Tapping into new professions: Young Chinese system optimizers boost Tianjin Port's efficiency

Fan Chunqi, one of the system optimizers at Tianjin Port's Beijiang intelligent container terminal in north China's Tianjin Municipality, is in charge of orchestrating the operation of unmanned transport robots.

Having majored in control science and engineering, Fan, who was born in the 1990s, was part of one of the first batches of system optimizers in Tianjin Port in 2021.

The Beijiang intelligent container terminal is also called the world's first smart container, where the process of loading, unloading, transferring and stacking cargoes is all done through artificial intelligence. A total of 92 smart robots carry out the process by interacting with nearby equipment.

Fan, who initially thought it would be an easy task for him to control and operate the robots and equipment, found it really challenging.

"To make the unmanned robots transport more smoothly, the system optimizers have to be very familiar with the production process of all aspects of the container terminal," Fan said.

Taking the following distance between robots as an example, Fan said: "If the distance between the cars is too close, there may be a slowdown in the process of turning, which in turn causes a collision. And if the distance between the cars is too far, then the traffic efficiency at some intersections will be too low."

To make an optimal following distance, Fan and his colleagues make as many tests as possible on robots and shorten the following distance from initially 12 meters to 6 meters based on the test results.

For example, the robots can complete more than 7,000 containers in 37 hours, meaning 203 containers in one hour, said Fan.

Fan is part of the growing community of professionals driving the transformation of various industries in China towards a smart future. The flourishing digital economy in various fields has given rise to a variety of digital professions and a strong demand for digital talents.

"The digital economy maintained steady growth in 2023. The added value of core industries in the digital economy reached 10 percent of GDP," said Shen Zhulin, deputy director of the National Data Bureau.

To develop the digital economy, one of the important things is to speed up the cultivation of digital talents and train a large number of high-level digital engineers and highly skilled personnel, said Li Jinsheng, an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

It is estimated that a gap requiring about 25 million to 30 million digitalization professionals needs to be filled to meet the demand of China's digital economy.

In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to nurture professionals serving the digital economy, including developing national occupational standards for digitalization professions and designing tailor-made training courses.

In April 2024, the government unveiled a three-year plan to foster talent to drive the growth of its digital economy. The initiative aims to enhance support for digital talent through various programs and policy reinforcements.

This new policy outlines six key projects, including digital technology engineer training, digital skills enhancement and international exchanges for digital talent. It also encourages educational institutions and enterprises to play their part in boosting the supply of talent.

In May, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security made public a list of 19 new professions, including generative AI system application specialists and intelligent manufacturing system operations and maintenance administrators.

The recognition of these new occupations can enhance the sense of belonging felt by people in these positions in the workplace, and these professionals can now also enjoy related national policy benefits, according to the ministry.

"With the continuous deepening of the national smart port construction and the continuous development of new technologies, we must be good at innovating our system optimization methods to form new quality productive forces, thus contributing more strength to our smart port construction," Fan said.