From "one cover is difficult to find" to "one cloth is difficult to find", a small mask led to a long industrial chain, but also exposed the manufacturing industry to resume production of some common problems: labor shortage, logistics and transport, raw material supply difficult...... The highly publicised outbreak has amplified these problems and highlighted the need for high-quality manufacturing in the aftermath of the outbreak.

The shortage of labor is the cause of travel inconvenience under the strict control of the epidemic. Meanwhile, it also reflects that the manufacturing industry is still dominated by labor-intensive enterprises, and production and operation rely heavily on labor. Previous surveys by the China enterprise confederation research group have shown that the average rate of return to work among the top 500 manufacturers in labor-intensive industries and labor-importing provinces is lower than the overall rate.

This points out two development directions for the manufacturing industry: one is to guide labor-intensive enterprises to move from the east to the central and western regions and the northeast, so that workers are closer to the enterprises and can be employed at home, and at the same time reduce labor costs.

The other is to promote intelligent upgrading and reduce the dependence on manual labor. This is actually a focus of high-quality development in the manufacturing sector, and the outbreak may change the understanding of some manufacturers and accelerate this change. And in the current resumption of production, some enterprises have tasted the intelligence of the "sweet". Taking baosteel as an example, using remote operation and maintenance technology based on big data and artificial intelligence, baosteel has turned the cold rolling hot galvanizing intelligent workshop in baoshan base into a "black light factory" that operates 24 hours a day but does not require many people to be on duty. This kind of production without meeting has become a weapon for baosteel to play a good and stable production and high production.

As the division of labor becomes more and more detailed, manufacturing enterprises need to develop in coordination with the upstream and downstream enterprises of the industrial chain. Problems in one of the links will often affect the whole body. The logistics industry is a link connecting the industrial chain. To promote high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, we should not only focus on the integrity of the industrial chain, but also continue to improve the business environment and reduce logistics costs.

Another way to connect the industry chain is digital management. Through advanced technology platform and modern process design, it connects the whole industrial chain of raw material purchase, production, manufacturing and sales, connects the internal and external data resources of enterprises, and realizes coordinated development. Such digital management can optimize the production and operation of enterprises, and as procurement, production and sales become more efficient and flexible, the whole industrial chain has been "pulled closer".

The first companies to put their digital wings on the ground have proved superior in this outbreak. A group of manufacturing enterprises and intelligent manufacturing system integration enterprises can quickly cross the border to produce masks, it is thanks to the support of digital technology and a variety of products fast conversion production of flexible production capacity. For example, as one of the few domestic with auto enterprise of manufacturing engineering ability of the whole flow of wuling, assemble elite 120 experts and technicians of the r&d team, will be finished in 3 days "WuLingPai" mask machine design, manufacture, commissioning and finished products offline tasks, become the first domestic production of masks, both also mask machine production enterprises. This has to let from the traditional labor insurance industry to transform the mask business look at it with new eyes.

Some studies have shown that in the year of SARS, manufacturing contributed more to economic growth after the outbreak. At the same time, cities with a high proportion of manufacturing recovered more quickly and efficiently after the outbreak.

Although the economic environment was different then and now, the performance of manufacturing after the outbreak was still expected. In the short term, the manufacturing sector, which is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, bears on the overall interests of stable growth and stable employment. In the long run, high-quality development of manufacturing industry is the top priority to achieve high-quality economic development. There is no doubt that the greater test for manufacturing will come after the outbreak.

(credit: daily worker)