Zhejiang Xinchang, serving enterprises with digital reform to reduce costs and increase efficiency

In recent years, Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province, has thoroughly implemented the strategic deployment of the "No.1 Project" of the provincial and municipal digital economy, seized the new round of industrial revolution and new opportunities for the development of the digital economy, promoted the integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy, accelerated the continuous transformation of the new and old development drivers, and focused on creating a "bearing industry brain". It has embarked on a path of integrated and innovative development that uses digitalization to drive industrialization and industrialization to promote digitalization, It has provided support for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises in the province to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and has been included in the first batch of industrial brain construction pilot projects in the province.

The "centralized procurement scenario for raw materials in the bearing industry" based on the industrial internet won the second prize in the provincial digital economy system application scenario competition, and was included in the first batch of multi application scenario promotion catalogs for digital economy systems in Zhejiang Province. Xinchang County was rated as an excellent district and county (city) for the construction of Shaoxing digital economy system. As of September 30, 2022, there have been 16 IPO listed companies in Xinchang County, and the economic development trend continues to rise.

Digital reform enables high-quality development of bearing enterprises

Xinchang is "the hometown of bearings in China". The bearing industry originated in the late 1960s. Currently, there are more than 600 bearing enterprises of various scales in the county, with annual sales of bearings exceeding 10 billion yuan. In recent years, difficulties in financing, high production costs, and low sales profit margins have been restricting the development of the bearing industry. In particular, due to the impact of the epidemic and the rise in commodity prices, the production costs of enterprises have significantly increased. Small and medium-sized bearing enterprises are facing problems such as high prices of raw materials, high inventory costs of raw materials, and difficult and expensive financing.

Since 2021, Xinchang County has thoroughly implemented the major decisions and arrangements of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee on digital reform. Based on the advantages of the bearing industry in Zhejiang Province, it has focused on industrial ecological reconstruction, new intelligent manufacturing application services, common technology development and sharing, and reshaping industrial governance methods. It has cooperated with the government and enterprises in Changshan and Cixi to jointly build a "bearing industry brain", exploring an effective path for the market-oriented construction and sustainable operation of the provincial industrial brain. Since its launch in June 2021, "Bearing Industry Brain" has covered 1257 enterprises in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Henan, Liaoning, and other provinces, with a total of 25417 access devices, 135 industrial APPs online, and an average daily active user count of over 8000, which has helped promote the high-quality development of the bearing industry.

Industrial Internet Helps Enterprises Reduce Cost and Increase Efficiency

Supported by the bearing industry internet platform, Xinchang County collects massive data from the entire production and operation process and chain of enterprises, builds a "bearing industry brain", develops application scenarios such as industry indexes, financial services, and centralized procurement of raw materials, and helps enterprises solve problems such as high production management costs, large capital occupation for raw material procurement, and financing difficulties.

Promote digital production and reduce enterprise management costs. In the automation workshop of Zhejiang Siling Automobile Bearing Co., Ltd., each equipment is installed with sensors. Through 5G technology, the collaborative intelligent manufacturing platform is connected, and information such as equipment status, product output, and quality can be seen at a glance on the LED display screen. After digital transformation, the production capacity of the workshop has increased by 20%. At the same time, the automatic collection, upload, and summary function promotes the management efficiency.

Explore centralized procurement of raw materials to reduce enterprise procurement costs. Move your finger, place an order on the platform, and the raw materials will be delivered to your door. Zhejiang Pinuo Machinery Co., Ltd. places an order on the centralized procurement platform for raw materials in the Xinchang bearing industry, which is established under the leadership of the government. The platform will centrally purchase raw materials. After passing the trade quota evaluation and review, the platform will advance funds for the enterprise to complete the procurement of bearing steel pipes. Last year, Pinot Machinery reduced the procurement cost of only bearing steel by 7.5%.

Innovate industry chain finance to reduce payment pressure on enterprises. On October 22, 2021, Zhejiang Wuzhou Xinchun Group Co., Ltd. obtained a credit loan of 10 million yuan from the Bank of Hangzhou through the application of "industry chain finance", which is also the first credit loan generated based on the data of "bearing industry brain" in the province.

Intelligent transformation and optimization of industrial structure

In recent years, the bearing industry in Xinchang is facing problems such as financing difficulties, high production costs, and low sales profit margins. It is urgent to accelerate the pace of transformation and upgrading. Based on this understanding, Xinchang County strives to create a "brain of the bearing industry", accelerate the intelligent transformation of the bearing industry, and continuously improve the development level and level of the bearing industry. The practice of Xinchang has shown that in the face of the new mission and new responsibilities of economic transformation and upgrading, high-quality development, it is necessary to put the promotion of industrial restructuring and upgrading at a key position, transform the economic development mode, and climb towards high-end, digital, and green industries, in order to accumulate new momentum for the comprehensive revitalization of the region and create new advantages.

Only innovators advance, only innovators are strong, and only innovators win. Taking the bearing industry as a breakthrough, Xinchang has deeply implemented the "No.1 Project" of the digital economy, targeting key issues in the industrial chain, equipping bearing enterprises with "brains", and deeply applying them in all fields, industries, and links to promote quality and efficiency improvement across the industry. From Xinchang's practice, it has been shown that innovation is the "golden key" to leading high-quality development. Only by constantly shaping change, strengthening innovation, mobilizing all innovation resources, stimulating all innovation vitality, focusing on implementation one by one, seeking breakthroughs one by one, and making innovation a powerful driving force for high-quality development can we achieve an overall leap from point to surface, from point to chain.

In the process of building a "bearing industry brain" service enterprise, Xinchang insists on using institutional innovation to break bottlenecks, establish an overall promotion mechanism, provide guarantees from aspects such as finance, taxation, finance, and factor protection, break through departmental coordination bottlenecks and difficulties, and continuously enhance development momentum and core competitiveness. The practice of Xinchang has shown that in the face of reform, it is necessary to systematically plan from a global perspective, systematically promote reform and innovation in aspects such as institutional mechanisms, platform construction, and operational paths, adhere to the leadership of "top leaders", improve the "one game" pattern, optimize the "one book" management, and pool strong joint forces in the reform effort, in order to take new steps on the new journey of deepening reform.