The 6th International Excellent Operations Annual Conference in 2016 was held in Suzhou from November 18th to 20th, with the theme of "Gathering Global Intelligence to Explore the Road of 'New Craftsmen'". Multiple entrepreneurs, experts, scholars, and government leaders from countries and regions such as Germany, the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong gathered together to explore the Chinese manufacturing industry and explore the path of new craftsmen.

At this conference, Gu Jiandang, General Manager of Phoenix Contact China and Master of Business Administration from Nanjing University, delivered an important 30 minute speech on China's future intelligent industry, Industry 4.0. Phoenix Contact, as a model of Sino German cooperation and a major participant and promoter of German Industry 4.0, released its intelligent strategy in 2014 and established the Phoenix Contact Intelligent Strategy Promotion Alliance, aiming to build a cooperation bridge between German Industry 4.0 and China's intelligent manufacturing, and create a new platform for industry, academia, research, and government industry media to jointly shape the future intelligent world. In order to gain a deeper understanding of Phoenix Contact's reference significance for China's new manufacturing industry and the inspiration of President Gu Jiandang on China's new craftsmanship path, we conducted an exclusive interview with Phoenix Contact President Gu Jiandang after the meeting. The interview content will focus on Industry 4.0, the new craftsmanship path of China's manufacturing, and Phoenix's future intelligent world landscape.

Outpost: Hello! Mr. Gu, I am Jiang Jie, a journalist from NetEase Jiangsu. I'm glad you can accept our exclusive interview. What is your biggest feeling about participating in this International Excellent Operations Annual Conference?

Gu: First of all, this is my first time attending this annual meeting. Although Chairman Yang Zhou and I are old friends, we haven't had this opportunity in the past. It can be said that this annual conference should be unprecedented in the field of excellent operations, as its professionalism, level of detail, and breadth of expert coverage, including the level of visiting audiences, represent the unique height of China's manufacturing industry in the field of excellence. I am very honored to collaborate with Chairman Yang to share this with everyone.

Outpost: The theme of this annual meeting is "Gathering global wisdom to explore the path of 'new craftsmen'". Undoubtedly, the industry elites invited to attend the annual conference have achieved outstanding results in exploring and innovating in various fields. How do you understand the efforts made to explore the "New Craftsman" path in Phoenix team building, market operation, and industrial upgrading?

Gu: In my previous speech, I mentioned Phoenix Contact's understanding of the "craftsman spirit", including how Phoenix Contact develops together with China's manufacturing industry under the New Normal of China's manufacturing and industrial development stage, that is, how to take a new craftsman road, which may take 30 minutes to finish. If I want to simply express it, first of all, I want to say that Phoenix Contact comes from craftsman, At the same time, we must also surpass craftsmen. From the perspective of Phoenix Contact, it is the representative of German family businesses and global hidden champions. Its core and itself are the embodiment of craftsmanship spirit, that is, it should concentrate on small things and be willing to be a supporting role. In my speech, I also mentioned that its 23 year development in China is actually a small product, a big undertaking.

Outpost: In fact, from my point of view, Phoenix Contact, if it was willing to be a supporting role before, has developed very fast in the past two years, and even ranks first in the industry.

Gu: Yes, it can be said with great pride that although Phoenix Contact is a German family owned enterprise, in China, it is managed by Chinese people with entrepreneurial spirit. Faced with the Chinese market environment, it quickly achieved perfect integration with the Chinese industry. In the past three to five years in China, it has firmly built a bridge between China and Germany in the fields of industry 4. 0 and Made in China 2025 2025. At the same time, it has formed a unique ecosystem with the personnel of various institutions promoting intelligent manufacturing in China. However, no matter at which stage, we always maintain the mentality of being a supporting role, so Phoenix Contact is willing to be a supporting role. No matter what changes will happen in the future, we will not change the concept of working hard.

Outpost: This should also be a core value of Phoenix Contact's corporate culture. Phoenix Contact currently has a Chinese management team and localized management approach, but we have always known that there are differences in product development and service concepts between Germany and China. How does Phoenix Contact perform on this issue?

Gu: I am proud to believe that Phoenix Contact is actually the "most Chinese German enterprise" and the most unique management model among Chinese enterprises in Germany. Firstly, he is driven by the Chinese management team, and secondly, the Chinese strategy is leading the development of Phoenix Contact. So this is not an extension of Germany's strategy, but rather based on Phoenix's integration into China to lead the development of China's industry. This is the foundation of our standing, and then we can bridge the gap between Germany and the integration of global resources, in order to find a path in China. In addition, our Chinese team is not a typical 'worker', but one with a strong sense of mission and entrepreneurial spirit, truly leading the transformation and breakthrough of the enterprise. This kind of wisdom is truly the wisdom that can integrate the Chinese and Germans, and it must not be pure Chinese or German genes in the end. It is a combination of technological and intellectual leadership.

Outpost: There is indeed a gap in innovation between China's manufacturing industry and Germany's high-end and cutting-edge industries, but would it be helpful if combined with industry, academia, and research? For example, establishing an industrial innovation incubation base?

Gu: This is what we call the intelligent industry ecosystem. Intelligent manufacturing, or future new industries, is definitely not a one shot deal. When I saw everyone rushing towards Industry 4.0 today, I think there must be other reasons behind this, because Rome was not built in a day. So what does Phoenix do during this process? We believe that to return to its roots and truly promote intelligent manufacturing, the first step is to do education. So the first thing we do is the Intelligent Education Alliance. In the future, China will definitely have a situation where the demand for ordinary workers will significantly decrease, and machines will replace more and more workers with conventional skills. But when factories become intelligent, what is needed is talents who have experienced a series of intelligent manufacturing experiences. So we will work with a large number of Chinese universities and research institutes to establish intelligent education laboratories and set up courses for intelligent education. For example, Phoenix's first scientific intelligence laboratory at Tongji University. The second thing we do is cooperation between industry and academia, which is cooperation with universities and research institutes, such as the research institute developed in cooperation with Shanghai Industrial Automation Research Institute and Jiangsu Provincial Economic and Information Commission. Thirdly, promote the development of industries through standardized construction. For example, Phoenix Contact is the standard bearer of China and Germany in the core field of manufacturing.

Outpost: In fact, from the current overall environment in China, many enterprises are still in the stages of Industry 2.0 and 3.0, and there is still a big gap from 4.0. If we want to move towards 4.0, do you think we still have a lot of basic content to improve.

Gu: This is a fundamental issue. Although there are excellent companies like Huawei that are representative globally in China, 95% of them are still in a very early stage. I believe it is due to the price oriented industrial mechanism. The resources that support China's manufacturing industry are also undergoing tremendous changes, such as environmental costs, land costs, and labor costs. Therefore, we need to reflect and adjust from the perspective of customers, industry ecology, and our own employees.

Sentinel: I heard you mention "Internet plus" before, but I really want to know whether it is "Internet plus industry" or "industry+Internet". What do you think of the relationship between the two?

Gu: That must be "industry+internet". What China lacks the most is the core manufacturing industry, which is centered on industrial technology. Shipbuilding, aerospace, or companies like Huawei cannot achieve true intelligent manufacturing without innovative and solid industrial technology accumulation. However, industrial personnel must actively embrace IT technology, intelligent technology, and internet technology, so as to be exposed to new technologies and fields, not to turn a blind eye to emerging technologies and opportunities, and to utilize these emerging technologies for the benefit of our industry.

Outpost: Alright, thank you for sharing. That's the end of our interview today. We hope to have another opportunity to have a deeper discussion with you in the future.