Developing service-oriented manufacturing and cultivating new dynamics in the shipbuilding industry

Amidst the ongoing profound adjustments in the global shipbuilding market, how can the shipbuilding industry drive business model and industry innovation to achieve structural adjustments and upgrade transformation? The recent practices of China's manufacturing industry have proven that developing a new form of service-oriented manufacturing is a breakthrough point for the transformation and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry, fostering new dynamics. Service-oriented manufacturing refers to a new form of industry where manufacturing and services integrate and develop together.

As a crucial component of high-end equipment manufacturing, the shipbuilding industry has the foundation and conditions to lead the way in building China into a world manufacturing powerhouse. To achieve this, the shipbuilding industry in China needs to innovate production organization, operational management, and business models, extend the service chain, provide a complete combination of "production + services," enhance quality and efficiency, strengthen competitive advantages, and contribute to structural adjustments and transformation upgrades to build a manufacturing powerhouse.

Developing service-oriented manufacturing and cultivating new dynamics in the shipbuilding industry
In the context of the continuous deep adjustment in the global shipbuilding market, how can the shipbuilding industry drive business model innovation and industry innovation to achieve structural adjustments and upgrade transformation? The recent practices of China's manufacturing industry have proven that developing a new form of service-oriented manufacturing is a breakthrough point for the transformation and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry, fostering new dynamics. Service-oriented manufacturing refers to a new form of industry where manufacturing and services integrate and develop together. As a crucial component of high-end equipment manufacturing, the shipbuilding industry has the foundation and conditions to lead the way in building China into a world manufacturing powerhouse. The shipbuilding industry in China needs to innovate production organization, operational management, and business models, extend the service chain, provide a complete combination of "production + services," enhance quality and efficiency, strengthen competitive advantages, achieve structural adjustments and transformation upgrades, and make due contributions to building a manufacturing powerhouse.

With the international shipping market and international oil prices remaining low, the global shipbuilding market has entered a period of profound adjustment, and China's ship and marine engineering equipment industry faces unprecedented challenges. Overcapacity and insufficient demand have become the main contradictions restricting the development of China's shipbuilding industry. Therefore, relying solely on scale-driven development of production-oriented manufacturing is unsustainable. Transforming into service-oriented manufacturing has become a crucial path for ship enterprises to enhance competitiveness and gain profits. Currently, in sectors such as aviation and defense, automobile manufacturing, industrial automation, communication equipment manufacturing, life sciences, and medical equipment, services have become an important source of profits for manufacturing companies. This phenomenon indicates that ship enterprises can only grasp the opportunities of today's world manufacturing serviceization by overcoming the "service" shortcomings and steadily moving forward in the increasingly fierce market competition. More importantly, in the deep adjustment of the global competitive landscape, the development of service-oriented manufacturing is a necessary condition for the shipbuilding industry in China to reconstruct competitive advantages. Major shipbuilding nations are accelerating their transformation to "manufacturing + services," especially focusing on investment in technology, knowledge, information, and services. With the weakening of traditional comparative advantages, promoting the shift to service-oriented manufacturing will strongly facilitate China's shipbuilding industry in seizing the future high ground in the new industrial competition environment.

Service-oriented manufacturing is a crucial approach to drive the deep integration of manufacturing and services, enhance the core competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading. This approach has received significant support from the country, as evident in policies such as "Made in China 2025," "Guidelines for Special Action on Developing Service-oriented Manufacturing," and "Action Plan for Capacity Enhancement in the Shipbuilding Supporting Industry (2016-2020)." The shipbuilding industry needs to seize policy opportunities, make full use of its inherent conditions, and invest significant efforts in cultivating and developing new forms of service-oriented manufacturing. On one hand, utilizing new technologies such as digitization, networking, and intelligence, ship enterprises can launch a new market offensive, construct service-oriented manufacturing new forms with characteristics of the sharing economy, accelerate transformation, achieve breakthroughs against the trend, and provide a complete combination of "production + services" to enhance quality and efficiency and strengthen their competitive advantages. This will lead to structural adjustments and transformation upgrades, contributing as needed to the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse. On the other hand, it is essential to learn to shift from "product-oriented" to "customer-oriented." For example, when providing equipment for offshore oil and gas development, it is not only about offering safe, economical, and applicable equipment but also providing an integrated "technology + business" solution for the entire life cycle of oil and gas development operations for oil and gas companies. In recent years, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation has actively occupied market resources by enhancing the value-added service capabilities of existing capacity, seizing market resources, and setting an example in promoting the transformation of manufacturing into services.

"To seek longevity in wood, one must secure its roots; to flow far, one must deepen its source." The transformation of ship enterprises into service-oriented manufacturing is not aimed at "de-manufacturing" with the purpose of diluting or abandoning manufacturing. Instead, it is based on the capabilities of marine engineering equipment and high-tech shipbuilding manufacturing, aiming for a higher-level transformation. Whether transitioning from assembly-focused manufacturing to "manufacturing + services" or moving from selling products to selling "products + services," the essence is to create greater value for the industry chain of shipping and marine resource development through services. Chinese ship enterprises need to move towards service-oriented manufacturing, derive more service demands through enhancing independent research and development capabilities, occupy the high end of the industrial value chain, promote optimization and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry, and transform from being large to being strong.