also involved in several other sectors such as technology, finance, culture, health care and resources.