China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation: integrated innovation for achieving “China Depth” in exploring the sea world

Company profile
 
Established in July 1999, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) is a leading state-owned business and one of China’s largest shipbuilding and shiprepair groups. Its marine sector covers both naval and merchant ships and equipment manufacturing. It also designs, develops and manufactures a wide-range of non-marine products. CSIC is one of the largest business groups operating under the central government and it holds the relevant authority to manage its own finances and investment strategy. CSIC is also the only company in the Chinese shipbuilding industry listed on the Fortune Global 500 for 6 consecutive years. The group has a total asset of 470 billion with total workforce numbers of 160,000.
 
Challenges
 
The ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface, among which the international seabed area not under the jurisdiction of any state is 251.7 million square kilometers, taking up 49% of the earth's surface. The seabed is rich in natural resources. The storages of discovered manganese nodules, cobalt-rich crust, volcanogenic massive sulphide ore deposits and natural gas hydrate all outstrip the land. The vast ocean is waiting for man to explore.
 
Manned deep sea submersible is an essential technical means to develop and utilize deep sea resources peacefully. It represents a nation's ability and scientific and technical level in marine resources exploration and development and even maritime rights and interests protection to a certain extent. China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), as the main force and national team of marine equipment construction, undertakes the task of making breakthroughs in the field of deep sea equipment.
 
Solutions
 
The deep sea manned submersible Jiaolong developed and manufactured under the leadership of CSIC is China's first independently designed and integrated deep sea manned submersible that has completed sea trial, which makes China lead the world in the field of deep sea equipment research and development. From the approval of the project of deep sea manned submersible Jiaolong in 2002 to the success of the 1000-meter sea trial in 2009 to the 7000-meter sea trial in 2012, 10 years passed. CSIC has made a great breakthrough with innovation.
 
Improving the innovation system and strengthening top-level design
 
Under the guidance of its strategic target of building an innovative leading enterprise that integrates military and civilian, leads in technology and combines industry and finance, CSIC summed up experience in major military projects and manned deep sea submersible projects, insisted to examine and weigh innovation in the environment of the reform and development of the company, China's development pattern and world competition, built a technology and equipment system of deep sea entry, exploration and development, and improved innovative management continuously, thus forming a scientific and technological innovation system taking strategy as instructor, enterprise as subject, market as guide and integrating industry, university and research. The company restructured and established the Science and Technology Committee of CSIC and made a series of regulations, including Opinions on Major Measures to Promote Scientific and Technological Innovation, Provisional Measures for the Administration of Scientific and Technological Innovation Projects, Policies and Measures to Strengthen Incentives for Researchers, and Opinions on Encouraging Invention and Accelerating Promotion and Application of Intellectual Property Rights, to enhance the company's top level planning, strategy research and decision-making consultation for scientific and technological innovation and scientific management and to build a military and civilian integrated decision-making consultation channel and platform with experts' engagement.
 
Improving innovation capacity and increasing resources input
 
CSIC took a series of measures to strengthen innovation capacity building continuously, including inputting nearly 20 billion yuan each year for scientific and technological innovation, continuing to improve the building of scientific and technological personnel system, promoting innovation in talent mechanism, launching the Provisional Measures for the Management and Training of Senior Personnel in the Group, establishing special channels for career development of the technical personnel, building senior personnel post system, accelerating the introduction of high-level talents at home and abroad and granting individuals and teams that have made outstanding contributions with equity and dividends. The company improved its management of knowledge, built its own knowledge asset repository, established a knowledge management platform covering the whole process of scientific research and enhanced its engagement in the formulation of domestic and international standards and application of patents. In 2016, it issued 6 international standards, 3 national standards, 12 military standards, 156 domestic standards for shipping industry, applied 4115 patents, of which 2745 were invention patents, and was authorized 2244 patents, including 1137 invention patents.
 
Promoting platform construction and coordinating resources of makers
 
CSIC strives to build a multi-level scientific and technological innovation platform. It owns 7 national innovation platforms, 9 key national defense science and technology laboratories, 12 national enterprise technology centers, 31 provincial enterprise technology centers, and 28 scientific research institutions. In 2016, its flagship listed subsidiaries, including Wuhan Shipbuilding Industry Co. Ltd., Research Institution 711 and 704, and Testing Site 750, took the lead to establish the national engineering laboratories for marine engineering electromechanical equipment, power system, detection and test and underwater equipment research and development respectively.
 
In order to implement the national "Internet +" action plan and to promote the reform of technological innovation mode, CSIC has built a smart marine platform for all makers in the globe, which has been open to the international world in 5 languages. It mainly has three functions, solving technical problems, providing advice on equipment and expert evaluation. By the end of 2016, 211 technical demands were put online. Technical docking and plan implementation for 35 of these demands has been completed.
 
Achievement
 
Social benefit
 
Contribution to marine science research. In 2012, it set the world manned deep diving record by diving 7062 meters under the sea. The deep sea manned submersible Jiaolong has completed experimental diving for hundreds of times. The overall technical state is stable and the performance of each system is reliable. Making use of its advantage of working in deep sea, Jiaolong carried out work in Yap Trench and Mariana Trench, the representative areas of the world abyss, and successfully attained the first hand materials and samples of deep sea exploration, which is of great significance for the scientific community to explore deep sea life, environment and geological processes. Meanwhile, it is helpful for our country to join the frontier of deep sea science research.
 
Driving the development of deep sea equipment industry. The success of the deep sea manned submersible Jiaolong means that we have mastered the design, manufacture, construction, test and maintenance method of deep sea manned submersibles. The research and manufacture of Jiaolong drives the application and development of new materials and equipment in the national deep sea equipment field and improves China's production capacity of independent manufacturing. The domestication of buoyant materials, deep sea engine, watertight connector, high pressure sea water pump, manipulator, underwater light and video camera in turn provides essential technical support for China's research and manufacturing of deep sea equipment.
 
Built on the technical foundation of Jiaolong, China's first domestic 4500-meter manned submersible has enter the assembly stage and is scheduled to undertake sea trial task in the first half of 2017. The localization rate for parts of 4500-meter manned submersible has reached 92% to 95%, which not only greatly reduces the operation cost, but also has higher reliability.
 
Economic bebefit
 
CSIC always adheres to the route of military and civilian integration and pays great attention to the transformation of technological achievements. The deep sea manned submersible Jiaolong is the breakthrough point for the development of China's deep sea high-tech equipment. With the development of China's deep sea equipment in the last few years, the application scope of relevant technology is more and more extensive. The first all transparent deep sea manned submersible Huandao Jiaolong, built by CSIC using the achievement transformation of Jiaolong, is a successful example of manned submersible technology for civil use. Apart from this, CSIC has introduced a number of technical achievement transformation applications successively, including blue algae salvage ship, ecological dredging and marine energy saving equipment, which also makes a great contribution to the development of green ships and the construction of ecological civilization in China.
 
The research and development and sea trial of Jiaolong cultivates a great number of young professional and technical personnel and trains a team of deep sea manned submerged members for the research and development of China's deep sea manned equipment technology, which will advance our country into the world's greatest deep sea exploration powers vigorously.
 
Prospect
 
Ocean development is the main direction for the 13th Five-Year Plan. CSIC will contribute to it continuously. At present, the submersibles are most widely applied in areas of 3000 meters under the sea, which is the main area for oil and gas exploration and resources development in the future. Other submersibles are for the need of high-end research, and the future Jiaolong series will include manned submersibles which can operate in areas ten thousand meters under the sea. They will develop synchronously and form an equipment system integrating deep sea entry, exploration and development, thus building more advanced deep sea equipment to promote the development and utilization of marine resources.