Chengdu’s Smart Manufacturing in the New Era: Achievements and Optimization

Sun Genjin, Gao Rui, and Liu Ying

Sichuan Agricultural University

Abstract: The promotion of smart manufacturing is a crucial move that will enable Chengdu to build a major growth pole for high-quality national development and shape a new growth powerhouse. In recent years, Chengdu’s capability has made marked progress in smart manufacturing, significantly enhancing the capability for independent innovation, gradually optimizing development factor allocations, relentlessly strengthening pilot and demonstration effects, and constantly emerging collaborative service platforms. The development of Chengdu’s smart manufacturing can be summarized in four points: taking a holistic approach to top-down design, raising policy incentives for innovative talents, creating a favorable environment for industrial innovation, and building service platforms to promote innovation. In the new era, Chengdu should continue to explore the best possible path to smart manufacturing and target high-quality development of local manufacturing industries by making the following efforts: a) optimizing top-down design for better policy guidance; b) focusing on technological innovation to improve corresponding innovation capability; c) forging service platforms to break barriers to development; d) strengthening lateral communications to promote collaborative transformation; and e) building leading enterprises and brands native to Chengdu.

Keywords: smart manufacturing, achievements, experience, optimization, Chengdu

Introduction

The world is now at a historic intersection of a new technological revolution and a rapid industrial transformation. Against such a backdrop, humanity keeps making technological breakthroughs in areas such as information and communications technology (ICT), biomedicine, new materials, and new energy. Their accelerated integration with advanced manufacturing creates a wonderful opportunity for high-end manufacturing that is smart and eco-friendly. Manufacturing is the mainstay of the real economy, and its strength determines the position of the economy it belongs to in the regional economic landscape. In the context of global changes unseen in a century and an increasingly complex international environment, international competition is becoming more intense in science, technology, and industries. Accordingly, the world’s major economies have successively updated their development strategies, giving priority to a manufacturing revival. Among the development strategies, of which smart manufacturing is invariably a critical part.

At present, the Chinese economy is shifting from a stage of rapid development to a stage of highquality development. To accomplish such a shift, the high-quality development of the manufacturing industries is the key. As China aims to grow from a manufacturer of quantity to one of quality, it is imperative to further transform and upgrade its manufacturing industries to enable the country to climb the global value chain. Smart manufacturing plays a significant role in consolidating the foundation of the real economy, building a modern industrial system, and completing new industrialization. Also, smart manufacturing is a top priority of China as it transforms into a manufacturer of quality, and the progress in smart manufacturing directly concerns the quality of the entire manufacturing industry. To grow from a manufacturer of quantity to one of quality, it will be necessary for China to quickly make its manufacturing industries more digital, better connected, and smarter through technological and industrial innovation. In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the only strategic path to high-quality manufacturing is to go smart (Li, 2020). Under such circumstances, it is China’s responsibility to pursue high-quality development of its manufacturing industries by accelerating its integration with the next-generation information technology, taking supply-side structural reform as the main task and smart manufacturing as the focus, bringing fundamental changes to manufacturing methods and business forms, and making the manufacturing industries more digital, better connected, and smarter. Alongside the rising tide of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, smart manufacturing has become particularly topical in academia. The available literature on smart manufacturing generally falls into four areas. The first area is smart manufacturing’s intrinsic mechanism. In this regard, Chen Jin and Li Ruohui (2019) examined three links of the industry chain, namely, smart product research and development, smart production, and smart marketing and management, to explore the intrinsic mechanism under which various innovative forms act on the three links. The second area is smart manufacturing’s measurement. In this regard, Ji Liangyu (2021) designed an index measurement system for smart manufacturing in China and measured the levels of smart manufacturing in 30 provincial-level administrative regions from 2003 to 2017 by applying the vertical-horizontal wide range method and the entropy weight method (EWM). The third area is smart manufacturing’s impact, which is reflected by fluctuations in the income gap (Liu, et al., 2021), the upgrading of industrial structures (Ji, et al., 2021), the increase in factor productivity (Wen & Zhong, 2021), and the high-quality development of the manufacturing industries (Tang & Chi, 2021). The fourth area is smart manufacturing’s path. In this regard, Guo Jin (2021) constructed the “three chains’ interactionenabled industrial upgrade” model to envisage enterprises’ main scope of, and possible paths to, smart manufacturing in three dimensions (i.e., technology chain, industries chain, and value chain). The available literature offers insight into this study. Yet, when it comes to smart manufacturing in Chengdu, only one essay by Zhang Meng (2020) focuses on a technological innovation path and an industrial development model. Little research touches upon the smart transformation and upgrading of Chengdu’s manufacturing industries in the new era, summarizes its experience in smart manufacturing, or explores an optimal path to smart manufacturing for Chengdu.

As a leading “new first-tier” city, Chengdu has made remarkable achievements in promoting national economic and social development, particularly in building an innovative city over the past years. As for the development of its manufacturing industries, Chengdu focuses on the construction of industrial ecosystems and functional zones to develop five advanced manufacturing segments (i.e., electronic information, equipment manufacturing, health and medicine, new materials, and organic food) and to accelerate the building of a modern and open industrial system for the high-quality development of manufacturing. At the historic intersection of new technological revolution and industrial transformation, Chengdu shoulders a new historical mission and encounters emerging opportunities and challenges on the way to smart manufacturing. Given that, it is time to systematically discuss Chengdu’s historical mission and development effectiveness in smart manufacturing in the new era, sum up its development experience, and predict future trends. Chengdu’s experience in smart manufacturing, which is instructive to the high-quality development of advanced manufacturing in local practice, can also shed light on the smart transformation of manufacturing industries in other regions and even contribute to the high-quality development of manufacturing industries as a whole in China.

Smart Manufacturing as a Catalyst in Chengdu’s Building of a Major Growth Pole for National High-Quality Development

Promotion of Smart Manufacturing: An Inevitable Choice for Chengdu to Achieve the Goal of High-Quality Development of Its Local Manufacturing Industries

To implement the “14th Five-Year Plan” and to promote smart manufacturing in China, eight ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, jointly issued the “Smart Manufacturing Development Plan for the ‘14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)’ Period.” The development plan is expected to significantly help China promote smart manufacturing, complete new industrialization, and build a modern industrial system to consolidate the foundation of China’s real economy for sustainable development. In the new round of the fast-moving technological revolution and industrial transformation worldwide, Chengdu, which aspires to become an innovative city, has seized the historical opportunity for high-end manufacturing that is smart and eco-friendly by issuing the “Three-Year Action Plan for Smart Manufacturing in Chengdu (2021-2023).” The action plan aims to lay a solid foundation for smart manufacturing, promote the high-quality development of advanced manufacturing, and optimize and upgrade the whole industrial chain. Based on the new development philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, the action plan involves furthering the supply-side structural reform. Its significance lies in that the action plan offers policy support to Chengdu’s manufacturing industries for innovation and leapfrog development. The action plan can help Chengdu build a demonstration city that takes the lead in smart manufacturing in the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone, the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster, the urban network of central and western China, and beyond.

Promotion of Smart Manufacturing: An Important Measure for Chengdu to Build a Pilot Zone for Innovation-Driven High-Quality Development

Innovation is the primary driving force of development. In the new development stage, the goal of high-quality development can only be achieved through innovation-driven intensive growth. Smart manufacturing is a systematic innovation that covers the whole industrial chain (Chen & Li, 2019). The promotion of smart manufacturing helps enhance the manufacturing industries’ capability to innovate, generate new drivers through new industries, and boost the new economy through new drivers. Of all the elements of urban innovation, industrial innovation plays a critical role in integrating innovation projects, innovative talents, and advantageous capital to produce an agglomeration effect. In recent years, Chengdu has made relentless efforts in industrial innovation, building a new system of modern manufacturing with “a clear architecture, outstanding advantages, and an efficient ecosystem” and significantly improving the capability of industrial innovation. It has made breakthroughs in the development of general-purpose, high-end chips, flexible displays, and liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), meeting advanced international standards, and it is now among the best cities in China, as rated by the advanced manufacturing city development index. Compared with other elements of urban innovation, industrial innovation is closer to the application layer, and can therefore gather related projects, talents, and capital on a larger scale. Chengdu promotes industrial innovation through smart manufacturing and stimulates high-quality economic growth by shaping a new growth powerhouse in China. Such a strategy makes it easier for Chengdu to accelerate the building of a pilot zone for innovation-driven high-quality development.

Promotion of Smart Manufacturing: A Main Path to Chengdu’s Integration into the New “Dual Circulation” Development Pattern for the Mutual Reinforcement of Domestic and Overseas Markets

Manufacturing is the engine of sustained economic growth (Yao, 2019), and smart manufacturing is crucial to the “dual circulation” development pattern for the mutual reinforcement of domestic and overseas markets (Huang, 2020). General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that this new economic development pattern should take domestic development as the mainstay, with domestic and international development reinforcing each other. It is important that this new development pattern should give full play to China’s super large-scale market and well-developed manufacturing system to contribute to international cooperation and help sharpen China’s competitive edge. By promoting smart manufacturing, Chengdu can increase the production efficiency of local enterprises and the internal flow of resources. When the deep integration of smart technology and manufacturing becomes a reality, manpower and machine will be fully connected, and all aspects of the product life cycle will be driven by smart means. This deep integration will facilitate customized manufacturing at lower costs with higher efficiency and enrich the entire value chain from research and development to marketing. Through smart transformation, enterprises can improve their global competitiveness and engage in international competition so that domestic and international development can reinforce each other. The promotion of smart manufacturing in Chengdu will help form the new “dual circulation” development pattern for the mutual reinforcement of domestic and overseas markets, upgrade its demand structure and supply capacity to reach a dynamic equilibrium at a higher level between supply and demand, and increase the endogenous power of high-quality development.

Promotion of Smart Manufacturing: A Main Focus for Chengdu to Achieve the Goal of High-Quality Economic Growth Through Supply-Side Structural Reform

Manufacturing is at the core of supply-side structural reform, while smart manufacturing has become the new trend in the manufacturing industries (Song & Xiao, 2019). The supply-side structural reform aims to address the structural contradiction in economic development, optimize factor allocations, and improve the quality and quantity of economic growth. For high-quality economic growth, Chengdu primarily focuses on the smart transformation and upgrading of its local manufacturing industries. Smart manufacturing, with high flexibility and self-organization, enables smart analysis and decision-making in the process of production. Therefore, smart manufacturing helps improve production capacity and efficiency, save factors of production, and respond quickly to changes in market demands (Liu, 2015). The fact that smart manufacturing increases productivity means it can contribute to offsetting the rise in labor costs and the maintenance and improvement of the overall competitiveness of enterprises. Also, smart manufacturing is sure to generate huge demands for related industries and services and thus shape new industrial growth points. In addition, through a new structure of production organization and a new business model, smart manufacturing can dynamically match production with market demand, which is conducive to the reduction of overcapacity, the prevention of excess inventory, and the conservation of resources and energy. Such results are highly consistent with the objectives of supply-side structural reform. The promotion of smart manufacturing in Chengdu, in combination with supply-side structural reform, will enable automatic optimization of resource allocations, reduce operating costs, and achieve high-quality economic growth.

Promotion of Smart Manufacturing: A Major Means for Chengdu to Transform and Upgrade Its Manufacturing Industries to Secure a Competitive Position on the Global Value Chain

Globally, the production model of manufacturing industries is rapidly changing into smart manufacturing, which will reshape the global value chain (Han, et al., 2020). Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic remains rampant worldwide, bringing a serious challenge to the Chinese economy, particularly the ongoing transformation and the upgrading of its manufacturing industries. The view that China’s manufacturing industries must climb the global value chain has become a focus of attention in Chinese society (Li, 2018). According to the proposals for formulating the “14th Five-Year Plan,” China continues to maintain a stable share of manufacturing in the economy, consolidate and enlarge the foundation of the real economy, promote the deep integration of the Internet, big data, and AI, and develop strategic clusters for advanced manufacturing. Seizing the strategic opportunity brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Chengdu is transforming and upgrading local manufacturing industries by smart means. This effort is expected to help local manufacturers climb the global value chain to a competitive position. On the one hand, during the smart transformation of local manufacturing industries, Chengdu will increase the control of the core links of the value chain through the independent development of key equipment and core software. On the other hand, smart manufacturing will stimulate enterprises to move from a closed-loop value chain to an open network good for creating new added value. The reason is that smart manufacturing facilitates innovative business models. Manufacturing-specific production and business models (e.g., the “new demand orders + big data marketing + participation in production” model and the “products + services” model) will forge a new path to higher value-added areas for manufacturers in Chengdu. Moreover, smart manufacturing has a highly flexible production model, which requires more complex management. Enterprises need to establish an efficient and smart system of operations management to meet customers’ whole-process application requirements, from smart production to user-friendly after-sales service. As a major manufacturing hub in China, Chengdu should seize the opportunity of smart manufacturing to continuously improve its manufacturing competitiveness to secure a competitive position on the global value chain.

Achievements of Chengdu’s Smart Manufacturing

Thanks to the joint efforts of local enterprises, government authorities, as well as various associations and institutions over the past years, Chengdu has made substantial achievements in smart manufacturing.

Continuous Improvement of the Smart Manufacturing Level

In the “13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020)” period, Chengdu relied on industrial cloud platforms to develop key industries, such as electronic information, automotive, metallurgy, building materials, food, and light industries. The local government kept strengthening the role of big data and cloud computing in enabling smart manufacturing, comprehensively popularized the smart production model, and further applied digital, smart, and network technologies to the integrated innovation and application of the entire business process and industrial chains.

Significant Enhancement of Independent Innovation Capability

Revolving around five key areas (electronic information, equipment manufacturing, medicine and health, new materials, and organic food), Chengdu has accelerated the building of a modern open industrial system that consists of industrial ecosystems and functional zones. Special importance has been attached to the high-quality development of advanced manufacturing. Particularly in the “13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020)” period, Chengdu’s electronic information industry grew into a regional giant, whose total output was the highest at the municipal level in central and western China. A sound and complete industrial chain covering components, modules, software, and systems was created. Currently, Chengdu is focusing on industrial innovation, and corresponding innovation capabilities have significantly improved. Breakthroughs have been made in the innovation-driven development of general-purpose high-end chips, flexible displays, and liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), which feature advanced technologies and a high market share.

Steady Rise of Smart Innovations

Chengdu has optimized the innovation ecosystem to promote innovation and resource sharing. It has built resource-sharing platforms to boost technological innovation, accelerated the construction of research infrastructure, and made large research tools and technological data more accessible to the public. It has hosted consecutive sessions of several innovation and entrepreneurship events to better support local entrepreneurs and innovators. Among these events are Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, Venture Tianfu-Jingronghui, and Action Plan of Venture Tianfu Trips. In such a favorable innovation environment, research institutes and their personnel in Chengdu enjoy a greater say in their research. Also, Chengdu has been advancing the pilot reforms for making innovations, with a focus on key technological endeavors, such as technological commercialization, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, technology-enabled finance (techfin) development, and tech-talent attraction.

Gradual Optimization of Development Factor Allocations

Chengdu has kept on the path of parallel advancement of the “Industries 2.0” catch-up, the “Industries 3.0” popularization, and the “Industries 4.0” demonstration. In terms of basic support, Chengdu is building a number of basic supporting platforms for smart manufacturing and forming a smart manufacturing collaborative alliance to facilitate the orderly flow of various innovation factors and convenient interactions of various innovators. Chengdu has already shaped an integrated development pattern, which is driven by demonstration applications, based on smart software and hardware, and supported by a coordinated network of functional zones. This local alliance divides labor based on the industrial chains, and each member park/zone has a special function (intellectual support, product manufacturing, etc.). In particular, the function of the intellectual support can effectively promote the research and development of key and core technologies in local manufacturing industries, as well as the introduction, cultivation, stimulation, and exchange of top innovators and entrepreneurs.

Relentless Strengthening of Pilot and Demonstration Effects

To ensure a steady increase in the supply of high-quality products and services, Chengdu has continued its investments in technology development, tackling major technical difficulties and enabling product innovations. For example, Tongwei Solar, a leading player in the global crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell market, has become a model project of smart manufacturing in Chengdu. Its newly launched crystalline silicon PV cell workshop also sets a good example for global PV plants and workshops to go digital and smart, and also for local manufacturers in Chengdu to upgrade to smarter, more digital, and better-connected resources. Another example is Siemens Industrial Automation Products (Chengdu), which was identified as one of the top nine most advanced factories in the world by the World Economic Forum on September 4, 2018. As a model plant, Siemens Industrial Automation Products (Chengdu) applies 3D simulation to product design and development and smart technologies to production, service delivery, and management, attracting professionals from other companies to come and learn its cutting-edge system and apply it to their plant construction.

Constant Emergence of Collaborative Service Platforms

Chengdu has already launched several service platforms for collaborative innovation in the smart economy, thus significantly increasing the efficiency of smart innovation factor allocations and pushing forward local smart manufacturing. These Chengdu-based centers mainly fall into two categories, a collaborative innovation platform or an application platform as a service (aPaaS). Collaborative innovation platforms include the Siemens Industrial Software Global R&D Center, and the Siemens Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center (Chengdu).

Development Experience of Chengdu’s Smart Manufacturing

Based on the progress and achievements made by Chengdu in smart manufacturing, four points essential to the accomplishment of smart manufacturing are summarized as follows: raising policy incentives for innovative talents, creating a favorable environment for industrial innovation, and building service platforms to promote innovation.

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Raising Policy Incentives for Innovative Talents

Chengdu has implemented the “dream pursuit” project to boost innovation, entrepreneurship, and employment, and optimized the residence registration system to attract young talents. The government issued some policies which made it much easier for various talents to work and settle down in Chengdu by streamlining household registration procedures for graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher, building high-standard apartments for senior talents, and funding and supporting innovations and startups via multiple channels. Accordingly, a series of talent attraction events have been launched, including the Chengdu Tour for Students from Top Universities, the Tianfu Lab Global Top Talents Recruitment Program, and the Chengdu Talents’ Day. Such events serve as platforms to attract all types of talents to Chengdu. Meanwhile, a number of talent attraction and recruitment plans have been implemented, including the “Chengdu Talent Plan,” the “Industrial Ecosystem-Specific Talent Plan,” and the “Chengdu Action Plan for City Talent Hunting,” to speed up the gathering of world-class strategic tech-talents, tech-leaders, top innovation teams, as well as creative and innovative entrepreneurs. In terms of innovations in the tech-fin system, Chengdu has continued to improve the service system of innovation and entrepreneurship for young talents. The above talent policy measures ensure a sufficient supply of human resources for smart manufacturing in Chengdu.

Creating a Favorable Environment for Industrial Innovation

The sustainable development of manufacturing industries in Chengdu requires effective protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). On this basis, Chengdu strives to bring technological innovation closer to the commercialization and application of research findings and mobilize social resources for this cause. Chengdu accelerates the building of local industrial ecosystems and innovation value chains. Revolving around leading enterprises, Chengdu has connected “the dots” to form an innovation value chain. Chengdu has relied on its leading enterprises and their core products to strengthen connections, improve coordination, cultivate local suppliers, and accelerate the building, completion, and enhancement of its industrial chains. It has made a city opportunity list based on application scenarios to create a good environment for international business and speed up industrial agglomeration. Also, Chengdu has increased collaboration in manufacturing development with other cities in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle and the Chengdu-Deyang-Meishan-Ziyang region. It has practiced twoway expansion of the application market, facilitated regional collaborative innovation, and introduced supporting industries to create a cross-regional industrial ecosystem for smart manufacturing.

Building Service Platforms to Promote Innovation

For the successful transformation and upgrading of local manufacturing industries, Chengdu has created service platforms to promote innovation. This move helps tackle major technical difficulties and develop a sound and complete service ecosystem for smart manufacturing. Chengdu has relied primarily on platforms to aggregate the industrial chain, the innovation chain, the talent chain, the capital chain, and the data chain to explore the value of new production factors. This move helps improve the integrated management of the supply chains for enterprises and strengthen smart manufacturing’s capacity for basic support and empowerment. Focusing on smart informatics, big data, and brain informatics, this platform is supposed to improve corresponding institutional mechanisms into industrial advantages and then into economic benefits.

An Optimal Path to Chengdu’s Smart Manufacturing in the New Era

During the “14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)” period, Chengdu will be following the trend of the industrial evolution and the new “dual circulation” development pattern for the mutual reinforcement of domestic and overseas markets, vigorously developing a digital economy and giving play to its functions of guidance, leverage, and empowerment. The purpose is to facilitate deep integration of the real economy and the development of digital technologies, such as big data plus, cloud computing plus, the Internet of things (IoT) plus, artificial intelligence (AI) plus, and 5G plus. In the new era, Chengdu should continue to explore an optimal path to smart manufacturing by making the following efforts: a) optimizing top-down design for better policy guidance; b) focusing on technological innovation to improve corresponding innovation capability; c) forging service platforms to break barriers to development; d) strengthening lateral communications to promote collaborative transformations; and e) building leading enterprises and brands native to Chengdu.

Optimizing the Top-Down Design for Better Policy Guidance

The “Smart Manufacturing Development Plan for the ‘14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)’ Period,” which was issued by the Chinese government in 2021, builds a strong support network for China to seek sustainable, high-quality development of manufacturing industries, achieve the goal of becoming a manufacturer of quality, develop a digital economy, and sharpen its competitive edge in the global markets. In this development context, Chengdu should continue to increase policy support for local manufacturing industries and implement development strategies for Sichuan province and the country to create a favorable environment for manufacturers to develop and go smart.

Chengdu should further advance the factor supply-side structural reform to ensure the orderly flow of factors and the efficient matching of resources to create new competitive advantages of strategic importance for local manufacturing industries. As part of a larger picture, Chengdu should improve its manufacturing industries-related policy support system and align it with development plans for smart manufacturing in Sichuan province and the country. From a local perspective, it should also give ample consideration to local realities and actual needs, build a targeted and innovative local policy system, and regularly refine strategies and plans for the development of smart manufacturing.

Focusing on Technological Innovation to Improve Corresponding Innovation Capability

There should be a constant pursuit of top teams specializing in the research and development of manufacturing-related technologies. Chengdu should make the most of the nationwide smart transformations of manufacturing industries and integrate human resources by creating talent pools for smart manufacturing. Research and application of big industrial data, smart industries, and innovation ecosystem should be promoted among manufacturing alliances, such as the Tianfu Smart Manufacturing Park, the Chengdu Functional Zone for Smart Application Development, and the China-Germany (Chengdu) International Functional Zone for Precision Manufacturing. Through further cultivation of the existing industrial ecosystem, Chengdu can boost innovation in smart manufacturing and make its manufacturing industries go smart comprehensively.

Measures should be taken to motivate enterprises to enhance technological research and development and highlight the dominant role of enterprises in innovation. By regularly engaging enterprises in manufacturing exhibitions, Chengdu can further publicize and popularize emerging technologies, formats, and smart models in manufacturing industries, and help enterprises understand the necessity to go digital, connected, and smart. It should also launch special promotions for smart transformations of local manufacturing industries to facilitate the exchange and application of successful experiences in smart manufacturing, bring relevant upstream and downstream players together for communication and cooperation, and introduce the concept of smart transformation in multiple directions and through various channels. Moreover, Chengdu can document the development of leading enterprises with a proven record of smart transformations and summarize their successful experiences as examples for others to follow.

Forging Service Platforms to Break Barriers to Development

There is a need to build public service platforms for smart manufacturing to further integrate various resources. Such service platforms can help commercialize the core and generic technologies of smart manufacturing and form a multi-field, cross-regional service center for manufacturing innovation. Chengdu should speed up the construction of public service platforms, where manufacturers can share the massive resources of AI and the IoT more extensively to break barriers to corporate development and solve practical problems for manufacturers.

More efforts should be made to build big data sharing platforms and network security-focused operating systems, and to explore possible approaches to the construction of digital trading platforms. Chengdu should orderly enable data-sharing and access across divisions, fields, and regions while inducing leading big data operators both in China and abroad to make local manufacturing data more accessible. It should increase technical support for big data, smart voice assistants, and other aspects of smart manufacturing and strive to introduce functional centers, application platforms, and collaborative innovation platforms.

Strengthening Lateral Communications to Promote Collaborative Transformations

Collaborative transformations towards smart manufacturing require continuous communications and sharing of development information among enterprises. Only by doing so can manufacturing industries be improved. Chengdu can bring about more extensive exchanges and cooperation between competitive smart manufacturers both in China and abroad, continue expanding the scope of enterprise cooperation, and empower SMEs through such exchanges and cooperation so that local manufacturing industries can go smart and digital.

Collaborative transformations involve offsetting vulnerabilities by improving supporting facilities and optimizing the industrial chains. To strengthen vulnerable areas, Chengdu should drive technological innovation among local enterprises by introducing advanced technologies from outside (Li, 2020). Also, Chengdu should closely follow the latest development and technological evolution of global manufacturing industries, compare the existing performance of local manufacturers against leading players both in China and abroad, and develop an accurate understanding of its own advantages and disadvantages. On this basis, Chengdu can practice targeted investment attraction to bring in global capital, advanced technologies, and management expertise. Step by step, it can gather related players for cluster development and integrated chain development, and make local manufacturing industries an indispensable part of the global value chain.

More guidance should be given to help proven SMEs with a fine potential in local manufacturing industries to go smart. Chengdu can develop pilot projects featuring smart production and digital processing to offer guidance and inspiration to SMEs about starting a transformation. By further integrating and utilizing available manufacturing resources, Chengdu can build online service platforms for manufacturing industries to share manufacturing data concerning key software and various product models and better help SMEs to go smart. It should take the initiative to guide system integrators, material suppliers, and software developers so that they can develop convenient and feasible solutions for smart transformations according to the actual needs of the SMEs. In addition, Chengdu should encourage “the Internet plus” related enterprises to develop and promote products and services capable of meeting the development needs of the SMEs in local manufacturing industries and of facilitating the deep integration of the next-generation information technologies and smart manufacturing.

Building Leading Enterprises and Brands Native to Chengdu

To realize the potential of advanced manufacturing, Chengdu needs to continuously stimulate local manufacturers, accelerate the cultivation of many more leading enterprises with international competitiveness, regional influence, and industrial leadership, and allow key enterprises to play a leading role in making local manufacturing industries smarter, more digital, and better connected to.

Quick steps should be taken to build brands with international competitiveness. Chengdu should encourage leading manufacturers to further improve their corporate structures through integration and upgrading. Feasible means such as capital increases, mergers and reorganizations, and equity transfers can help attract strategic investors, expand businesses, make the most of integrated resources, and cultivate valuable global brands. Chengdu should continue to build a smart manufacturing cluster and create a favorable industrial ecosystem to enable the incubation and growth of SMEs and the emergence of local brands. In short, Chengdu should advance the brand-building projects of leading manufacturers so that these leading players can win more honors, improve their brand reputations, and create positive corporate images through media promotions and word-of-mouth marketing.