In the second decade of the 21st century, digitalization has shifted from being an undercurrent to a booming economic mainstream. China’s digital economy has accounted for more than 1/3 of its GDP, and people’s lives have long been transformed by the digitalization of all walks of life. The ever-growing “Digital China” is becoming China’s new look to the world.

As an active participant in this wave of digitalization, manufacturing enterprises have laid a solid foundation for realizing the value of digitalization for the whole society. The value of current digital transformation has been highly recognized by manufacturing enterprises. With its increasing depth and complexity, the connotation of digital transformation is no longer limited to simple digital connections and the popularization of data infrastructure. Achieving digital transformation in the new era will also be upgraded from the operational level to the strategic level, and requires long-term and systematic planning. In the year of preparation for the 14th five-year plan, manufacturing enterprises should also leverage this important window of opportunity to define their next level of digital strategic planning for mid and long term.

This report first expounds the great value creation of digital transformation of enterprises from the perspective of global trends and the perspective of China, analyzes the key challenges of digital transformation, and specifies that the 14th five-year plan is an important opportunity for the digital transformation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Based on the understanding, this report analyzes the importance of high-quality mid- to long-term strategic planning for digital transformation, and puts forward the “Five Steps” methodology of strategic planning. By taking key insights from Siemens’ own experience, this paper highlights the five common core topics of digital transformation for manufacturing enterprises, and presents suggestions to Chinese policy makers from the perspective of enterprises on how to ensure the realization of high-quality digital transformation.

Download the full report：How to Develop High-Quality “14th Five-Year” Strategic Planning for Manufacturing Enterprises  in the Digital Era