As some of the large manufacturers withdrew from Chinese market due to the waning labor advantages, Chinese manufacturing is facing with new challenges. Manufacturing transformation is urgent, but how to use IT technologies to overcome the difficulty is the question. Mainstream vendors in different industries have different views.

Mr. Jianxun Chen from IBM Consulting thinks that innovation is the only way to promote the industry value chain. Innovation is vital to Chinese manufacturing not because it is important in product research and development but it is also important in company operations and business models.

Mr. Gang Li, Data Center Manager of IBM thinks that the application of new technology will bring enterprises growth opportunities and intelligent IT infrastructure architecture strategy will bring success to business transformation.

Mr. Zhaohong Liu, Industry Solution General Designer of Infor China, reads this issue from the ERP point of view. For manufacturing enterprises in transformation, speed is everything. He thinks that in the following three years, ERP systems can fast response to business demand changes, optimize process to realize operation excellence, provide detailed business information, and accelerate product launch speed.

Mr. Tao Yu, Presales Director of ChinaNetCenter says that currently one of the most important representations of manufacturing transformation is the combination of traditional industries and e-commerce. E-commerce is bringing a new revolution to business model and many enterprises in the traditional industry chain are moving toward the internet. As the most CDN and IDC service provider in China, ChinaNetCenter will help manufacturers to build application system with high efficiency and safety.

1. Mr. Jianxun Chen from IBM Consulting; 2. Mr. Gang Li from IBM Data Center;
3. Mr. Zhaohong Liu from Infor China; 4. Mr. Tao Yu from ChinaNetCenter

Another issue of the summit is CIO's responsibilities and IT strategies during transforming period. As the leader in enterprises' information construction, CIOs play an important role in the manufacturing transformation. Attended CIOs had heated discussions around the topic. Mr. Xinghong Guo, CIO from AO Smith shared his 20 years' experience as a CIO. Mr. Zhe Bing, CIO from FOTILE Kitchen thinks that CIOs in the new era cannot only focus on IT technologies but also the values it creates for enterprises. Mr. Weiping Sun, CIO from Shanxi Blower Group shared their story that IT technologies helped the company successfully realized transformation and upgrading and green development as well. Mr. Naizhou Wang, CIO from CITIC Heavy Industry thinks that a qualified CIO should have four professional qualities: technology knowhow, business management ability, strategic thinking, and communication capability. The Roundtable Discussion and CIO Night Talk provided CIOs with an opportunity to have in-depth communication.

As the organizer of the annual summit, e-works shared its view on CIOs' responsibilities. Dr. Pei Huang, CEO of e-works made a keynote speech in which he analyzed the development trend of Chinese manufacturing and IT applications and gave some advice for manufacturing CIOs.

Dr. Pei Huang, CEO of e-works

The summit successfully ended in CIO Night Talk. As one of the top level CIO summit, Chinese Manufacturing CIO Annual Summit has been successfully held for six years and builds up a platform for manufacturing CIOs to share experience and have in-depth communication. The next summit will be held in Hefei, Anhui Province in October 2013.