On May 8, 2019, the kick-off meeting of International Coalition of Intelligent Manufacturing (ICIM) was successfully held in Beijing Xiyuan Hotel. This meeting attracts following government officers: Huai Jinpeng, Executive Vice-Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), First Secretary of the Secretariat, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Zhou Ji, Chairman of presidium of Intelligent Manufacturing Alliance of CAST Member Societies (IMAC), Honorary Director-General of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES), Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and 130 representatives of 85 organizations from 17 countries and regions, including Belgium, China, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. What’s more, this meeting was chaired by Li Peigen, Director-General of CMES and Academician of CAE.

Secretary Huai Jinpeng, in his speech, pointed out that ICIM, an open platform, played a strong supporting role in the interconnection and cooperation of various countries in the frontier areas. He hoped that the sponsors of the coalition could become a prominent player in enhancing the communication and making contribution to the platform and benefit from it.

Secretary Huai believed that ICIM should take into account internationally recognized rules, standards and optimal practices, extensively carry out technical and academic exchanges with rich content and diverse forms, promote and facilitate cooperation among more countries and enterprises in intelligent manufacturing projects. The Coalition should attract more countries and enterprises to participate, establish the principles of joint discussion, joint construction and sharing, and deepen practical cooperation, work together to meet the challenges of current sustainable industrial and social development as well as institutional innovation, and to fulfill win-win development.

Professor Said Jahanmir, Chairman of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), sent a speech video to congratulate the convening of the kick-off meeting of ICIM. He introduced that ASME is committed to science and technology in mechanical engineering and related fields, and encouraged basic research. The following year will witness the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the manufacturing department of ASME. ASME hopes to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with various associations such as ICIM and jointly promote the development of global intelligent manufacturing.

At the meeting, Wu Youhua, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of IMAC, made a report on the work of ICIM. He introduced the nature and purpose of ICIM, its tasks and current provisional organizations. He pointed out that ICIM is an international cooperative organization composed of scientific and technological associations, enterprises, scientific research institutions and institutions of higher learning, dedicated to the cause of intelligent manufacturing in various countries and regions of the world on the basis of voluntariness, equality and mutual benefit. He said that 2019 marks the kick-off of the coalition work. After a year of communication and preparation, the work of ICIM has been started. In the future, ICIM will not only provide a mature and open communication platform for the industry, but also make greater contribution to the global field of intelligent manufacturing.

Executive deputy secretary-general Wu Youhua was reporting

Huang Pei, Deputy Director of Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute of IMAC, introduced the work plan of ICIM in 2019-2020 and chaired the discussion session. He presented in detail the forthcoming international conference on intelligent manufacturing, the international intelligent manufacturing online exposition to be held by the coalition and the related research of international intelligent manufacturing. He stressed that the advance of intelligent manufacturing requires strengthening international and regional exchanges and expediting the training of badly needed professionals in intelligent manufacturing.

During the discussion, the representatives ardently discussed the direction and content of the work of ICIM and expressed their views on the key technologies, major fields and personnel training of promoting intelligent manufacturing. After discussion, the participants agreed that ICIM should further expand international exchanges and strengthen cooperation in intelligent manufacturing.