The 120-ton super hydraulic excavator, the 101-meter-long giant concrete pump truck... At the end of the 20111 Changsha International Construction Machinery Exhibition, I saw Dao.com reporters that Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion and other domestic leading enterprises , Not only showed the "visible" intelligent equipment, but also the "invisible" digital results. "Perceivable and capable of networking" is becoming the standard equipment of the domestic equipment manufacturing industry.

The big data recovered after massive equipment is put on the market is providing the "internal drive" for the transformation and upgrading of "Made in China" and high-quality development. The resulting "excavator index" is immediately reported to relevant state ministries and commissions, which becomes an important reference for macro-control.

How will China's economic recovery progress in 2021? The reporter recently walked into Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion to observe the front and back of the "Excavator Index" in depth, and perceive the temperature and economic development trend of "Made in China" from three dimensions: macro, meso, and micro.

Macro: Excavator index shows that investment accelerates economic growth

In Changsha, the "City of Construction Machinery", Sany Heavy Industry's "Lighthouse Factory No. 18" has a 30-meter-long large screen, and the operating data of more than 600,000 pieces of equipment are aggregated into the "Excavator Index". Equipment operating trends, monthly operating rates of various provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities...Various bar graphs and line graphs are drawn into a "heat map" reflecting the real-time activity of China's economy.

The reporter found that despite the impact of the epidemic in 2020, since the second half of 2020, the cumulative operating hours of excavators, hoisting equipment, and concrete machinery have shown high growth, indicating a strong recovery in domestic investment. Taking crawler cranes as an example, the start-up time has changed from negative to positive in June 2020 and has been maintained to this day.

Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany Heavy Industry, said that "Root Interconnect" is a platform company focusing on building industrial operating systems, and long-term analysis of the "excavator index". The "Excavator Index" continues to rise, thanks to China's effective epidemic prevention and control measures, the effect of "steady growth" measures, as well as the huge domestic market demand and numerous application scenarios.

Since 2021, the "Excavator Index" has reflected some structural characteristics of China's economic operation. Many infrastructure investment projects have entered the mid to late stage of construction. From January to April 2021, the "Excavator Index" has accumulated positive growth, indicating that the overall economy continues to improve. Among them, the operation time of hoisting equipment has achieved a year-on-year growth for consecutive April, while excavation equipment and concrete equipment have experienced negative growth for the first time since 2021 in April.

"The ground is started first. The excavator is the leader of engineering construction, then the concrete machinery, and the tail of the dragon is the lifting equipment. It takes about half a year to 10 months from the head to the tail of the dragon." He Dongdong, CEO of Shugen Internet, analyzed that the negative growth of excavators for the first time in April may indicate that many infrastructure investment projects have entered the mid-to-late stage of construction. The momentum of foreign trade is good, and the growth rate of imports is relatively high. Port machinery can provide a "a glimpse" of the foreign trade situation, and Sany Heavy Industry Port Machinery's market share exceeds 50%. Data show that in January 2021, the year-on-year growth rate of port machinery operation hours turned negative for the first time, and reached 11.6%. In April, the operating hours of reach stackers, which are more related to cargo imports, increased by 5.3% year-on-year, while the operating hours of stackers, which were more related to exports, decreased by 22.1% year-on-year.

The increase in imports is even more pronounced, which is mutually corroborated by data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Public data shows that the total value of imports and exports of goods in April was 3,149.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.6%. Among them, exports increased by 22.2% year-on-year, and imports increased by 32.2% year-on-year.

In terms of different regions, infrastructure investment in Hubei Province has increased significantly. The "Excavator Index" shows that from January to April, the operating hours of various construction machinery and equipment in Hubei increased significantly year-on-year. Among them, excavation equipment increased by 78.7%, concrete equipment increased by 115.2%, paver in road machinery increased by 208.8%, and road roller increased by 137.4%. This shows that with the strong support of the state, the recovery momentum of Hubei after the epidemic is very strong, and many recovery indicators lead the country.

Micro: Excavator index drives the company's entire chain to improve

The "Excavator Index" not only provides a reference for the macro economy, but also provides a direct traction for the "full link" innovation of enterprise R&D, production, marketing, and after-sales. Truck cranes are commonly used equipment in construction. It is understood that the original enterprises generally design by analyzing static data. If the steel plate is used too thick, it will increase the cost and reduce the lifting capacity; but if the design strength is too low, it will cause safety accidents.

"Now through the analysis of the full sample dynamic data recovered by the equipment, the company has found that most truck cranes have overload problems, and have obtained the specific proportion and value of the overload, so that the strength of the boom can be accurately designed, which is between safety and economy. Find a stable point." He Dongdong said.

Zhan Chunxin, chairman of Zoomlion, said that the industrial Internet platform "Zhongke Cloud Valley" they have established has reached 400,000 market devices. Based on big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, it can predict the life of key components, diagnose faults, and identify customer risks, and push related issues to customers through App and SMS, changing from a passive service to an active service.

Within the enterprise, production equipment is also "digitalized". Take Sany Heavy Industry as an example. At present, the company's 18 industrial parks, more than 60 workshops, more than 5,600 water, electricity and gas meters, more than 8,200 machines and equipment, and hundreds of thousands of materials in China are all realized online through the platform. Through the establishment of the company's data center and the use of AI models for analysis, the company's production operations and management models have been continuously improved.

"Digitalization" has shown a significant improvement in the quality of business operations. Xiang Wenbo said that in 2020, the per capita output value of Sany Heavy Industry will reach 4 million yuan, which is an important indicator to measure the level of enterprise development. Compared with the previous peak of the industry, Sany Heavy Industry has created a revenue much higher than that of the year without new plants and a substantial reduction in employees.

Meso: "Excavator Index" empowers the ecology of the construction machinery industry

After the value of massive data is fully tapped, it will not only force the internal innovation of the enterprise, but also “empower” the high-quality development of the entire industry. In fact, affected by the spread of the global epidemic, many companies once encountered a "supply cut" crisis, and the safety of the industrial chain and supply chain was mentioned as a very important position.

For this reason, Sany Heavy Industry, as a main engine factory, has promoted the "digitalization" of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain from 2020, and nearly 100 suppliers have used "cloud platforms" on their equipment.

“In the past, many things between the upstream and downstream of the industry chain were communicated by telephone, either the order was placed and the inventory increased, or the stock was out of stock.” Said Rao Youfu, director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Division of Sany Heavy Industry Pumping Division. Now the production schedule, inventory, Quality and other data can be seen on the platform, which solves the problem of uncoordinated supporting and uncontrollable risks.

He Dongdong explained that on the "root cloud platform", OEMs can see the dynamic progress of order execution, and supporting manufacturers can also see the changes in the purchase orders of OEMs, which achieves the "transparency" of data and makes the entire industry chain better. Agility and collaboration efficiency are higher. 

At the same time, more and more "digital" service providers have appeared in the construction machinery industry. At the 2021 Changsha International Construction Machinery Exhibition, the reporter saw an "industrial 5G+VR design" company that digitized construction machinery and equipment and hundreds of thousands of parts through ultra-high-precision digital models, as small as the particles of gaskets. The degree can be revealed. Huang Xiaojun, the CEO of this company, said that such "digital equipment" can realize interactive disassembly and assembly, and provide design review, training, display and other services for the entire industry.

Industry insiders pointed out that the US manufacturing industry accounts for a small proportion, but the producer service industry is very developed. In this regard, "Made in China" still has obvious shortcomings. Due to the early start of digital transformation and the high level of application in the domestic construction machinery field, it has become the benchmark of "China's intelligent manufacturing" and is expected to become a global leader during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Editor/Xu Shengpeng