Exploring the Way of Smart Manufacturing

According to public data, the output value of China's smart manufacturing industry has grown from about 450 billion yuan in 2013 to more than 1.7 trillion yuan in 2018, nearly quadrupling in five years; It is predicted that in 2019, it will reach 2 trillion yuan. For all manufacturing companies, it is a journey of discovery, self-innovation and bold transformation, embracing a clear future.

However, for the vast majority of manufacturers, under a clear future direction, there are still many uncertain practical problems, and it is still difficult to solve in a short time. According to the survey of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, at present, Chinese manufacturers are still in the late stage of "Industry 2.0" (electrification), with relatively weak quality foundation, low resource utilization efficiency, and low level of informatization; "Industry 3.0" (informatization) There is still room for further improvement; in terms of "Industry 4.0" (intelligence), some leading enterprises are mainly doing some demonstrations as much as possible. As for enterprises, they are faced with many difficulties, such as insufficient funds, or lack of awareness of automation, informatization and intelligence. Previously, the CEConline had interviewed a company engaged in metal post-processing. In the case of misjudging the manufacturing level of its own factory, it did not find the bottleneck. After the automation equipment was launched, it resulted in a decline in production efficiency. Another plastics processing company from the Pearl River Delta said in an interview that although they had the intention to upgrade the production line, they did not dare to rashly try automation due to the instability of orders, which affected the stability of the company's funds.

According to the long-term follow-up reports of CEConlines, it is found that the transformation of Chinese manufacturers is difficult, which can be roughly summed up in four points: First, the leaders and executives of the enterprises do not have a good understanding of intelligent manufacturing, and they make rash arrangements for the Transformation and transformation; second, inaccurate or incomplete judgment on its own manufacturing capabilities, failure to grasp key bottlenecks, resulting in the wrong entry point for enterprises to start; third, lack of intelligent manufacturing talents, no targeted talents are deployed in advance Strategy, the existing talents are not enough to support the transformation of the enterprise; fourth, there is no long-term comprehensive plan, one step is taken, and there is a lack of phased transformation paths and goals.

Clear cognition and identify breakthroughs

In the long-term follow-up reports of CEConlines, many industry insiders believe that every business leader should first solve the problem of self-cognition , and then unify the consistency of the company's executives' cognition of intelligent manufacturing transformation, and then convey the unified cognition formed by the senior management to all employees of the company. After solving the cognitive problems of all employees of the company, companies should first solve three basic problems in order to grasp the starting point: Where are the current problems? How should these problems be solved? To achieve what purpose?

The CEConline has previously interviewed Desay SV Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd., one of the largest automotive electronics companies in China, on the topic of intelligent manufacturing, and its intelligent driving assistance system intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration project was selected by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Announced list of 2018 smart manufacturing pilot demonstration projects. Chen Chunlin, chairman of Desay SV, told CEConlines that when he proposed the transformation of intelligent manufacturing, he needed new breakthroughs in business and hoped to change the thinking of traditional manufacturing. However, the change of thinking is something that needs to be persisted for a long time. Therefore, it is first specific to the improvement of production and manufacturing, and refined to two specific points: one is to improve product quality, and the other is to improve production efficiency. And set some important hard indicators after the first stage of the transformation after the upgrade. They hope that the product quality can be improved by 2 to 3 times after the upgrade, and the traceability of quality management can be formed. The inventory can be reduced by half, improve efficiency and reduce manufacturing. cost.

Specifically, from the perspective of the measures on the manufacturing and production side, they start from the source, and in terms of process design and transformation, they mainly focus on production capacity, product traceability, and final efficiency to upgrade. For example, through PLM (Product Life Cycle Management), product-related human resources, processes, application systems and information are integrated, and various data collected are analyzed in depth to strengthen product quality control and improve production methods.

The problem of Shandong Huamin Steel Ball Co., Ltd., a leading enterprise in China's wear-resistant material industry, is even more real. Before the automation upgrade, due to the small scale of the enterprise and limited production capacity, Huamin steel balls were always unable to obtain to large orders. Its chairman Hou Yumin told the CEConlines that once, he directly asked customers who came to the company to discuss business, why their large orders were not given to Huamin steel balls? One of the customers told him: "I will give you an order of 5,000 tons, and it will take a month to produce. Do you have the ability?" Hou Yumin realized that the lack of operating capacity of their machinery and equipment has seriously affected the further development of the company's business.

In order to further understand their level in the industry, Hou Yumin successively went to Spain, the Czech Republic, Australia and other countries to visit and inspect, and visited foreign counterparts. I found that there is still a huge gap between the equipment in my factory and foreign companies: foreign machines can produce 60 steel balls in one minute, while the air hammer in my factory can only hit one steel ball in one minute. ball.

Therefore, Hou Yumin regards the replacement of machinery and equipment, and the improvement of production efficiency and output as the key tasks in the current stage. However, foreign equipment was expensive, and the financial strength of Huamin Steel Ball at that time was difficult to support their renewal needs. Hou Yumin decided to conduct independent research and development, followed the development path of production, education and research, established the first casting and forging research institute in Zhangqiu, and began to implement automation.

At that time, the market economy in 2017-2018 was extremely unstable, and it was also the most difficult period for the development of Huamin steel balls, but they still insisted on the R&D investment in process technology, only to realize the positioning of intelligent production of equipment . The two R&D projects of Huamin Steel Ball's "Daqunma" and "Dawo Niu" production lines have tripled the production efficiency, reduced the cost by 100 yuan per ton, and can reach an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons. It can reduce tens of millions of yuan, effectively improve the competitiveness of enterprises, reduce the labor rate of employees, and improve the credibility of the Huamin steel ball brand.

Hou Yumin believes that in the context of global economic transformation, industrial enterprises must rely on technological innovation to drive industrial transformation and upgrading, in order to take the lead in seizing the commanding heights of the economy and winning market opportunities. The core of industrial transformation and upgrading must be scientific and technological innovation. Only by driving the optimization and upgrading of the internal structure of enterprises can scientific and technological innovations fundamentally improve the core competitiveness of enterprises.

Plan ahead and make long-term plans

In the process of intelligent manufacturing transformation, enterprises need to focus on breakthroughs in core technologies. The problem of lack of talent has also become more prominent, which has seriously restricted the transformation process of manufacturers. Yun Jiyuan, a senior consultant at Hejun Consulting, told the world's managers that it is the most difficult thing to cultivate and introduce professional talents to operate automation equipment, because sometimes this cannot be solved by spending money.

Li Xiaohong, Executive Vice President of Bosch China, pointed out in an interview with CEConlines that the transformation of the enterprise's own business and the transformation of the enterprise's talent development strategy are the relationship between cause and effect, and the latter is a very important factor in the success of the former. important cause. If the company's talent development strategy cannot keep up, it will be difficult to transform the business, because the implementation of the strategy is ultimately realized by people. In order to ensure the realization of the goal of upgrading in manufacturing and production, Desay SV first launched various measures in advance to change the thinking of employees, change the previous production methods and habits, reduce changes based on experience, and rely more on systems. Including internal training, leveraging external consulting resources, industry company visits and other measures.

Therefore, before the company's business transformation, it should make a plan for talent transformation in advance. The investment in future intelligent manufacturing professionals is an investment in the future competitiveness of the enterprise. A more long-term and global perspective.

In addition to the support of talents, comprehensive planning in advance is also crucial to the success of the transformation. The transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises involves software and hardware upgrades, management model changes, etc., which cannot be easily solved by improving the coverage of intelligent equipment or implementing a set of software. As a long-term system transformation project, an enterprise must have a scientific and reasonable top-level plan. If there is no plan, the enterprise will invest blindly, the results will not be effective, and even the results will be counterproductive.

The CEConline had been in contact with an auto parts company before, and without comprehensive and meticulous research and judgment, rashly updated one of the production links in the production line to automatic equipment. Although the new equipment is indeed advanced, it can indeed improve the efficiency of this link. However, after comparison and calculation, this change has lowered the efficiency of the entire production line. At the same time, there is a lack of a comprehensive improvement plan in advance, which has led to more and more problems in the enterprise. , more and more confusing.

Chen Chunlin pointed out that enterprises must do a good job of top-level design before transformation, do not rashly seek progress, but must think about the overall situation, this is a process of continuous improvement, so do not pursue blind indicators, but There must be big directions and big indicators. Yun Jiyuan said that in planning, the professional team of the enterprise should comprehensively plan from the perspective of the industry or enterprise, and calculate the accounts clearly, not only the financial accounts-cost issues, but also the market accounts. For example, the old products of an enterprise are very stable, with 80% of the profit, and the profit contribution of new products is almost zero, but the market prospect is very good and the potential is great, so which product to invest in should be carefully analyzed. In addition, when planning, don’t make decisions on a whim, and don’t be led by software companies or hardware companies, or kidnapped by automated equipment. It depends on whether your product is applicable and whether customers accept it.

In the long-term follow-up reports of CEConlines, the companies they have contacted have found that they have reached a "consensus": building smart factories is a strategic opportunity for manufacturing companies to achieve leapfrog development, while Perfect and reasonable top-level design and planning is the basis for realizing this leap-forward development. Moreover, there are no shortcuts in intelligent manufacturing, and speed is not the theme of enterprise transformation. On the basis of the existing good operating mechanism, enterprises should aim at the current problems and future development directions of the enterprise, and proceed step by step on the basis of top-level design and planning. It can be carried out in stages to get closer to the final goal step by step in a reasonable and orderly manner.