Informationization is on the left, digitalization is on the right

The author of this article: Tian Feng, senior vice president of Anshi Asia Pacific, the founder of “Taxue Forum”. It’s hot enough to melt, vaporize, and evaporate the informationization that has been riding on the land of China for 30 years. People no longer mention informatization. Some people are ashamed to mention it, and even belittle it intentionally or unconsciously, just like the tenth steamed bun is full, and the first nine steamed buns are all idiots. Today, “digitalization” and “digital transformation” are booming online and offline, with articles, speeches and videos overwhelming. While we are admiring the rapid creation and innovation capabilities of Chinese people, we hear colleagues and companies murmur: Isn’t this just that the informationized things in the past wore a digital coat? Um? That’s right, if you replace the three words of digitization with informationization, 90% of the things in it will look like the familiar Yan returned. Therefore, what should be admired is not the ability to create and innovate, but the “query and replace” function of word processing software, but also the ability of Chinese people to track the air. I was also shocked by similar capabilities in the field of digital twins. Traditional businesses began to walk the world as soon as they put on the coat of digital twins.

Division left and right line  

I often say “a star era an era of” the times sake, Starchaser is necessary. But if you forget the history, you will be lost in the present, forget the essence of informatization, and you will also be confused by the essence of digitization. Those who have surfed in the tide of informationization are a little confused in the face of the wave of digitization: what did they do in the past? What to do now? Those who have not surpassed the waves in the informatization face the complicated digital situation, scratching their eyebrows and beards, always lacking rules and regulations, and have no way. The human brain is divided into two parts: the left brain and the right brain. The left brain is the rational brain, responsible for logic and reasoning; the right brain is the perceptual brain, responsible for intuition and art. The rationality of the left brain determines whether it is realistic, factual, controlling, and quality; the sensibility of the right brain determines whether it is futuristic, fantasy, impulsive, and innovative. The Department of Information Technology is responsible for the left brain, and digitalizing the right brain. When we have a clear mechanism, complete initial conditions (initial state) and boundary conditions (environment), use information technology to help us improve efficiency and quality. When our research objects surpass our understanding and the mechanism, initial state and environment are not complete, we need to use digitization to break through our limitations and achieve innovation.

Information Division Left  

The world we live in is a hybrid system of three types of systems: the first type is natural objects (such as galaxies, living things, etc.), the second type is man-made objects (such as machines, production lines, etc.), and the third type is organization (such as enterprises, Alliance, etc.). Mankind has always been committed to the study of the operating laws of these three types of systems in order to obtain a clear mechanism. With clear initial conditions and complete boundary conditions, a definite mechanism can be used to calculate deterministic conclusions, and people can predict space-time operations (future and distant) based on the results of this calculation. In the past, people have mastered the laws of operation similar to F=ma, E=MC², engineering experience formulas, machine working principles, production execution strategies, political economy, and business management. Based on these mechanisms, as soon as computing science was born, people could not wait to develop corresponding software, so software such as scientific computing, engineering checking, MES, ERP, PLM, PM, MRO, etc. appeared one after another. The emergence of these software has greatly improved the efficiency and quality of human work and life. Since the 1990s, this wave has become particularly rapid. At that time, we called it the “information age”, and the term “informatization” with Chinese characteristics also began at that time. The reason for using the term “information” is that after we have mastered the mechanism, we only need a small amount of data to “feed” to the software, and we can get good enough feedback. These small amounts of data are the initial conditions and boundary conditions. With a lot of complicated calculation work and internal data transmission, the software was completed flawlessly. Information is a popular concept in cybernetics. The original meaning of the word includes the most valuable small amount of “data” formed by refining and summarizing large amounts of data. The information not only includes a clear operating mechanism, but also includes clear initial conditions and complete boundary conditions, that is, the information includes mechanism, initial state and environment.

Digitize right  

Unfortunately, humans have incomplete research on the operating laws of the three types of systems of natural objects, man-made objects, and organizations, and they have incomplete grasp of more than 99% of the world’s operating mechanisms, boundary conditions, and initial conditions. The mechanisms that people have mastered are not only a very small part of the laws of the world, but also very limited laws that have been mastered in the same category. The working principle of a machine seems clear, but in fact there are still many unclear points in the same machine. The law of business operation is even more so, otherwise there will be no ambiguous statement that “management is not only a science, but also an art”. Moreover, even if the operation mechanism of things is mastered, there are many challenges to the determination of boundary conditions and initial conditions. If one of the mechanism, initial state, and environment is not clear, the result of the calculation basically depends on the feeling. In the information age, we all go around this situation. But when the existing information of mankind will one day be used up by informatization, those who have done informatization earlier and mature find that the marginal benefits brought by informatization are getting lower and lower because of the clear mechanism, The initial state and the environment have entered the information system, but there are still many problems that have not been resolved, and there are still many time and space to predict. At this time, informatization has encountered a bottleneck, the upward channel is blocked, and the value curve is infinitely close to a horizontal asymptote. Of course, humans never sit back and die. Information (including mechanism, initial state, and environment) is summarized and refined from a large amount of data, regardless of whether the data is complete or incomplete. In fact, the extraction of information is precisely what smart people in humans make through incomplete data abstraction. When doing informatization in the past, the general public almost forgot this fact and directly used the existing information to complete the work. But those smart few people are always sober, and science and technology are constantly evolving. They have discovered that new technologies (especially big data and AI technologies) can summarize the mechanism, initial state and environment with a certain degree of clarity from the massive data ( Let’s call it “quasi-information” for the time being, and as the amount of data increases and further analysis and learning, the “quasi-information” can become more and more clear. Quasi-information is closer to the expression of pure mathematics, and may not have obvious physical and business meanings like the information summarized by humans. However, within a certain range and conditions, the law of quasi-information is indeed close to the law of the real world. In other words, the development of computing science allows people to return to the source of information-the data level, discover mechanisms that have not been discovered by the human brain, and summarize the initial state and environment required by the mechanism. Thus, the digital era kicked off. If informatization is based on clear information, then digitization is based on massive data. number

The premise of digitalization is to convert the research object from the physical object to the digital model as completely as possible.

Of course, this refers to the generalized digital model, not only the digitization of the shape or appearance, but the digital expression of all the temporal and spatial relationship data that can reflect the characteristics and attributes of the physical object. The so-called spatio-temporal relational data is not only static, but also dynamic, not only the physical object itself, but also the relationship between all entities associated with itself. When the physical world is digitized, we can directly start from the data of the big world to obtain the mechanism, initial state and environment we need, even if it is quasi-information. As long as the new mechanism is in hand and the initial state and environment are in the bag, the prediction of time and space can be raised to a higher level. Therefore, digitization is a bridge, ship or aircraft built when informatization reaches the end of the world.

Right walker  

The informatization history of Si Zuo Zhe is long enough, so I will not recall and repeat it. But do you think that under the tide of informatization that year, there is a type of software that looks very different. At that time, the term “digitalization” was not so popular, so people have been enduring this kind of alternative, which is almost to the death of the rhythm of the technical cleanliness Virgo. Yes, we are talking about CAD, CAE and CAM. The first field on the road to digitalization is simulation (or CAE). Before the emergence of CAE, although people have mastered the basic theories of solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat, electromagnetics, chemistry, etc., they still use a large number of empirical formulas in engineering. The theory is only suitable for simple structures (simple pendulums, beams, plates, shells, tetrahedrons, cubes, etc.), and empirical formulas are only suitable for specific scenarios (those with simple structures, specific and clear initial states and environments). The use of computers at this time just moved the abacus and slide rule to the computer, which belongs to the category of informationization. For complex structures (special-shaped buildings, high-end equipment, systems (systems of systems), etc.), although the basic theory, initial conditions, and boundary conditions are clear, we still cannot get the full picture of the working mechanism of the research object, and people still cannot predict time and space. The CAE method allows people to build a digital complete space with a complex structure. Starting from the complete data of the research object, obtain the mechanism, initial state and environment close to the real world, thereby achieving a breakthrough in theory and empirical formulas, and the operating mechanism of complex structures. To see through. Due to the long-term accumulation of digitalization, the certainty of simulation is getting higher and higher. For the complex structure that has undergone a large number of simulation confirmations, many organizations no longer need to recalculate, only the difference in the formed database can be obtained. The credible result of the project means that the information-based nature of simulation is getting stronger and stronger. Now, the simulation community is beginning to use AI to explore areas with strong uncertainty before, such as topology optimization, AI-based parameter optimization, turbulence, composite materials, fracture mechanics, electromagnetic interference and compatibility, and remote areas that humans cannot reach (such as the Martian environment) ) Calculation of complex structures. Another pioneer in digitalization is 3D CAD/CAM, which has similar experience to CAE. The transition from 2D CAD to 3D CAD in the era of drawing board was equivalent to a transition from information to digital. When people use the complete digital model data in three-dimensional space to design products, there have been breakthroughs and innovations with great results. The centroid, center of gravity, assembly, interference, dimension chain, tolerance chain, and material cost of highly complex structures that have long troubled people Wait for the problem to be solved. The popular generative design is a further development. Generative design method fully utilizes the advantages of algorithms and AI, no need People do too much intervention, and they don’t want people to intervene, because people’s thinking style defects may hinder design innovation. We only need to provide the necessary design constraints, and let the algorithm create the rest. Although this new design method cannot replace positive design and innovation, it greatly expands people’s brains and horizons. A large number of digital applications that have recently emerged are in the production and manufacturing process, operation and maintenance, enterprise management, and digital economy, using complete production data, supply chain data, operating data, enterprise data, and economic data to predict previous MES, ERP, MOR, and Scenarios that information software such as CRM and SCM can only bypass, dig deeper into the information in the data to achieve breakthroughs in business and management. The familiar predictive maintenance is a typical example. All these applications show that when the physical world can be fully expressed digitally, all human industrial and economic dreams—industry 4.0, industrial interconnection, smart manufacturing, digital twins, digital economy, and smart business, etc., seem to be close. At your fingertips. Of course, you will definitely say: “Digital transformation requires business model innovation, business model transformation, value system innovation, organizational culture change…” Well, I agree!From the perspective of

right and left   

there is informationization first, then digitization. Does that mean that digitization is more advanced than informatization? No! Digitization is actually a kind of recursion. It is a return to the source after the development of informatization encounters a bottleneck, but it is not a simple return to the basics, but a high-level return to the spiral development of things. Information comes from data. Does that mean that information is more advanced than data? No, information will eventually be transformed into common sense, and no one thinks that a person who only has common sense is an expert. Information will eventually be transformed into processes and rules. Only those who follow the rules are called ordinary workers in the organization. Foresighted people, that is, business leaders, industry leaders, social talents, and tech geeks, are often those who jump out of the information framework and directly perceive the future with keen intuition from high-latitude and wide-view data. The left and right brains of human beings grow together and complement each other. Art and innovation are human life dreams, but quality and efficiency are the foundation of survival.Both individuals and human society grow and evolve in the process of alternating sensibility and rationality, intuition and reasoning, no one wants to remove the right brain for reason and quality, and no one for art and innovation. And remove the left brain. Both individual people and human society first rise from the development of simple sensibility and intuition to the height of rationality and theory, and then sublimate to excellent intuition. Excellent intuition comes from a high degree of summary of rich and effective experience, but also requires frequent in-depth thinking and long-term observation. There is indeed a class of people with such excellent and keen intuition in our society, who guide the development direction of your business, organization, and even human beings. It is this excellent intuition that promotes the creation of new human theories and the development of new technologies. Therefore, when we talk about left and right, we are not trying to oppose informationization and digitization. In fact, digitalization is the innovation and development we dream of, but informatization is the quality and efficiency that we rely on for survival. Identifying and summarizing deterministic information (mechanism, initial state, and environment) from data is the mission of digitization. After all, humans still have to obtain the ultimate model with real physical meaning and business significance like Newton and Einstein in order to obtain substantive information. Fundamental progress. The information identified by digitization requires another recursion and eventually returns to informatization. Some people say that data can help people eliminate uncertainty. In fact, data itself is not the terminator of uncertainty. It is the information obtained from data. The alternate progress and spiral rise of quality and innovation is the basic model of the evolution and development of mankind and industry. Think of informatization and digitization as the two strands of intelligent industrial DNA, just like biological DNA is composed of two strands, one is indispensable. Of course, we can’t be left and right. Innovative development without quality and efficiency is unreliable and hopeless. Digitalization without informatization is a tree without roots, just like a building lacking a foundation, which will eventually collapse, leaving a white and clean ground. To engage in digitization, the debts of informatization must be paid back sooner or later. In the spirit of craftsman, the company’s already clear industrial mechanism and business model should be sorted out, and it can be operated well in the informatization system, and then digitization can be used for innovation and development. It is the right posture for digital transformation. The word “transformation” not only represents the transformation from physics to digital, but also represents the transformation from informatization to digital. Therefore, I advise those who try to skip the informatization stage and go directly to digitization, do not try to remedy everything through digitization, or they may overtake due to overtaking in a curve.With more than 20 years of R&D, technology, management and consulting experience, it has provided nearly 100 companies with R&D system planning, construction and R&D information consulting. It is the three major main engine institutes of China Aviation, a research institute of shipbuilding industry, CRRC and other enterprises The chief designer of lean R&D, knowledge engineering, and simulation system construction projects. He is the author of popular industrial and intelligent manufacturing books “Lean R&D 2.0”, “Knowledge Engineering 2.0”, “Manufacturing Knowledge Engineering”, “Take the Truth” and “3D” Print the World”-China’s 3D Printing industry professional books ( click to read online )