The Thirteenth China Manufacturing International Forum was held at the Meijing Convention Center in Tianjin from September 28 to 29. It focused on creating an innovative, intelligent and valuable manufacturing ecology based on five intelligent manufacturing industries.

At the event, a special session was held to display international advanced manufacturing technology at which Chinese enterprises learned a great deal about how to transfer foreign advanced technology into real achievements and to improve international industrial competitiveness.

Digital transformation has gradually become the strategic core of many Chinese manufacturing enterprises against a background of intelligent manufacturing.

At the forum, Christopher Holmes, managing director of International Data Corporation (IDC), Asia-Pacific, said the transformation will be difficult and long, but if cloud technology can be put into the supply chain, costs would be greatly lowered.

He outlined five basic pillars of digital transformation -- leadership, overall experience, informationization, operating model development and working resources transformation.

Chen Chunhua, professor at the National School of Development of Peking University, said the key of digitalization does not lie in datamation itself, but in changes to the bridge between a company and its clients -- from products to data.

In other words, the key is efficiency. Digitalization and intelligentization of technologies including robots are both meant to help improve efficiency, and create opportunities.

The event was sponsored by the Manufacturing International Association and the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Commission. More than 1,500 enterprise leaders, experts and government officials attended the forum.