With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, drying equipment production enterprises in our country have grown like mushrooms after rain. According to relevant data statistics, there are currently over 500 domestic manufacturers of drying equipment, with annual market sales exceeding 3 billion yuan. Faced with the development trend of China's drying equipment industry, some experts suggest that "virtual manufacturing" can enhance the market competitiveness of the drying industry.

Although China's drying equipment has developed rapidly, there is still a certain gap in the development of the drying equipment industry compared to advanced technology. Faced with increasingly fierce market competition, some experts suggest that China's drying equipment industry needs to adopt a new management model: virtual manufacturing.

Virtual manufacturing, also known as "business outsourcing," is a manufacturing management model in which drying equipment enterprises weaken some or all of the intermediate manufacturing links in the business chain, implement commissioned collaborative processing, and strengthen upstream product development and design, downstream marketing (including after-sales service), and other links in the business chain.

There are three main forms of this: one is the OEM manufacturing of drying equipment, also known as OEM manufacturing. Refers to the core drying equipment enterprise entrusting the designed products to professional manufacturing contractors for production, and marking the core drying equipment enterprise on the final product. The second is brand design and manufacturing, which refers to the seller purchasing the manufacturer's design information to allow the OEM drying equipment enterprise to organize product production and manufacturing, and promote their own brand for external sales. The third is process outsourcing manufacturing, which usually refers to core drying equipment enterprises spreading some rough processing and low technical content processes to drying equipment enterprises in surrounding areas with low labor costs for processing, and handing over key processes such as precision processing, assembly, testing, etc. to themselves for control. Leave the order to your own control. This model is manifested in the organizational form of drying equipment enterprises as a "dumbbell shaped" structure with a small (refined) center and large (strong) ends.

Experts believe that "virtual manufacturing" is an external manifestation of various elements in the industrial chain moving regularly and directionally within a certain range. For advantageous drying equipment enterprises, their movement tends towards the middle of the industry chain, ultimately achieving (relative) control over the entire industry chain; For general small and medium-sized drying equipment enterprises, as well as weak drying equipment enterprises, their movement tends towards the middle and low ends of the industrial chain, becoming a link or several parts of a link in the industrial chain, and ultimately "attaching" to advantageous drying equipment enterprises, thus forming a dynamic industrial ecosystem.

More than a thousand drying equipment enterprises in China's drying equipment industry have similar industrial layouts domestically, resulting in a large production volume and serious low-level redundant construction; The phenomenon of "big but complete" and "small but complete" is common, and drying equipment enterprises have strong internal self matching awareness, long production cycles, high costs, inability to guarantee the performance and reliability of the whole machine, and slow response to market demand. The competitive advantage of machine tool drying equipment enterprises in foreign countries is becoming increasingly apparent, and the industry's drying equipment enterprises are mostly small drying equipment enterprises, generally with 220-500 employees, most of whom do not exceed 800 employees, and their sales revenue is in the tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

Therefore, in order to narrow the gap with foreign countries, China's drying equipment industry must align with the level and transition to virtual manufacturing. Continuously strengthening the competitiveness of the industry through new development methods.