DEC Makes Progress in Digitalization, Intelligentization

Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) has been playing a key role in promoting digitalization and intelligentization of China's manufacturing industry.

Strategies including building up China's cyber strength as well as promoting digital China and intelligent society were proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to lead integration of the digital and real economies and push forward high-quality economic growth in late 2017.

Such strategies will also support China's transformation into a modern equipment manufacturing power.

Wang Weimin, DEC's assistant general-manager, said that the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has forced many enterprises to start digitalization and intelligentization.

He explained that such technologies as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and mobile internet played significant roles in pandemic prevention and control.

Many enterprises resumed work relying on cloud office platforms, smart manufacturing systems, un-contacted production as well as integration between the internet and other industries.

What's more, deepening supply-side structural reforms and the rapid development of digital economy have advanced SOEs' digitalization and intelligentization, which improves their competitiveness, innovation, control force, impact and risk resistance capacities.

Dong Na, deputy general-manager of DEC Science and Technology Research Institute , a subsidiary of DEC, said that equipment manufacturing is a pillar of a country's manufacturing industry. China's largest power generation manufacturer, DEC is a part of the major field related to national security and economy. Therefore, the company should support the national strategy and fulfill its duty in accelerating digitalization and intelligentization.

Since the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), DEC has been focusing on construction of digital and smart research platforms.

DEC Science and Technology Research Institute  built a multi-disciplinary team with members specializing in such fields as industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, control science and engineering, mechanics, computer software and communication engineering.

Wang Weimin, head of the team said that the team members are industrial experts and scholars working at academician workstations, innovation bases and provincial intelligent manufacturing centers.

He added that the team is able to design, develop and carry on engineering of intelligent manufacturing as well as offer assessment, problem diagnosis and technical suggestion to enterprises.

Meanwhile, it can also act as a bridge between enterprises and their technical providers and provide training on technological skills, which help guarantee the projects' quality.

So far, DEC has primarily formed a new intelligent business mode integrating products, production, service and management which has been used in more than 100 projects of eight manufacturing subsidiaries.

The company is also promoting such operation mode in a variety of industries like nuclear, space and rail transit equipment manufacturing as well as metallurgical processing and food production.

What's more, DEC cooperates with colleges and universities as well as Fortune Global 500 companies on coordinative innovation and industrial docking projects.

It established an industrial control cyber security engineering laboratory for energy equipment and several joint research and development institutes including the Dongfang electrical machinery technology research center with Huazhong University of Science and Technology and a 5G plus cutting edge energy equipment laboratory with the University of Electronic Science and Technology.

An innovative mode of industry-university-research-utilization cooperation was also formed between DEC and such enterprises as China Mobile Limited, Shanghai-based Nokia & Alcatel Lucent and Huawei to develop core technology of smart manufacturing, which strongly supports construction of an industrial internet platform.

Strengthening intelligent manufacturing technology research and application and using such technology to promote technological reform and upgrading of production was highlighted at DEC's 2020 annual meeting.

According to the company, smart production will be promoted in 19 projects in 2020, all of which are now underway.

The company intends to greatly increase smart machines and industrial software's roles in real production by 2025 and to launch a complete intelligent manufacturing system in 2030.

It will make efforts to realize full intelligent manufacturing before 2050 and evolve into an internationally leading enterprise in the field.

DEC will build itself into a modern intelligentized enterprise and contribute to digitalization and informatization of China's economic and social development.

A workshop of DEC with intelligent production machinery systems [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

An electronic arm builds a product. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

DEC and Huawei sign an agreement on development of core technology of intelligent manufacturing. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)