Digitalization makes manufacturing smarter

For instance, digital upgrading has brought unexpected changes to Qingdao Huanqiu Garments Corporation Limited based in East China's Shandong province. "By cooperating with the COSMOPlat (the world's largest mass customization solution platform to support global industry upgrades) of Haier, we established customized service platform. It enabled us to receive customized orders from across the world," said Yang Zhiqiang, general manager of the garment corporation.

The COSMOPlat mirrors the efforts of China's industrial internet platforms to help with the digital transition of Chinese SMEs. Statistics indicate that the added value of China's industrial internet hit 2.13 trillion yuan last year, surging 47.3 percent from a year ago. The integration of industrial internet into different sectors drove an economy of 1.6 trillion yuan, gradually revealing its acceleration for economic development.

Behind the 28.8-trillion-yuan performance are the emerging new business models and vitality for entrepreneurship.

QuadTalent, a digital transformation solution provider recently launched a livestream marketing event for Chinese shoemaker Topscore, innovatively broadcasted how shoes were made on the production line. Customers' orders, once placed, were directly manufactured, and the manufacturing process was completely visible.

"The invisible barriers between the manufacturer and the clients were thus torn down," said Min Wanli, CEO of QuadTalent.

The accelerated integration of the new generation of information technology and the manufacturing sector is constantly promoting new products, models and businesses. According to statistics, 35.3 percent, 25.3 percent and 8.1 percent of the Chinese enterprises launched internet-based collaborative manufacturing, service manufacturing and customization, respectively.

"The manufacturing sector, supported by the digital technology on the whole chain, is rising as a new ground for China's digital economy," said Sun Ke, director of the digital economy research department of the Policy and Economics Research Institute, CAICT.