Employees work at the assembly line of an automobile workshop in Changchun city, Jilin province. (PHOTO: VCG)
By?CHEN?Chunyou
China will improve the reliability of the manufacturing industry, according to a guideline released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology and three other departments.
Reliability is the ability of a product to complete the specified function under specified conditions and within a given time. It is a core indicator to reflect the quality of a product, and runs through the whole process of product R&D, design, manufacturing and application.
With the deep integration of new-generation information technology and manufacturing, the manufacturing industry becomes increasingly intelligent, leading to improved reliability.
The guideline clarified tasks in terms of quality and reliability management, technology development, standardization and talent cultivation, as well as improving such public services as reliability testing, accreditation, calibration and consultation.
It mainly focused on three representative industries, namely machinery, electronics and automobiles, which have a massive industrial base and take a high proportion of gross industrial output. It seeks to improve the reliability of related products by improving the quality of core fundamental spare parts, and to increase the resilience to tackle potential risks, such as supply chain disruption.
It is expected that in the first phase that lasts until 2025, China will build at least three R&D service platforms related to reliability technologies, cultivate over 100 enterprises to be demonstrative models of reliability improvement, and mobilize 1,000 enterprises to make substantial progress in this sector. In the second phase running until 2030, the country aims to see more products reach the global standards.
The trio will conduct a series of experiments in fields such as life science, fluid physics, combustion science and materials science. Notably, this is the first time that fruit flies have been taken on a Chinese space mission as experimental subjects. What made scientists choose fruit flies? What experiment will they undergo?